Latest news with #Stelter
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Liberal media downplays LA riots, dismiss violence as isolated while touting 'peaceful' anti-ICE protests
There has been a widespread effort by the mainstream media to downplay the rioting that has erupted in Los Angeles over the past several days in response to ICE raids targeting illegal immigrants. ABC7 Los Angeles anchor Jory Rand went viral for cautioning law enforcement from escalating tensions by interfering in rioter vandalism. "It could turn very volatile if you move law enforcement in there in the wrong way, and turn what is just a bunch of people having fun watching cars burn into a massive confrontation and altercation between officers and demonstrators," Rand said. La News Anchor Claims People Are Having 'Fun' Watching Cars Burn, Riots 'Relatively Peaceful' CNN media analyst Brian Stelter has been vocal in minimizing the rioting that has taken place. "The unrest is isolated. It has not overtaken the entire city of LA. LA is home to millions of people, most of whom are having a normal day here on Sunday," Stelter said as CNN aired a breaking news banner reading "AS L.A. RIOTS EXPAND, SO DOES MISINFORMATION." Read On The Fox News App On Monday, Stelter urged CNN viewers to "be careful" about what they see on social media. "A lot of these algorithms are surfacing hours-old or even days-old content!" Stelter exclaimed. "So you might be looking at a video of something wondering what's happening in LA- it's actually from two days ago!… It only matters because it can give people a false impression of what's actually happening at a moment of unrest." La-based Jimmy Kimmel Claims 'There's No Riot Outside' As He Blasts 'Mentally Ill' Trump Stelter offered a similar sentiment on X. "Offline, in real-world Los Angeles, most Angelenos are having a perfectly normal day. But online, the fires and riots are still raging. Seeking clicks, clout and chaos, unvetted social media accounts are preying on fears about where last weekend's clashes will lead," Stelter wrote Tuesday. "The powerful algorithms that fuel social media platforms are feeding users days-old and sometimes completely fake content about the recent unrest in L.A., contributing to a sense of nonstop crisis." NBC News correspondent Jacob Soboroff acknowledged that there had been "civil unrest" and "reports of looting overnight," but stressed that isn't happening "on a wide scale" across the city. "And I think it's important to emphasize that this is also not what was happening before the National Guard came to Los Angeles. That's the point that Governor Newsom is making," Soboroff said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe." Soboroff also shrugged off news coverage of the "gnarly" depiction of the protests by sharing a video of himself attending an "interfaith vigil" blocks away. On Wednesday's installment of "Today," his NBC colleague Liz Kreutz told Savannah Guthrie that LA is "not on fire." "You could be in Santa Monica or another part of LA and not even feel the impact of these protests," Kreutz said Wednesday. "They are very much concentrated, Savannah, to a very small pocket of downtown LA, around the federal building, around City Hall. That is where these protests are taking place right now. That is why local law enforcement believe they can handle this situation. Of course, the president is painting a different picture." "And we should say there are some agitators and people that have been really instigating things with police. But for the most part, especially during the day, many of the protesters gathering have been peaceful," the NBC News correspondent added. The New Yorker published a political cartoon Tuesday depicting the National Guard gathered outside LA's iconic Cinerama Dome with one saying to another, "The protesters seem to be doing some sort of joyful synchronized dance. Is it time to call in the Marines?" On Sunday, The New York Times published a story with the headline, "Not far from tense clashes, life goes on in L.A.," touting how the Los Angeles Pride parade "went forward without delay" among other things going on in the city. "As the first National Guard troops rumbled into Los Angeles on Sunday, summoned by the Trump administration to quell protests against an immigration crackdown, Los Angeles remained its eternal self — bigger than any one disruption. Los Angeles County, all 4,000 square miles of it, has a way of insulating and isolating mayhem, man-made or otherwise," the Times wrote. "As clashes have broken out between protesters, federal agents and police officers, life — that uniquely sunlit and serene Southern California version of it — mostly unfolded peaceably. It's not that those elsewhere were oblivious to what was happening. It's just that there was space for the one to not interrupt the other." The ladies of ABC News' "The View" also peddled the narrative. "It's been peaceful for days, and then suddenly these guys showed up and flipped everybody out. And so that's what my family is saying," Whoopi Goldberg said Tuesday. "I spoke to five people that live in LA, that work in LA, and they said the protests were very, very orderly, they weren't violent, and they occurred in about a four-block radius, and we all know how large LA is," Sunny Hostin followed. "And so, in my view, there is no crisis in Los Angeles that ICE did not cause. That is the fact of the matter, right?" Sunny Hostin Claims Ice Caused Crisis In Los Angeles On Tuesday, ABC's LA-based late-night host Jimmy Kimmel declared "there's no riot outside" and suggested the media is hyping the unrest while blasting President Donald Trump for sending in the National Guard. "Someone sets a fire in a garbage can, 12 camera crews go running toward it," Kimmel asserted. "Trump wants it to seem like anarchy, so he goes around our governor and calls in 4,000 troops from the National Guard and 700 active-duty Marines. When we had the wildfires that devastated big chunks of our city, he did absolutely nothing. Now that we're in the middle of a non-emergency, send in the National Guard!"Original article source: Liberal media downplays LA riots, dismiss violence as isolated while touting 'peaceful' anti-ICE protests
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
CNN host describes timing of Biden's cancer announcement as ‘extraordinary'
CNN host and media pundit Brian Stelter has questioned the timing of former President Joe Biden's announcement on Sunday that he has been diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer, calling it 'extraordinary' as the news coincides with a series of negative stories about the Democrat's final years in the White House. Biden, 82, received the diagnosis on Friday, according to a spokesperson, after doctors discovered a 'small nodule' on his prostate that required additional evaluation and subsequently determined that the cancer is 'high grade' and has spread to the bone. His representative said the former president and his family are currently 'reviewing treatment options' with physicians. 'The timing is just extraordinary,' Stelter told his network colleague Jessica Dean in response to the development. 'Biden learned of the diagnosis Friday. Well, what was the biggest Biden story on Friday? It was the release of those excruciating audio excerpts from his conversations with Robert Hur back in 2023.' 'You have that [audio release] as one element of the timing here,' Stelter continued. 'And then you have this book coming out… one of the biggest political books in several years.' He was referring to the leaking of audio on Friday from Biden's 2023 interview with Justice Department special counsel Robert Hur about allegations that he improperly stored classified documents at his Delaware home, which revealed the president struggling to remember key dates and details, having to be prompted by his lawyers and speaking in a hoarse, whispering voice. The release of Hur's report on the interview in February 2024, in which he described Biden as a 'sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory,' caused uproar among liberals at the time, who saw it as a calculated attack on the president and an attempt to encourage the perception that he was in a state of cognitive decline in order to boost Donald Trump's rival presidential campaign. The book in question is the forthcoming Original Sin by Dean's fellow network anchor, Jake Tapper, and Axios reporter Alex Thompson. It aims to illuminate the conversations behind the scenes that led to the president's historic decision last July to drop out of the 2024 race. This decision paved the way for his Vice President Kamala Harris to run in his stead and, ultimately, lose to Trump in November. Prior to the book's publication, Biden appeared to be attempting to reassert control over the narrative surrounding his legacy. He gave a major interview to the BBC earlier this month and appeared on ABC's The View alongside his wife, former first lady Dr. Jill Biden, much to the annoyance of Democratic strategists keen to move on from their party's humbling election loss. Stelter was not the only pundit to note the timing of the announcement: MAGA activist Laura Loomer wrote on X that she believed it was a 'PR strategy' to shield Biden from criticism arising from Tapper and Thompson's book. Others have reacted more sympathetically to the news, however. President Trump said he was 'saddened' and that he and his wife Melania Trump 'extend our warmest and best wishes to Jill and the family, and we wish Joe a fast and successful recovery.' Former president Barack Obama, whom Biden served as vice president for two terms between 2009 and 2017, paid tribute to his friend's own track record of supporting cancer research since his son Beau Biden died in 2015, while Harris praised him as a 'fighter.'
CBC
24-04-2025
- Business
- CBC
Provincial subsidy fund for Winnipeg flights to L.A., Atlanta runs dry
A Manitoba provincial fund set aside to subsidize WestJet flights between Winnipeg and two U.S. cities has run out of cash, raising questions about the future of direct air connections between Winnipeg's Richardson International Airport and both Los Angeles and Atlanta. A $4.8-million flight subsidy fund created by the former Progressive Conservative government under Heather Stefanson government is all used up, said Ryan Stelter, a spokesperson for Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew. The fund, which was managed by the Winnipeg Airports Authority, will not be topped up with additional public money under the current NDP government, Stelter added. "The previous government entered into $4.8-million agreement with the Winnipeg Airport Authority in June 2023 for flights to Los Angeles and Atlanta. That agreement … was honoured and paid out in full," Stelter said Wednesday in a statement. The flight subsidy fund was originally envisioned to last until this October, Stelter said. Its demise comes at a time when trade tensions, economic uncertainty and anti-U.S. sentiment have already reduced Canadian demand for travel south of the border. This, in turn, has prompted WestJet, Air Canada and Porter to cut back on some Canada-U.S. routes and muse about suspending or cancelling others. WestJet said Wednesday it is reviewing its Canada-U.S. flight schedule for the summer months "due to the changing demand surrounding travel to the United States." Details around adjustments will be finalized in the coming weeks, WestJet public relations manager Jen Booth said Wednesday in a statement. WestJet has already announced new flights out of Winnipeg will start in July to serve Canadians seeking to travel to Europe and within Canada, said Booth. That includes new flights between Winnipeg and St. John's added "to meet increased domestic and transatlantic travel demand," along with increased service between Winnipeg and Halifax, she said. The Winnipeg Airports Authority did not comment Wednesday. It is slated to hold its annual general meeting on Thursday morning. Economic Development Winnipeg also declined to comment Wednesday. Manitoba Film and Music, which speaks on behalf of the film industry in this province, said Wednesday it has received no word of changes to the funding for the Winnipeg-Los Angeles flight and does not know what the impact of such a change would be. The Manitoba film industry spent years lobbying successive NDP and PC governments to subsidize a direct Winnipeg-Los Angeles air connection. "We are grateful to the province for their support in bringing the direct flight from L.A. to Winnipeg, as it had a positive impact on our ability to promote the film and television industry and bring production to Manitoba," Manitoba Film and Music CEO Lynne Skromeda said Wednesday in a statement. Price Industries, a Winnipeg manufacturer whose head office is located in an Atlanta suburb, did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday. Price's Gateway Road facility served as the setting for the original announcement by Stefanson and WestJet about the start of direct flights to Atlanta. Stelter said he is not aware of requests by the Winnipeg Airports Authority, WestJet or other entities to top up or extend subsidies for the Los Angeles and Atlanta flights. Flights between Winnipeg and Los Angeles started in 2022. Winnipeg-Atlanta flights began the following year. Former premier Stefanson joined WestJet's board of directors in 2024, after she left office, and is still listed as a member of the airline's board.
Yahoo
25-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Stelter says Musk demanding fed employees list accomplishments ‘sounds like common sense,' but is ‘nonsense'
CNN media correspondent Brian Stelter said although Elon Musk's demand that federal employees list things they accomplished at work last week "sounds like common sense" to Americans, it is actually "nonsense." Stelter commented on Musk, who works with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), sending out emails on Saturday to federal employees requiring them to list what they did the prior week at their job. Employees have until 11:59 pm on Monday to send the list of accomplishments or lose their employment, according to emails regarding Musk's directive that were sent by the Office of Personnel Management. "The starting point here is it makes a lot of sense, in theory, to go and ask all the employees what they're doing," Stelter said on "Inside Politics" Monday. Trump, Musk Emphasize The Importance Of 'Full Transparency' In Doge Efforts Stelter added that Musk asked the same question to former Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal in the months leading up to purchasing the company in 2022. After Musk officially bought the social media platform, he went on to fire Agrawal as well as CFO Ned Segal and general counsel Vijaya Gadde. Roughly 70% to 80% of Twitter's 8,000 employees were also later fired or left the company. Stelter said the situation with the federal government is far more complicated, although it may seem simple to most Americans. Read On The Fox News App "And I think we should recognize to a lot of Americans, this makes perfect sense, right? Tell us what you did last week. What are your accomplishments? Lots of people are used to doing that in their jobs," Stelter said. "Of course, it gets really complicated really quickly with classified information or if you're not checking your work email over the weekend. So I understand it's not the common sense that he claims it is, but I think we should understand why this appeals to people… right? It's actually nonsense, but it sounds like common sense." Musk doubled down, saying the initiative is important due to an alleged swath of government employees who accomplish such little work that they are not even checking their government email accounts. Click Here For More Coverage Of Media And Culture "The reason this matters is that a significant number of people who are supposed to be working for the government are doing so little work that they are not checking their email at all! In some cases, we believe non-existent people or the identities of dead people are being used to collect paychecks. In other words, there is outright fraud," Musk posted to X on article source: Stelter says Musk demanding fed employees list accomplishments 'sounds like common sense,' but is 'nonsense'
