All tagged media

Debunking Covid origins: a pre-emptive strike

Debunking Covid origins: a pre-emptive strike

Tatiana Prophet
National Security

Ever since the novel coronavirus entered our head space, the collective nightmare has become even more surreal with the breathless pre-emptive debunkings of “dangerous theories” by the mainstream media. Things have gotten so bizarre that the pre-denials by those in charge were reminiscent of soccer players falling down in agony when someone breathes on them. Instead of useful information and solutions, we got a million media prat falls.

The novel coronavirus had barely reached the United States when the barrage began.

On January 29, 2020, Washington Post writer Adam Taylor debunked the “fringe” theory that the virus was linked to weapons research while confirming in the same article that the Wuhan Institute of Virology was specifically studying bat-derived coronaviruses. And it wasn’t even labeled opinion.

Georgia phone call: Washington Post admits their Trump quotes were wrong

Georgia phone call: Washington Post admits their Trump quotes were wrong

Tatiana Prophet
Anonymous Sources

Some of our readers who have followed this site from the beginning already know that we have discussed anonymous sources extensively — the right way and the wrong way to use them. When we say “right” and “wrong,” we mean “how not to look like an idiot eventually.”

In fact, The New York Times and Washington Post’s own guidelines caution against using unnamed sources more than very rarely. One of the biggest no-no’s is directly quoting the anonymous source, or further, using direct quotes allegedly by another person that were conveyed by a third party in the article because doing so could involve some embellishment or other distortion that may reflect someone’s vendetta.

Trump in Europe: ‘The shove heard round the world’

Trump in Europe: ‘The shove heard round the world’

Tatiana Prophet
Media on Trump

Viral 'shove' was not at photo op at all

Media Critique
By TATIANA PROPHET

The major media’s biggest takeaway from the European leg of President Donald Trump’s first foreign trip was that he shoved the prime minister of Montenegro to get to the front of the group photo.

Except the only thing is, it wasn't anywhere near a photo op when he shoved, or pushed aside, the prime minister of Montenegro. A review of the raw video reveals that the “shove” took place during an informal tour of the building, well after the group photo. The fact that they are standing next to a background of distinctive steel beams and windows backs this up. At this point, Trump pushed past Dusko Markovic to get closer to Jens Stoltenberg, general secretary of NATO, who was speaking and pointing to the architecture of the new building.

Crowdgate II: Alternative facts from The New York Times

Crowdgate II: Alternative facts from The New York Times

Tatiana Prophet
Media on Trump

By TATIANA PROPHET

All the news that's fit to print. And some school yard taunts, as well.

On Wednesday, the Times Sports Twitter account tweeted a photo comparison of the crowd size for the New England Patriots' visit to the Trump White House versus the 2015 visit to the Obama White House. While both photos were taken on the steps overlooking the South Lawn, the comparison was wrong; there were 40 support staff members on the steps in 2015, and only players and management in 2017. The tweet was retweeted more than 51,000 times, and remains up. But it's now clear that the Times jumped the gun in its eagerness to perhaps duplicate that magical image from the inauguration that garnered so much derision for the new president.

Media: Trump cites (fake) attack in Sweden

Media: Trump cites (fake) attack in Sweden

Tatiana Prophet
Media on Trump

It was a perfect "gotcha" moment. A mere two weeks after Trump senior adviser Kelly Anne Conway cited a false terrorist attack in Bowling Green, Ky., and White House spokesman Sean Spicer erroneously slipped Atlanta into a list of places that had experienced a terror attack from foreign-born perpetrators, Donald Trump appeared to be going for a hat trick.