Joe Concha reacts to most unbelievable headlines of 2021: 'That's real, isn't it?'
'What an insult to those 13 US service members who died in Afghan during that botched withdrawal,' Concha said of one report
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Fox News contributor Joe Concha joined "Fox & Friends Weekend" on Christmas morning to offer his take on some of the media's most unbelievable headlines of 2021.
Some of the most widely ridiculed or condemned headlines of the past year included unpopular takes on the supply chain crisis, inflation, media coverage of President Biden, and the botched withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan.
SEVEN UNBELIEVABLE HEADLINES IN 2021 THAT WERE NOT SATIRE
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Co-host Will Cain presented a headline for Concha from The Intercept entitled, "Inflation Is Good For You." In it, author Jon Schwarz argued inflation is good "for most of us" but is "terrible for the kinds of people who own corporate news outlets — or, say, founded coal firms."
"That's real, isn't it?" Concha laughed.
"This impacts the low and middle class the most because they can't absorb all these price increases when it comes to food, when it comes to gas," Concha said. "Home heating bills are going to be up 50% this winter."
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A driver fills up at a gas station on Dec. 10, 2021, in Marysville, Washington. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson, File)
"So, yeah, that's good for, if you live in opposite day at this point," Concha concluded.
Yet several media pundits spent the year downplaying the inflation and supply chain crises. MSNBC's Stephanie Ruhle, for instance, was deemed "Stephanie Antoinette" in November for telling viewers Americans can easily afford more expensive groceries. Social media users similarly ripped CNN's Brian Stelter as out of touch for posting a photo of a fully stocked Wegman's to imply that food shortages weren't as widespread as some had suggested.
LIBERAL MEDIA ROUTINELY DOWNPLAY INFLATION OR TURN IT INTO A POSITIVE: ‘SLASH YOUR SHOPPING BURDEN’
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Concha took a more somber tone when responding to a piece from New York Magazine's Intelligencer that claimed, "The Media Manufactured Biden's Political ‘Fiasco’ in Afghanistan."
U.S soldiers stand guard along a perimeter at the international airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday, Aug. 16, 2021. (AP Photo/Shekib Rahmani)
"What an insult to those 13 U.S. service members who died in Afghan during that botched withdrawal," he said. "And to say the media somehow created this. All I know is that the Taliban runs Afghanistan, al Qaeda is back. ISIS is reinvigorated. And it's a basically terrorist playground at this point."
Thirteen U.S. service members were killed on Aug. 26 in a suicide bomb attack at the Kabul airport during the botched exit. The Taliban regained control of the embattled country soon after the last U.S. plane left Bagram Air Base in August, which appeared to leave vulnerable not only Afghans but hundreds of Americans who had been left behind.
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As for an op-ed from Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank earlier this month that concluded the media is as brutal toward or even worse toward Biden than they were to former President Trump, Concha said, "I don't even have to explain this. Of course Trump got worse coverage than Biden!"
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A couple more of the year's crop of candidates vying for worst headline of the year include Bloomberg's take that the omicron variant of the coronavirus "vindicated" China by showcasing its containment method, and the USA Today asking if math was racist.