03.20.24
Reporting on the Mirror – GANNETT / ASSOCIATED PRESS
Is this a case of irreconcilable documents?
The revenue-strapped newspaper chain Gannett has announced that after this weekend it will no longer be using the Associated Press as its supplier of syndicated news stories:
Gannett will eliminate AP dispatches, photos and video as of March 25, according to an internal memo from chief content officer Kristin Roberts, obtained by TheWrap. “We create more journalism every day than the AP,” Roberts said in the Tuesday statement, adding that not paying for AP content “will give us the opportunity to redeploy more dollars toward our teams and build capacity where we might have gaps.”
Gannet publishes USA Today, and over 200 regional newspapers. It has had a centuries-long relationship with the news syndicate. Then, as the AP was putting up a brave face and saying this would not impact revenue or operations, another gut punch was announced. McClatchy News Service came out with a statement that it too was dropping its use of AP services, choosing to go with Reuters as its supplier of news content.
USA Today Publisher Gannett to Drop Associated Press Content Across All Publications https://t.co/hQD6IMujk4
Demo-lition Project – CNN
Not seeing this widely reported on the network, are we?
As CNN continues its years-in-the-making rebuilding project, it continues to dissolve in the ratings. Newcoming CEO Mark Thompson has indicated frequently that the company has strength beyond its broadcast side, but now we have some data showing this is also possibly shaky.
Last month, Fox News passed CNN, for the first time ever, in total multi-platform digital traffic. Fox came in ahead of CNN and The New York Times in Total Views, Total Minutes Visited, and Total Unique Visitors.
FOX News Digital Surpasses CNN With Total Digital Multiplatform Unique Visitors for First Time Ever https://t.co/xdYSiBJt0T pic.twitter.com/MUVt2saHNe
Pounce of Prevention – POLITICO
Exaggerating the reaction while diminishing the impact of the activity.
Okay, everyone, get out your Republican Verbs Journals, we have a new term to enter!
In desperation to prop up Joe Biden as he slides further behind in the national polls and approval numbers, a new report from Politico takes reframing to a new low. After General Mark Milley testified before Congress about the fiasco that was the Afghanistan withdrawal, Politico sees the interest from conservatives to be the real problem – not the 13 Marine deaths, over 170 Afghanis losing their lives, and the billions in military hardware abandoned behind leading to untold future calamities.
Reducing that complete disaster as something that was just "messy" is pathetically inept. Then to complain when the GOP dares to mention what was recognized globally as a FUBAR execution of duty by our government is simply lame.
Yes, #RepublicansNotice strikes again.
Republicans fixate on messy Afghanistan withdrawal https://t.co/IhrgSbZYOG
Anti-Social Media – CNN
And now, playing the role of the obsessed spurned lover, Oliver Darcy!
In his media newsletter, Darcy went on a lengthy rant about Elon Musk and how he has sunk into the fever swamps of Xitter with conspiracies, wild accusations, and other accusations. Making this entry more ridiculous is that Darcy left the Xitter platform months ago, yet – like a jilted paramour – he cannot stop talking about the relationship he no longer has on the social platform.
This latest mewling message came about from the Don Lemon interview (we covered yesterday), where Musk and Lemon had been combative over topics such as content moderation, and Lemon laying into Musk for not taking down posts more to Lemon's liking. This eventually led to Musk severing the agreement for Lemon to have a show on Xitter, after that initial episode.
The real amusement is in the obliviousness Darcy shows in his critique of Musk:
Musk appears to be growing more intolerant of other viewpoints. While elevating right-wing extremists, he seeks to destroy trust in credible news sources.
Did Oliver even watch the interview?! The argument between them had been about Musk allowing all viewpoints to stand on the platform while Lemon was the intolerant one, arguing that certain viewpoints needed to be moderated and censored on Xitter.
My column today: CNN's anti-fascist functionary Oliver Darcy uncorked a wild rant in his 'newsletter' (rant-letter?) against Elon Musk, now 'entrenched' in the 'right-wing fever swamps' that attack the 'credible' media! https://t.co/QhGlxOAjF4 pic.twitter.com/kG8dA0pTj7
Blue-Anon – AXIOS
You know who else tried protecting children...?!
How is it that after all these years (generations) of the press accusing Republicans of basically – and sometimes "literally" – being Nazis, they do not grasp how this rote lowering into Godwin's Law territory no longer carries any impact? On Monday, we covered how Politico declared that Donald Trump telling jokes during his speeches put him on the same level as murderous dictators. Now, Axios went there, too, and it is more laughable the more you look into things.
Kathryn Varn reported on a historian giving a talk in Florida and how he drew attention to some of Governor Ron DeSantis' efforts to remove sexualized books from younger school libraries. Of course – OF COURSE – this was compared to the actions of Hitler. So, in conclusion, unless you allow pornographic material into first-grade classrooms, you are basically a Nazi.
NEW: A historian stopped by the FL Holocaust Museum to promote his book about the persecution of queer people in Nazi Germany. That included propaganda that the "homosexual lifestyle" would corrupt youth & bans on LGBTQ+ books.
"Sound familiar?" he asked. https://t.co/IsxC6NK6hh
Low-Octane Gaslighting – THE ATLANTIC
How many years out, and they are still trying to correct the lack of a record?
Do you all remember Christine Blasey Ford? She was the woman who popped up during the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation hearing to claim he had raped her back in…well…er, it happened sometime, she thinks. Not a single person with an objective and functioning brain heard her testimony that was devoid of anything concrete and believed she was – frankly, believable. She could not say when it allegedly happened, she was not sure where, and the list of people she claimed would corroborate her story all refused to confirm anything. Her testimony was a ridiculous mess.
So, of course, she has a new book released about herself, and, of course, she is making appearances on all of the outlets that weaponized her appearance into boldly false attacks on Kavanaugh. At The Atlantic, Megan Garber is 100% on the side of Blasey Ford, telling us she was completely accurate and that evil and vile Kavanaugh "controlled the narrative" – as the press had declared him to be a rapist, absent anything that even approached solid proof. But as amusingly pathetic as this revisionism is, the worst was this basic statement:
"She spoke science."
This is such a daft claim, given that science relies on, more than anything else, actual data.
Christine Blasey Ford’s new memoir places her Senate testimony in the wider context of her life. And as her story goes on, it "comes to read as an indictment—not of one person, but of a form of politics that sees stories as weapons in an endless war,” @megangarber writes.… pic.twitter.com/KCTVTs7Jh0
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"Riffed from the Headlines" is Townhall's daily VIP feature covering the nation's deeply flawed aspects of journalism, where Brad Slager looks to bring accountability to the mishaps, malaprops, misdeeds, manipulations, malpractice, and manufactured narratives in mainstream media.
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