Jan 20, 2023
Democrats and corporate journalists have been spouting near-identical language in reference to Republican House committee assignments, describing many of the appointments as hailing from the "extreme" fringes of the Republican Party. The trend began on Wednesday, when both White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and White House oversight spokesman Ian Sams remarked that House Speaker McCarthy was "handing the keys of oversight to the most extreme MAGA members of the Republican caucus who promote violent rhetoric and dangerous conspiracy theories." Some journalists quoted Jean-Pierre and Sams directly in their reporting - but by midday on Wednesday, several hosts on CNN and MSNBC had begun paraphrasing their language without bothering to explain where it had come from. In other words, they repurposed an explicitly political statement from the White House press office into a "scoop." #stickypbModal615{ position : relative; z-index : 30; margin:0px px