01.12.24
Matching Media Memo – VARIOUS OUTLETS
Yes, the story sounds outlandish, but it concerns DeSantis, so – RUN IT!
Follow the media as we do, and you begin to pick up on garbage claims even before you delve into a story. Prime example: Reports came out that a Florida school was "banning the dictionary." This was breathlessly reported by The Washington Post, CBS News and even Axios.
Okay, you cement-heads, what is really happening?!
In a statement to Newsweek, Escambia County Public Schools Superintendent Keith Leonard said: "I want to clarify that our district has not imposed a 'ban' on over 1600 books. Additionally, the dictionary has not been banned in our district. Any claims suggesting otherwise are inaccurate and should be disregarded."
Huh, how about that…
Florida school district pulls dictionaries and encyclopedias as part of "inappropriate" content review. https://t.co/jNgnOrKtYA
— CBS News (@CBSNews) January 12, 2024
Both Kinds of Standards – JIMMY KIMMEL SHOW
Okay, so it is just YOUR sex life that is off-limits.
Also buying into this fraudulent dictionary story is Jimmy Kimmel, who, for some bizarre reason, used this as a reason to speculate on the sex life of Ron DeSantis. Let us recall, for a couple of weeks, Kimmel has created a melodramatic storm between ABC and ESPN over similar comments made about him by New York Jets Quarterback Aaron Rodgers.
— Aggie for DeSantis (@aggie1985_) January 9, 2024
Demo-lition Project – CNN / FOX NEWS
Was this a case of the candidate or the network?
Once again, Donald Trump ducked out of the GOP debates and again held a town hall at the same time. The ratings came back, and it was not really close at all. Trump drew an audience of 4.3 million viewers, while the Republican debate on CNN had a meager 2.6 million watching. It is not clear if this was Trump's popularity, Fox News being so dominant, or CNN being a ratings dumpster fire – or possibly some combination of that formula.
Trump’s Fox News town hall crushes Haley-DeSantis Iowa GOP debate in ratings by whopping 68% https://t.co/IlBoZcuEkf pic.twitter.com/dVUAzSlRWN
— New York Post (@nypost) January 11, 2024
Legalized Press-titution – NBC NEWS
The paradoxes abound here; is this a matter of obliviousness or delusional thinking? Writing on the news site, dispatched MTP host Chuck Todd thinks he has the method to defeat Donald Trump. (The approach alone is distinctly unbiased, right, Chuck?) What makes this cracked thinking so odd is that not only is Trump well ahead of anyone in the polls, but Todd feels the method to defeat him involves Liz Cheney.
She has pledged for years to defeat the man, and it has only led to him being largely untouchable. Just for perspective: His current lead in the polls is near 35%, which is about the same margin of defeat Cheney experienced as voters in Wyoming ran away from her as she started this current vindictive campaign.
Chuck Todd Is Looking to Liz Cheney to Save the GOP From Trump
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) January 12, 2024
https://t.co/Q2mqmFroxy
Anti-Social Media – WASHINGTON POST
For someone claiming to be media savvy, this is a huge miss.
It seems Taylor Lorenz was upset that she fell from the Top 10 in last year's Townhall 50 listing of horrible journalists. To get a start on next year's honors, she posted this lengthy video allegedly debunking the claims made about the recent Hasidic tunnels discovered in New York. She goes to great length analyzing the alleged predictions made, but even as she says, "There are a ton of red flags," it never occurred to the woman who is Always Online to step back and consider the name on the social media account she was unraveling.
Call us jaded, but we would not have put much stock in an account called "Richard Strocher."
So you know those tweets from that guy “Richard” who claimed he was vindicated after the Chabad basement issue was revealed?
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) January 11, 2024
He was saying he tweeted in the past that he could hear people digging beneath his apartment & speaking Yiddish.
It’s BS…watch this. pic.twitter.com/H1BDrZujQW
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"Riffed from the Headlines" is Townhall's daily VIP feature with coverage of the deeply flawed aspects of journalism in the nation, where Brad Slager looks to bring accountability to the mishaps, malaprops, misdeeds, manipulations, malpractice, and manufactured narratives in mainstream media.
