The media are so shameless that attempting to catalogue it all would likely take an eternity at this point, but I’ll give it my best shot.
Today’s blatant example of the media just outright lying to their audience comes courtesy of an out of context quote from Kayleigh McEnany. This happened during an earlier presser in which she was addressing the need to re-open schools, something so important that the American Pediatrics Association has endorsed the move.
While it sounds like McEnany was brushing aside empirical data to make her case, she was actually doing the opposite. Acosta is knowingly taking her statement out of context, presenting it as a completely different meaning that what was being said. We’ll get to full context in a second.
Several other “journalists” tried to play this dishonest game as well.
From the White House podium:
— Weijia Jiang (@weijia) July 16, 2020
“Science should not stand in the way” of reopening schools. https://t.co/pE2AN6GtyM
Here’s what she actually said.
And the real problem is that they all pick it up because the narrative has to win. Everyone knows this is dishonest, but the narrative has been set so they run with it. pic.twitter.com/seJ5eD9M7x
— (((AG))) (@AGHamilton29) July 16, 2020
In other words, she was saying the “science should not stand in the way of this” in a very literal sense, as in the science is on their side, therefore it should not pose a barrier to reopening. Anyone with the critical thinking skills of an eight year old could garner her point. Further, McEnany makes the matter even clearer by going on to actually state that the science is on their side, including citing a scientific study on the matter. Weija and Acosta know this, yet they are continuing to play dumb about the matter because they are partisan hacks.
Of course, don’t give Jake too much credit. It took him about two minutes to run back to Twitter and caveat his statement with some Trump bashing. For that two minutes in time, though, he was clearly sub-tweeting his colleague, whether he wants to admit it or not. Taking things out of context and pushing narratives is not journalism. Of course, CNN actively chooses to put Acosta in the position he’s in, so they own his dishonesty and the destruction of their own credibility.
McEnany would go on to point out how incredibly garbage the media are.
Case Study in Media Bias:
— Kayleigh McEnany (@PressSec) July 16, 2020
I said: “The science is very clear on this...the science is on our side here. We encourage our localities & states to just simply follow the science. Open our schools.”
But leave it to the media to deceptively suggest I was making the opposite point! https://t.co/vlxk3zRsgh
These “news” organizations may not realize it right now, but they don’t get to snap back to being credible once Trump is gone. They’ve made their bed and they will lay in it.