Thread by @DrewHolden360

🧵Thread🧵

I know there’s a lot going on but we just had a media conspiracy implode that I think captures something important about the corporate press.

Did you hear about how Trump was allegedly going after John Bolton as retribution for his criticism?

Well…follow along ⤵️

We saw a week straight of media suggestions that Trump was abusing the powers of the state to deal out “retribution” to John Bolton following the news that the FBI (“Trump’s DOJ!” headlines rang out) raided his house.

We were in “unsettling” times, to hear @nytimes tell it.

The *Editorial Board* at @nytimes put out an even more dramatic statement, asking who Trump’s next payback victim after Bolton would be.

They dubbed the raid “revenge.”

Democracy was in truly troubled waters.

It wasn’t just the Times. This suggestion was everywhere.

At @NewYorker, the raid supposedly kicked off “the retribution phase of Trump’s presidency.”

It had “a certain awful perfectibility,” according to the subtitle.

Again. We’re at the door of dictatorship, per the press.

For @politico, it was proof that “Trump is weaponizing the government against his enemies.”

The indignation is a bit rich given how the government was weaponized BY the enemies of Trump AGAINST him, but the case made is clear: this was part of Trump’s “revenge tour.”

Same story at @ABC.

To hear the media tell it, the takeaway from the raid couldn’t possibly be that perhaps a high-ranking former government official had done something wrong — an occurrence one would think the media would care about! — but political “retribution.”

This was one of my favorites.

@washingtonpost admits that there’s “no evidence” suggesting “Trump ordered the FBI raid”…

And then the outlet published an entire piece about why MAYBE he actually did.

Hats off to them for at least stating a fact (more on that soon).

Of course there was a @CNN “analysis” piece on the Bolton news.

It was a “crusade” to hear @AaronBlake tell it. But the “game” was given away by the “public spectacle” that made clear the raid was “about retaliation.”

She gets shot down badly by @JDVance but @kwelkernbc on @NBCNews tried to push this conspiracy theory about Bolton and Trump, too.

Some of it was just ridiculous.

The “national-security officials” are “angry and afraid” @TheAtlantic warns us, in trembling terms.

Why—why—is this the framing?

Shouldn’t we have learned a lesson or two about pretending the feelings of the security state should compel policy?

But this story was everywhere and space is limited.

Here’s more Bolton fever dream coverage from @MSNBC, @washingtonweek, @thedailybeast and @Salon.

More from @AP, @BulwarkOnline (I mean cmon) and @washingtonpost’s editorial board.

Please put this on my tombstone. @thehill @MilesTaylorUSA

I would be remiss not to mention that the editorial board at @WSJ wasn’t any less blowhard-y than The NY Times.

On X, plenty of journalists, talking heads, and elected Democrats repeated this narrative.

@peterbakernyt did so repeatedly. But so did @PaulRieckhoff and @PattyMurray (just to give you the flavor of this micro-narrative).

The only problem, as @nytimes revealed at the end of the week, was that the premise of the story—that Trump weaponized the Feds against Bolton—was bogus.

The investigation into mishandling docs (for a book…really) “began to pick up momentum during the Biden administration.”

You know the media has egg on its face when the @nytimes, after breathlessly reporting to the contrary, backpedals to say things like “the new details of the case present a more complex chain of events.”

More complex than what? Fan fiction?

Rather than wait for any of the Bolton raid details to shake out, the press rushed headlong, in unison, to claim that Trump was some kind of tinpot dictator, steering America toward the end of democracy.

All based on supposition and supposed connections and insinuations.

If that sounds familiar, it’s because it’s the same thing that happened with the media’s “Russian collusion” narrative in Trump’s first term.

The single most self-destructive moment for faith in the corporate press. And yet they seem bent on repeating it. @MZHemingway

So, why do it?

Because this “dictator” claim has become a media mantra in Trump’s second term—an article of faith. Examples here from @guardian (too rich not to include) @TheAtlantic @CNN (a real headline)

Waiting for those details, as the Times noted, “complicates” that.

(What it really is, to be clear, is a Democratic Party mantra that the press has been pushing, too. See: @RepRaskin)

And of course, this end-of-democracy claim isn’t new.

We saw all these same outlets — and in some cases, the same journalists and commentators — saying the same things in Trump’s first term. @CNN @nytimes @TheAtlantic @davidfrum @BernieSanders

We don’t yet know where the Bolton raid story will settle out. Maybe it really was payback! Maybe it was retribution!

But journalism isn’t about speculating with the news because it fits the narrative.

That’s hatchetwork, and it should embarrass these outlets and reporters.

I recognize this is a small story, in a universe of bigger ones, and even worse coverage thereof.

But the press acting in unison as hatchet men for a lefty fever dream should trigger alarm bells.

If nothing else, it sure captures why the American people don’t trust the media.