Get access to Brad Slager's "Riffed From the Headlines," a daily VIP feature where he looks to bring accountability to the mainstream media. Use promo code FIGHT to get 60 percent off your VIP membership!

Low-Octane Gaslighting – CNN

The distemper over the Anthony Fauci hearing continues to reverberate, and the press membership is having a rough go of it. The very fact that so much collusion was exposed in Anthony’s private scribblings is enough to throw the journos off balance.

And then there is Abby Phillip. She chose a different route from excusing things or simply ignoring the issue (a.k.a., the Jake Tapper Method). 

She opted instead for denial.

Recommended
A Reporter Infiltrated a Teen Takeover in DC. Here's What She Found. Matt Vespa Well, No One Expected to Find Out That Bit of Family History About Troy Jackson Matt Vespa

But Abby did not just suggest Fauci was not caught lying about the source of the viral outbreak. Instead, she stated firmly that there was no proof whatsoever that the COVID virus emanated from the Wuhan lab. That is just wishful misinformation of the lowest order.

Democratic Custodial Services – THE BULWARK

  • Considering the source, this summation was inevitable.

Also getting in on the attempt to erect DETOUR signs around the Fauci non-testimony, Jonathan Cohn lived up to his surname, trying to misdirect all the focus onto the Republicans at the hearing and — of course, because this is The Bulwark — invoking Donald Trump’s name.

The best is that the Cohn-job actually involves him selling a claim on the Right that there was a conspiracy to cover up is itself a conspiracy. This only flies if you ignore the contents exposed in Fauci’s diary, something Jon is more than happy to do.

Prose & Contradictions – The Atlantic

  • Have you explored why the condition you noted is occurring?

The Atlantic makes an attempt at this as well, but does so in an even more inept manner. They not only ignored the diary — Fauci’s obstinance at the hearing was also completely glazed over.

How else do you conclude in accusatory fashion that the allegations at the hearing went “unchallenged” when the man who, over the past few months, boasted he would face down any hearing by delivering the truth instead decided to face the alleged “distorted facts” by invoking the Fifth Amendment 111 times?!

DNC PR Firm – CBS NEWS

  • My, the supposed MAGA-adjacent network sure despises those Republicans!

In a different tack on the one-sided Fauci hearing, CBS covered the faceoff and took a firm stance: Those damned Republicans are picking on Dr. Fauci again! Correspondent Caitlin Huey-Burns took a critical look at things, but only turned her head to the right:

Rand Paul, is the chairman of this committe he has long been a Fauci critic. Rand Paul says Fauci suppressed the lab leak theory, and alleges that money from the National Institude of Health grants funded research to make viruses more transmittable, at the Wuhan Institute of Virology; the same lab where he claims COVID 19 originated. Paul and Fauci have a history of contentious debate on this topic.

Gilded Reframe – NEWS NATION

  • Now, Chris, if the money came from our medical organizations, that means…what?

Also getting into the knee-jerk defense of the bad doctor was Chris Cuomo. He wanted to cast charges on the Republicans on the committee, and did so in a fashion that sounded rather — well, sound, in his mind. But he arrived there without exploring the specifics. Keeping in mind that the crux of this issue is the institute where Fauci headed things was funding that same Wuhan lab, and that he has been rather keen on suppressing or erasing any mention of this detail, to hear Chris try to say targeting Fauci ignores the Chinese being the source of the outbreak is a case of him ignoring Fauci’s funding of that research.