Count Me Out Michelle Malkin Analysis

Decent Essays
Michelle Malkin’s purpose is to expose the so-called “lazy advocates and ignorant journalists” who are not fact checking their news, and causing a skewed version of what’s the truth. Malkin uses a social media “meme of the moment” to drive home her point of what journalists and news reporters are doing incorrectly. She gives evidence to what journalists sloppiness has costed civilians, and even ends her column with “When #MeToo bandwagons form in the midst of a panic, innocent people get run over” not only implying that journalist are causing innocent people to be accused of sexual assault but also innocent people who have been sexually assaulted to be denied justice because of them. Malkin plays the underdog role anticipating that after you hear her “sane perspective on an insane issue” you will see that in fact her hesitation to believe what journalists say is not merely her wanting to be cautious, but smart. …show more content…
Commenting that “Last time I checked, humans have brains. The Weinstein scandal is not an excuse to turn them off...” is an aggressive yet efficient way Malkin gets the reader to rethink and reexamine their perspective. Malkin continues to develop a condescending perhaps sarcastic tone “It is irresponsible for news outlets to extrapolate how "commonplace" sexual abuse is based on hashtag trends spread by celebrities, anonymous claimants and bots.”, writing as if she is speaking to a teen who was out past curfew and is explaining to that teen why it’s wrong to do so; Malkin’s diction with the word “bot” is allowing the reader to see that journalist information is so unreliable and fake that it doesn’t even come from a

Related Documents

  • Decent Essays

    The book “Until Proven Innocent” by Stuart Taylor Jr. and KC Johnson is a book littered with details about the egregious and controversial case involving Duke University’s lacrosse team and two hired strippers. One of them, in particular, getting a lot of attention: Crystal Gail Mangum an African-American exotic dancer. The media did everything to cover the story, but it all prompted into a chain of terrible events that eventually morphed into an authentic ordeal. I will argue that there were several flaws from the media covering the Duke lacrosse rape case, such flaws proved to affect public opinion because of factual errors and misusage of appropriate language. But if journalists would have stuck to the SPJ (Society of Professional Journalists)…

    • 146 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Ross Douthat is an author for The New York Times, and a Harvard University graduate, thus reinforcing his credibility as a knowledgeable person. Though Douthat is a male writer, his ability to disregard the enticing life that Hefner enjoyed provides a more impartial standpoint. From fastidious word choice and persuasive counter arguments to a great sense of inclusivity, Douthat’s substantial use of rhetoric keeps a reader's eyes glued to the screen. Douthat begins the article describing Hefner as, “a pornographer and chauvinist who got…

    • 1224 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Tyranny of the Mob” by Joel Stein focuses on how the internet is being used as a gateway to hate and that the people who have access to it have normalized the negative attributes. This article shows personal examples of how the web is becoming a vile link in the lives of humanity. Leslie Jones, a co-star in Ghostbusters said “They started sending me threats that they were going to cut off my head and stuff they do to ‘N words.’ It’s not done to express an opinion, it’s done to scare you.” Stein uses this personal example to show that the article’s main idea is how these trolls are threatening the lives of others through social media and how they are effecting the victims’ life.…

    • 414 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the 2011 Miss Representation documentary, directed by Jennifer Siebel Newsom, it discusses the limited, but also degrading portrayals of women that mainstream media and culture produce. Newsom graduated from Stanford University with a Master’s degree in Business Administration and is a CEO, actress, filmmaker, and advocate. As a woman and an actress, she presents her belief that media is a huge contributor in making women feel powerless by providing several examples to deliver her message. Newsom effectively convinces the audience of Miss Representation that media under-represents women through the use of emotional appeals, appealing to credibility, and by including a counterargument but then refuting it.…

    • 806 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Typically when looking at literature a writer’s purpose is not so black and white more often than not a piece is crafted using a culmination of subtleties to persuade a reader without the writer having to blatantly state his or her opinion. Such is the case in “The Heist at Harry’s”; a New York Times article by Doreen Carvajal. Over the course of the article Carvajal uses varying forms of rhetoric as she examines the robbery of the Harry Winston jewelry store. A heist that was committed by none other than the Pink Panthers; an elaborate organization of jewel thieves known across Europe. By reviewing this count of true crime Carvajal indirectly persuades her readers of the threat of the Pink Panthers…

    • 957 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    On Date Rape and Fallacious Arguments Camille Paglia is not a stranger to writing divisive editorials. As a self-proclaimed ‘social critic’, she said in response to criticism of her first book “Sexual Personae” published in 1990, “it was intended to please no one, and to offend everyone” (20Q). Thus, it should be no surprise that she has views on date rape that are unpopular for the current social mindset. In her editorial “On Date Rape”, Paglia declares “my kind of feminism stresses personal responsibility”, and concludes that if women are raped, it is because they do not acknowledge the inherent risk of interacting with men and are not protecting themselves accordingly (144, 145). In the editorial, Paglia is unapologetically unsympathetic…

    • 1336 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The article “That Camera Won't Save You! The Spectacular Consumption of Police Violence” By Armond R. Towns talks about how the police system is broken and even if you record a cop doing wrong then it probably won't help you out because police “always” do the right thing. It states that even if you have evidence of a police doing the wrong thing then the police will most likely still be able to work at his job and have no punishment. The first word I chose was the word media.…

    • 1760 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Capital City of Rape In the article by the Atlantic, a news reporter Sara Bernard wrote an article titled “Rape Culture in the Alaskan Wilderness.” Readers are introduced to some touching stories about rape of innocent children and women’s in the great state of Alaska, which is part of American territory. The writer Started the article by mentioning a story of a girl named Jane in the article, who was touched and raped by more than one people she new before, either one of her drunk father friend’s or elderly who she thought of as a grandfather. Rape cases often went unreported, and the statistic that showed the number of raped cases is unreliable, because most of victims prefer silence.…

    • 1325 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    Through the course of this essay about sexual assault, it will start by summarizing the content of the presentation, then linking and viewing the content through the lens of theories related to the course content, and finally suggesting ways to overcomes this problem in Educational context The presentation started by defining what is sexual assault and the prevalent myths in our society. ‘’Sexual assault is any involuntary sexual act in which a person is coerced or physically forced to engage against their will, or any non-consensual sexual touching of a person. ’’ Sexual Assault." Wikipedia.…

    • 1092 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Great Essays

    The purpose of this paper is to answer the question of how people should rethink journalists’ ethical responsibilities to their readers and to one another by rhetorically analyzing two articles. The article, “Is All of Twitter Fair Game for Journalists?” by Amanda Hess, focuses on the author’s point of view in whether journalists should be allowed to consent to use information from people’s Twitter profiles. “Digital Media Ethics,” by Stephen J. A Ward is mainly focused on the ethics journalists are expected to have. Journalists should be aware of the information they are gathering and producing to protect ones’ privacy.…

    • 1410 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    With the technological advances in today’s day and age, it has become so much easier to gather information about others, especially people you don't know. In just the click of a button one can find out a stranger’s family details, hometown, friends, and lately, even birthdays. The spread of social media has permitted easy access to a wide range of individuals, who you may be surprised even use social networking sites such as Twitter. It’s like everyone’s been given freedom to roam even the emptiest corners of the internet. Journalists, especially, use the vast internet to their benefit.…

    • 825 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Though Coulter address evidence as a source of her belief, she draws a lot from her strong rhetoric and flawed logic to further her claims. Known as a political commentator, Ann Coulter has a polemic tone that is meant to rile the populace and to incite emotional outrage towards her commentary. Drawing from her points, it is clear that she cares little about the legitimacy and truthfulness of her article, but rather its strength of emotional appeal. Coulter attacks the character of hard working prosecutors and individuals involved in the case, and uses that as a basis for the events that unfold. Piling on with her harsh rhetoric is lines that are merely uncivilized statements that ridicule the overall situations.…

    • 1848 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    They wrote an article, “Journalists have an even heavier task ahead” which chronicles their opinions on why the problem of fake news is not necessarily pertinent to a lack of understanding but instead because the liberal bias is perpetuated through most news outlets. As Will Jarvis explains during the article, “It’s less about word counts and more about how we tell these stories, how we share this information.”. Here the authors most likely meant to show that the way we fight fake news has to start at how the news is reported in the newsroom. A similar sentiment is shared by Ben Smith in his article, “How tech and media can fight fake news”. Here Smith explains that conservative viewers will most likely consume news that fits their bias, “There are deep conspiracy theorists who believe in false flags……

    • 1482 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In today’s society it seems as if the media is starting to take control of people’s ability to think for themselves. There have been multiple cases in which many news broadcasting stations have lied to their viewers in order to spread fear and confuse, when in reality nothing serious had happened. In today’s world there seems to be three reasons in which the media is causing harm in today’s growing society. One particular reason in which the media is causing harm is what many people like to call media bias, which is the practice of how many news journalist decide in which stories to cover and how they want to cover it. After knowing how media bias works, it leads to the second reason in which does the media report fairly and how the news lies…

    • 2167 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    Literature Review With the recent surge of social and political unrest, a large amount of very public protests have become the norm. The public opinion of these protest is varied across regions, ideologies, and demographics; but what effect does the media have on the formation of these opinions? Is a person more likely to considers a protest legitimate if they are seeing coverage of the event, or less? Are journalists naturally sympathetic towards a movement, or critical?…

    • 1862 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays