TIM CARNEY: NPR went from liberal journalists to left-wing crusaders.
Republicans never liked NPR, but they were unwilling to expend enough political capital to cut off federal funding from an institution that was merely very liberal. Once that institution became hostile toward and intolerant of half the country, ruling its views out of bounds and nakedly boosting one party, the knives came out.
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NPR was always free to say “we believe Fox News is not framing this correctly,” or “we disagree with the Republican governor’s policies,” but this way of writing would frame the disagreement as a debate with two sides. However, NPR’s project over the past decade has been to brand center-right viewpoints out of bounds. And so it wielded fact-checks for exactly that purpose.
Of course, this resulted in absurd “fact-checks.”
On March 31, 2020, NPR ran this astounding headline: “FACT CHECK: Trump Praises Florida Governor Despite Criticism Of Coronavirus Response.”
The “fact check” pointed out that while Trump said Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) is “a great governor” who “knows exactly what he’s doing,” others disagreed. Specifically, NPR cited a lawsuit by a Democratic politician who wore a grim reaper outfit on the beach, said letting Floridians walk outdoors would cause mass death, and demanded a full lockdown of the state (presumably arresting folks who stepped outside).
The suit NPR leaned on as an authority was immediately and repeatedly dismissed in court. One state court imposed sanctions on Florida Attorney Daniel Uhlfelder because his case was so obviously frivolous and political.
That’s an NPR “fact-check” of Trump: Trump praised DeSantis, but some partisan hack lawyer says DeSantis is bad, so Trump must be wrong.
In February 0f 2021, Becket Adams of the Washington Examiner noted: CNN’s promotion of idiot ‘Grim Reaper’ attorney ends in embarrassment.
“To the extent determined necessary, we also encourage The Florida Bar to require Appellant and his counsel to undertake additional educational training the Bar may deem appropriate to ensure that Appellant and counsel comply with their ethical and professionalism obligations,” the order added.
For the record, this is all slightly unusual, particularly the appeals court panel’s angry tone and its recommendation that disciplinary action be taken against the idiot Grim Reaper lawyer. But it just goes to show how annoyed the judges are with Uhlfelder’s shenanigans. And the panel is right. Uhlfelder is an embarrassment. He clearly abused his position as an attorney for political purposes, cheered on all the while by a news media that are too stupid and too ratings-obsessed to learn from their past missteps.
Sure, the press’s embrace of Uhlfelder isn’t quite as embarrassing as their embrace of convicted felon Michael Avenatti. But it’s close. Elevating an obvious clown because he has the “right” politics and he attacks the “right” targets is embarrassing, and unethical, regardless of whether a felony conviction is involved somewhere along the way. The difference is just a matter of degrees.
Uhlfelder, the self-styled grim reaper, was one of many leftists who did a complete 180-degree pivot in June of 2020, once the dancing Tiktok nurses and other powers that be declared that suddenly mass lockdowns were giving way to riot season:
