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What A Weekend for Media Accuracy
On Friday, the news exploded with the news of what would have been the end of the Trump presidency, a BuzzFeed story about how Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen was instructed to lie to Congress. For the individuals giddy at the prospect, the news spread like wildfire. For the rest of us, alarm bells went off immediately.
And then, came this equally large bomb:
UPDATE: A spokesperson for the special counsel is disputing BuzzFeed News’ report. https://t.co/BEoMKiDypn pic.twitter.com/GWWfGtyhaE
— BuzzFeed News (@BuzzFeedNews) January 19, 2019
Later reporting further sunk BuzzFeed’s boat:
After BuzzFeed published its story “the special counsel’s office reviewed evidence to determine if there were any documents or witness interviews like those described, reaching out to those they thought might have a stake in the case. They found none.” https://t.co/GZFdzHwPVK
— Tim O'Brien (@TimOBrien) January 20, 2019
One would think media consumers would’ve learned their lesson about immediately believing narratives involving Trump. You would be wrong.
Later in the weekend, we saw this:
Video shows a crowd of teenagers wearing ‘Make America Great Again’ hats taunting a Native American elder after Friday’s Indigenous Peoples March at the Lincoln Memorial https://t.co/Llu2d3bn3g pic.twitter.com/UZg4Qraqt8
— CNN (@CNN) January 20, 2019
For journalists who spent just a few minutes doing some research before trying to destroy the lives of high school kids and their school, the story fell apart.
https://twitter.com/robbysoave/status/1087088839447977984
Nobody burst Oliver Darcy’s bubble.
This is itself a false statement. News organizations don’t “invent” the news, like you claim. That said, when they get things wrong, they correct the mistakes. Sometimes, people even get fired and lose their jobs. The idea there isn’t any accountability is preposterous. https://t.co/eowzuygaUS
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) January 20, 2019
Published in Journalism
Go Pats!
Well, we can all stop arguing about whether the apology from National Review should be public. What Mr. Frankovich has deemed to be an apology is now posted. It really is a case study in the non-apology “apology” genre.
complains that his dad is forcing him to apologize otherwise he can’t have the car Fridclearly implies that his editor thinks his post was strongly worded even if he doesn’t.Mr. Frankovich’s apology shows a child-like inability to either understand what was wrong with his post in the first place or take responsibility for it.
The problem with Trump’s election isn’t that there are no adults in the White House; the problem is that it has demonstrated that there are few adults anywhere.
I forgot the link https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/an-apology/
A comment from one of Glenn Reynolds’ posts seems to illustrate the point https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/319281/:
Contra Tom Nichols, “expertise” died because it shot itself in the head.
Mark Steyn just eviscerated National Review on the Tucker Carlson show. “Kathy Lee Griffin with 3 more syllables.”
I’ll post it as soon as it goes online.
Until then, take a look at this list and see if you have any additions.
“Kowtow Conservatives”
SE Cupp
Jay Nordlinger
Rich Lowry
Robert George
Rod Dreher
Nicholas Frankovich
Kyle Smith
Bill Kristol
Meghan McCain
Guy Benson
Instead of shooting conservative writers for not being abject enough in this matter, why don’t we save some ammo for those who actually perpetrated the outrage?
Maybe because these are the same people who scold us for not “doing better” and “being better” ourselves?
Also, just callin’ balls and strikes !
Thanks! Listening to it now.
Boo! Go Rams!
The problem is that the Left uses conservative voices to increase its power. They argue that even XYZ on the right is against Trump/the wall/bill X. Thus, it’s incumbent on these people to think long and hard before they allow this to happen.
Exactly!
This sounds like exactly the way to promote tribalism. The Left has long been intolerant to divergent voices. I’d hate to see conservatives go that way.
All parties have factions. For the longest time in the GOP it was the Taft Wing vs the Internationalists. Then it was the Buckley Wing vs the Rockefellers. Then it was the Reagan Wing vs the Bushes.
“Tribalism” is a meaningless buzzword that’s cropped up here in the last couple of years. You cannot push unity as a one-way street.