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MacFarlane Hits Trump for Interest in a Hurricane

Brad Slager
Brad Slager  |  Oct 01, 2024
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Townhall.com.

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Anti-Social Media – WASHINGTON POST

  • A former Townhall 50 #1 is departing!

The announcement was made today of the end of an era! Taylor Lorenz is leaving the Washington Post! This is a loss (of sorts), at least for the likes of this column, as Lorenz frequently exemplified the very troubling aspects of the journalism industry. Two years ago, she was the top selection of our year-end listing of the worst in the news industry, The Townhall 50.

This departure is suspected to stem from her recent controversial episode where she was seen in a social media post where Joe Biden was labeled a "War Criminal."

Lorenz started her own Substack outlet where she will cover similar web-intensive stories. "I just want complete autonomy to write and do and say whatever I want."

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TRANSLATION: I'm tired of being forced to write things that are accurate and provable.

Reporting on the Mirror – CNN

  • Do they not realize giving things away for free is not drawing an audience?!

At CNN, the announcement has come out that it will be making its website content available behind a paywall. A $3.99 subscription fee is being dangled, with the casual reader (a few articles monthly) not affected.

One of the notable benefits for the subscription is that readers will see “fewer ads”; the norm in the industry being no ads are included in subscription packages.

Democratic Custodial Services – CBS NEWS

  • Seems that a charge this significant would be better served coming from those you claim are making it.

Scott MacFarlane is in the storm-ravaged areas of Georgia, and so is Donald Trump. Notable absences are Kamala Harris (campaign trail) and Joe Biden (at his Delaware beach house). Possibly recognizing the poor optics, MacFarlane delivers the message that Trump appearing in the area had no impact on them.

Also not registering with them was the gravitas of a network reporter, as Scott delivers this message but has no residents going on camera saying so. This is clearly done to mitigate the reality that his opponent – the vice president of the United States – was a no-show.

And why? Because she was busy in California, hanging out with celebrities and eating goat cheese delicacies as she was raising money – not for hurricane victims but for her campaign. This makes for quite the juxtaposition.

Pathological Media Amnesia – POLITICO

  • Are you saying doing so after a hurricane is wrong?! Is this the message?

On Trump daring to invoke his opponent and mention what is not being done to help those stricken by the hurricane Politico takes the "How dare you, Sir!" position. Can you believe that, according to the outlet, Trump "drags" the hurricane into the campaign. We mean, can you believe somebody is politicizing the storm reaction?

Well…yes, we can. Care to revisit the political outrage witnessed after the Katrina disaster in New Orleans? But we do not even have to go that far – nor to any other outlet. Politico has been rather comfortable dragging hurricane responses into the political realm.

DNC PR Firm – NBC NEWS

  • Hey, Chuckles, she has been this brave for years.

Chuck Todd saw an article in Vanity Fair where Rudy Giuliani's daughter wrote about how she feels like she has lost her father to Trumpism. This moved Chuck Todd, describing this as an emotional piece to read.

This was not a public therapy revelation, as it was also done in order to endorse Kamala Harris. We are a bit dubious about how gripping and emotional this had been, considering Caroline Rose Giuliani wrote almost the same article before, four years ago – in order to lend her endorsement to Joe Biden's campaign.

Pulitzer Prize Nomination – CNN

  • The, um, lack of news means you had to resort to this, is that the impression to make?

It's not there is a lack of topics to look into regarding the campaigns. There's the hurricane response, a national port strike, and a swelling global war threat. Then regarding Tim Walz specifically, there is the vice presidential debate and the new controversies concerning his time spent in China and his claims about his tenure there. 

But for Edward-Isaac Dovere, he was focused on more gripping news: Walz was shooting pumpkins from a cannon!