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Promoted from the diaries by streiff. Promotion does not imply endorsement.
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As has been covered from many angles here at RedState, Jim Acosta made a fool of himself earlier in the week, demanding that Sarah Sanders personally pat him on the head and tell him he’s a good boy. Every since Jim had the unprecedented, terrifying experience of being heckled, he’s been on a crusade to get President Trump to not call “fake news” the “enemy of the people.”
In response to Acosta’s ridiculous grandstanding, Sarah Sanders listed off a few things the media have done to her that she feels are hateful and inciting. Specifically, she asserted that a media member said she should be “harrassed as a life sentence” and that another media member said they wanted to “choke” her.
Well, never fear, the Washington Post is here to set the record straight. In fact, they are so sure Sanders is lying that they lead with this headline: “Sarah Huckabee Sanders Indicts the Media — On Bogus, Trumped-up Charges”
Sounds serious. Let’s see what Mrs. Sanders supposedly got wrong.
The media “said I should be harassed as a life sentence”
Nobody said Sanders should be harassed as a life sentence.
This refers to a TV appearance from Washington Post opinion blogger Jennifer Rubin. Rubin was actually saying that declining to serve Sanders at the Red Hen restaurant wasn’t a fruitful course of action and that people should protest instead. Rubin said nothing directly about people “harassing” Sanders, although she did say being “uncomfortable” should be a “life sentence” for Sanders, for “lying” and “inciting” people against the press.
Yes, you read that right. The Washington Post is claiming that Sanders is wrong because Jennifer Rubin only said she should be made “uncomfortable” as a “life sentence.” Clearly, that’s nothing like saying she should be harassed as a life sentence.
What the actual…
It gets better though. Super-sleuth Aaron Blake then hits us with this doozy.
The media said “that I should be choked”
Nobody advocated for Sanders being choked.
This, like the Rubin example, again relies on a quite uncharitable version of events from conservative media. MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace (whose show I have appeared on, full disclosure) didn’t call for choking Sanders, but instead asked a reporter if she ever wanted to “wring” Sanders’s neck out of frustration. Wallace apologized for the choice of words, which again was hardly a call to action.
Yes, she only said “wring” Sanders’ neck. Now, maybe this guy’s cultural exposure ends with eating avocado toast in a D.C. coffee shop, but if you are from anywhere outside a major urban center then you know the saying comes from a technique used to kill chickens.
In fact, wringing is probably a more violent term than just saying choking. Here’s a description.
To kill a chicken by wringing its neck, hold the feet and take hold of the neck firmly. Pull down on the neck, then twist it upward, fast and hard.
You’ll feel a snap, then the chicken will begin flapping its wings. This is a nervous reflex – the chicken is not still alive.
BUT SHE’S LYING BECAUSE NO ONE SAID CHOKE YOU GUYS!!!
With all due respect to this fact checker, and I’m not sure much is due, you are an absolute idiot. Everything Sarah Sanders said here is factually true. Did she get the exact quote right? No, but she clearly wasn’t trying to. She was making an overall point about the vile things levied at her by the media and her descriptions were not untruthful in the least.
Never forget, though, that Jim Acosta got heckled. That’s the real danger here, not media members asking for life long harassment (oops, I mean being made uncomfortable because that’s way different) or outright threatening physical violence against administration officials. Jim Acosta got heckled and did I mention Jim Acosta got heckled?
WaPo and NYT have descended into self-parody https://t.co/OLcYZdWPNp
— Gayle Trotter (@gayletrotter) August 3, 2018
Self-Parody is right. Is Parodic a word? I don’t think so, but it should be because I’d get a ton of use out of it describing the current media environment. The Onion could of written that fact-check and you’d of thought for sure it was brilliant satire. That’s how stupid this fact-checker is and more broadly, how stupid the Washington Post is.
As a chaser, I’ll leave with this parodic (yeah, I’m making it a thing) example of CNN’s really showing us the way to a more civil discourse.
Less than 48 hours after the Jim Acosta’s latest dear diary moment and much followup preening from his network, they had on a CNN “analyst” to tell us how ICE agents are really like slave traders. Civility, amiright?
But never forget that Jim Acosta got heckled.
The post Real Life: The Washington Post “Fact Checks” Sarah Sanders’ Truthful Claims of Media Harassment appeared first on RedState.