Riffed From The Headlines: The 2022 Media Mayhem Honors
Yes, the end-of-the-year accolades are a required exercise this time of year and we here at Riffed From The Headlines are no different. Given that this column is dedicated to cataloging, critiquing, and occasionally mocking the departures in the press from journalistic standards and ethics it stands to reason we would also compile an annual list honoring the…well, achievements witnessed in the media complex.
In this column the dysfunctional actions are sorted into
categories for ease of explanation, so as a result, we will spend a few days
trying to “honor” the various notable activities we presented throughout 2022.
Maybe pour yourself a stiff one and strap yourself in; this will be a bumpy
ride.
DEMOCRAT CUSTODIAL SERVICES
- CNN discovered the southern border and
covered some activity there - after the midterm elections. The coverage
was how extending Title 42 and other issue created challenges for those
arriving illegally.
- Voice
Of America covered Kamala Harris fumbling her speech overseas when she
praised North Korea. Absent any criticism, VOA was there to assure us she merely “misspoke”.
- When Jose Biden
spoke with French leader Emmanuel Macron about an electric vehicle
agenda CNN regarded this as positive
news – despite his proposal of massive spending increases
by subsidizing purchases appearing in The Inflation Reduction Act.
- Las
Vegas journalist Jeff German was murdered in his front yard. Despite this
taking place as the press was in full anti-violent-rhetoric news cycles,
CBS News (and most others) had a hard time noting the alleged killer was a
Democrat state politician.
- WINNER – New York Times While
the press bemoans lying and misinformation they are faced with a president
who is pathological when it comes to embellishing his history. The New
York Times softens his lies by referring to Biden as ‘The
Storyteller In Chief’, describing his litany of mythmaking with
all manner of colorful euphemisms while avoiding saying he is constantly
lying.
NEWS AVOIDANCE SYNDROME
- There
was a notable lack of extended coverage and opinion-making about guns and
political violence when BLM activist Quintez Brown was
arrested for attempting to kill a mayoral candidate in Kentucky.
- In
a rave of how great Biden was accomplishing things White House Press
Secretary Jenn Psaki bragged that “Sometimes the best things happen in the
dark, away from the public." The lack of criticism at this show of a
lack of transparency was only heightened when it was approvingly reported in the paper that
touts “Democracy Dies In Darkness”.
- There
were no blaring headlines to be seen when we went through the months of
July and August without any named storms in the Atlantic, for the first time since the
1940s.
- Considering
all the details from the January 6 committee that were blared across the
media, the fact that a court case revealed the FBI had eight informants
embedded with the Proud Boys ahead of the Capitol riot was barely touched.
- WINNER – Biden’s Immigrant Flights As
Ron DeSantis enraged the media with his flight of immigrants to Martha’s
Vineyard the media hysterics over human trafficking and all other forms of
accusation meant they had to ignore Biden has been conducting these very
types of flights for over a year. The 48 people taken to the island were
surpassed by the amount of shipments Biden had sent to Florida alone.
PATHOLOGICAL MEDIA AMNESIA
- In
January Joe Scarborough criticized Joe Manchin for stalling Biden’s Build
Back Better spending boondoggle. In June ScarJo praised Manchin for
blocking the bill.
- Joy
Reid complains that all the Ukraine war coverage was racist, because of
all the black conflicts being overlooked. Her show log at the time revealed numerous
times she covered Ukraine, and not a moment was spent on the conflicts she
listed.
- Brian
Stelter was ridiculing Fox News over its coverage of Disney being a
possible danger to children. CNN ran a number of stories over the years
about pedophiles arrested who were Disney employees.
- The
press was in full team defense of John Fetterman as a stroke victim. Years
earlier the media called for GOP Senator Mark Kirk to be voted out due to
a stroke he suffered years earlier.
- WINNER – Jennifer Rubin She
first mocked the concept that the Supreme Court had allegedly killed off
the EPA in its recent decision. Bugt then Jenn suggested that the
Democrats should use as a platform item the fact that SCOTUS had killed
off the EPA. This was not a months in the making contradiction – her
comments were just hours apart.
Two - hour - difference
Same day.
She is a marvel... pic.twitter.com/DVAxtq86Ab
— Brad
Slager: Free Agent for New Social Platform (@MartiniShark) June 30, 2022
FIRST AMENDMENT STRIKE FORCE
- Another
silencing of the New York Post took place when its story on the Black
Lives Matter founder purchasing a sprawling mansion was blocked by Twitter and
Facebook.
- YouTube banned Dan Bongino from
its platform, but he had already pledged to be leaving to go set up his
show on Rumble.
- NBC
News decided it was taking its fight against misinformation to new levels
when it announced it began a “pre-bunking” program.
- As
the press was insisting that Paul Pelosi’s home invasion attack was caused
by commentary from the right Margaret Brennan on Face The
Nation suggested that Republicans suspend their campaign ads.
- WINNTER – Max Boot The
faux-servative columnist declared that in order to preserve
democracy we need to
curtail the 1st Amendment rights of others.
ANTI-SOCIAL MEDIA
- After
the press gave us years of outrage over Trump’s social media WaPo’s
Yasmeen Abutaleb was praising Biden for attacking others on Twitter.
Well look at that --
mean tweets are suddenly back in style. https://t.co/Kz1EhzkcAy
— Lie-Able Sources
(@LieAbleSources) August 29, 2022
- YouTube
took down videos by Daily Beast reporter Julia
Davis that exposed Russian propaganda.
- When
Elon Musk rolled out his proposal for Twitter Blue, Leyland Devito of the
Detroit Metro Times declared the voluntary subscription to
be ‘a tax on journalism”.
- Journalists migrating
to other social media sites like Mastodon are turning
those places into worse platforms.
- WINNER – Taylor Lorenz In a
scathing piece on what Elon Musk was doing to
Twitter she quotes Harvard “expert” Alejandra Caraballo
about how doxxing, harassment, and bullying will be like “opening up the
gates of hell”. That she had basically described the practices of Lorenz
was amusing enough, but Caraballo just one month earlier proposed doxxing
those who proposed having free speech on Twitter.
BLUE-ANON (proof the press only despises other
people's conspiracies)
- CNN’s
deposed morning show New Day allowed Florida politician
Shevron Jones to say the Florida parental rights law will
lead to elementary-aged suicides.
- The
Hill concocts a plan for Gavin Newsom to become our
unelected President.
- In
a marvel of leftist hysterics Michael Beschloss gave a
nightmare laundry list of all the horror that will befall
our country because the Republicans took the House.
- First
the media promised that a truckers’ strike would be staged at the Super Bowl.
When nary a semi even arrived they shifted the narrative
to say that a Republican effort to bring in truckers
failed.
- Winner
– Trump’s Golf Course Conspiracy When it was reported Donald
Trump arrived in D.C. wearing golf
shoes the speculation ran wild. He supposedly rushed to
the Capital in the middle of a game; was it because of a legal issue, the
Mar-A-Lago raid, or a medical emergency?!?! The Associated Press took surveillance photos of
Trump meeting advisors on putting greens, a sure sign of secret meetings
away from reporters! It all turned out to be a gathering concerning the
design of the new golf course.
PRE-WRITTEN FIELD REPORTS
- The
Guardian got in on the school controversies by hightlighting a book taken
out of schools. The paper spoke with the author and publisher about the
horror, except – the book had never been blocked by the school district.
- Ahead
of the arrival of Hurricane Ian Politico’s Matt Dixon said this
would be the first test of such a response for Ron DeSantis. Dixon, who
works out of Tallahassee, was oblivious that Hurricane Sally made landfall
near that city in 2020.
- NPR
put out a report on environmentalists becoming more accepting of nuclear
power. They could not research that
just days before Greenpeace declared its opposition to nuclear.
- After
President Biden was caught on a hot mic saying the Peter Doocy of Fox News
was a “Stupid son of a bitch”, CNN’s then guru on the media stated boldly
that Fox was getting miles of coverage of this recording. Doocy appeared
on one program and made a joke of the episode before it never being
brought up again.
- WINNER – Jennifer Rubin Following
the nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson Jennifer Rubin declared
Republicans would be intentionally
mispronouncing her name. This was promptly followed by Jenn
Psaki, a White House aide, and
Biden himself butchering the name of the nominee.
HOAX & CHANGE
- Nicolle
Wallace calls for foreign countries to now assist in our elections, because of the sheer promise of
right-wing meddling in the electoral process.
- A
high school in Washington claims their football team was taunted
throughout a game with racial slurs from the stands. A full investigation turns
up zero evidence.
- An
employee at Northeastern University claimed to have been a victim of
a mail bomb that he had staged entirely.
- Signs above water fountains at
a California high school reading “Blacks Only/Whites Only” had been placed
there by a black student.
- Winner – Duke University volleyball player Rachel
Richardson was a national story after claiming she suffered racial taunts
during a game at BYU. No witnesses or evidence supported her claims, as
the BYU student newspaper did better reporting than the media complex
running Richardson’s story.
GLOSSARY OVER THINGS
- Following
the Colorado shooting at the Q Nightclub many who never heard of the term
before were accusing “Stochastic Terrorism” as the cause of the murders.
- With
the failure of “Latin-X” as an accepted new term Salon tries to get people to use
“Latine” instead.
- After
being incapable of defining “woman” accurately Dictionary.com announced
that it was declared the Word Of The
Year.
- After
already changing its style guide over the “proper” use
of woman or female, the outlet reverted back to
allowing its original use, because so many outlets were reporting on
“Pregnant women” as a result of the Roe vs. Wade news.
- WINNER – Daily Mail When
an asteroid landed in the waters near Iceland it was
described as being “half the size of a giraffe”.
THE DNC PR FIRM
- When
Jeff Zucker was let go by CNN, correspondent Jamie Gangel
reported that many members of the January 6 Committee
“felt devastated for our democracy” upon hearing the news.
- At
ABC News Mary Alice Parks heard that
SCOTUS struck down powers the Democrats were using via the EPA, and her
response was, “Who is going to save the planet?”
- The
LA Times raved about the January 6
hearings as being such a wonderful television event that
you got the sense that they were hoping it would be picked up for a second
season renewal.
- Jon
Karl claimed that no other first term president had enjoyed gains in the
Senate. He was incapable of researching all the way back to the Trump
administration.
- WINNER – Chris Cillizza The
now-former pundit at CNN was famed for saying “for the billionth time” the
press was not biased. Meanwhile, when he was analyzing the election campaigns
he early int he year declared that GOP candidates needed to step away from
election denialism. The in the fall he gave a report where he noted many
of them were doing just as he told – so Chris
promptly criticized them for a shameless flip-flop for
essentially following his order.
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