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Low-Octane Gaslighting – CNN
My ears are prevaricating again!
At CNN, they are gradually edging away from reframing the background of the Charlie Kirk killer, and moving to reframing what Jimmy Kimmel said…about the Charlie Kirk murder. Which – ironically – involved Kimmel reframing the background of Kirk’s assassin.
Boris Sanchez tries to tell us what Kimmel said, but he makes one small misstep: He first plays Kimmel’s actual quote on tape. But that does not stop the CNN expert from telling us that we did not hear what the TV host spoke of in the clip he just played.
This is amazingly inept gaslighting by CNN's @Boris_Sanchez.
— Brad Slager: CNN+ Lifetime Subscriber (@MartiniShark) September 19, 2025
He plays Jimmy Kimmel's full quote, where he definitively says Charlie Kirk's shooter was a member of MAGA, and then tries to insist that was NOT what Kimmel said. pic.twitter.com/54v4zqybng
Matching Media Memorandum – ROLLING STONE
You…you all know we can read what was written there, correct?!
Matching the flawed logic of Sanchez, but in printed form, is Rolling Stone, which also attempts to tell us that Kimmel did not say what he said. And they commit the exact same error as Boris.
They provide the full quote from Kimmel and try to tell us that he said something else:
KIMMEL: “We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it.”
The magazine tells us that this comment is “slightly ambiguous,” and “he did not actually say on ABC that the alleged killer was a MAGA member.” Just to help out writers Andrew Perez and Asawin Suebsaeng, when Jimmy says “anything other,” he is being definitive that the shooter IS part of MAGA.
This, dear readers, is what we in the media business refer to as “desperation.”
Conservative media and Trump’s FCC chair have claimed Jimmy Kimmel said Charlie Kirk’s shooter is MAGA.
— Rolling Stone (@RollingStone) September 19, 2025
But Kimmel didn't actually say that.
Story: https://t.co/US5XjrkzPk pic.twitter.com/3mM8sFvYq6
Artisanally-Crafted Narratives – CNN
You cannot complain after punching the button marked BASEMENT.
Brian Stelter thinks he just concocted the best analogy ever to describe the press these days.
Imagine we're all stuck in an elevator together. It's only moving in one direction — downward. Every time the doors open, we're at some new, lower level. No one knows how to reverse course. No one knows what awaits us at the very bottom. The US media is on that ride right now... pic.twitter.com/PEffCMkUrd
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) September 19, 2025
Now, we are not looking to correct Stelter with his metaphor. We actually agree that they are on that downward trajectory. The thing that Brian misses is what we have been cataloguing all this time: The press chose to get on that elevator, they have hit all of the buttons to go lower, and they refuse to get off at any point, and maybe start climbing the stairs back up toward credibility.
Other than that, brilliant comparison on your part there, Tater!
Reporting on the Mirror – (formerly) MSNBC
Comparing yourself to Kimmel is not helping your cause, Matt.
Recently disposed pundit Matthew Dowd was on a vidcast with longtime disregarded pundit Katie Couric, to talk about his ouster last week from MSNBC, after Dowd made gross remarks about Charlie Kirk right after the shooting took place.
It is delicious to see Dowd whining that all of this defense is coming out in favor of Jimmy Kimmel, yet he has not received any such support. At all.
🚨NEW: Fired MSNBC Analyst Matthew Dowd *GRIPES* to Katie Couric about how network MELTING DOWN over Jimmy Kimmel — but not him🚨
— Jason Cohen 🇺🇸 (@JasonJournoDC) September 19, 2025
"Not one person has said anything about me! They've all gone out of their way to say, 'Isn't this horrible what happened to Jimmy Kimmel?'"… pic.twitter.com/uVcyNDbkzX
Prose & Contradiction – THE BULWARK
Now, about those who cannot tolerate pushback…
In a gem of oblivious contradictions, Sam Stein weighed in on the Kimmel outrage and had a dismissive comment for those who cannot tolerate opposing viewpoints.
One gleaming example could be those who want to avoid being criticized for their tweets, so they turn off the ability to comment – which was exactly what Stein does with his condescending tweet.
The best way to understand all this, it seems, is that these people have incredibly thin skin
— Sam Stein (@samstein) September 18, 2025
Stealth Story Evolution – MSNBC
Will she next be reporting on her own crackpot reporting?
We feel the need to dredge up a past entry from the designated MSNBC online and conspiracy correspondent, Brandy Zadrozny. This is the same B.Z. who said there was no evidence of people online celebrating Charlie Kirk’s murder. Here, we also have her descending into conspiracy realms herself, as she suggested that his killer might have been someone on the right who intentionally engraved the bullet casings with leftist insignia in order to throw off investigators.
ICYMI from @AndrewKerrNC yesterday: MSNBC Misinformation Reporter Suggests Kirk Assassin May Have Engraved ‘Hey Fascist’ on Bullet To ‘Set Up’ the Lefthttps://t.co/NK3yCIwnz9
— Peter J. Hasson (@peterjhasson) September 13, 2025
