Thread by @KevinMKruse

Let's talk about why context matters, using this stupid zombie of a lie that somehow keeps coming back from the dead.

https://twitter.com/DanielTurnerPTF/status/1029509947774648320

First of all, it's important to remember this lie originated when Michael Cohen posted this image back in October 2016 -- somehow managing to get the year, the organization *and* the focus of the awards all entirely wrong.

https://twitter.com/MichaelCohen212/status/788398258070679553

Now that the nation is seriously discussing whether or not the President of the United States used the N-word, it's come raging back, as partisans try to use it as a gotcha that disproves Trump's racism.

It's even led to a @snopes piece on it.

And yes, @snopes is right on the narrow question it asks here -- Trump *did* win the Ellis Island Medal of Honor in 1986.

But as I'll explain, they whiff on the important point of just what that medal meant. snopes.com/fact-check/tru…

As I noted back in January, honorees were selected solely for (1) representing some aspect of America's ethnic diversity and (2) having succeeded in their own chosen field.

Trump was honored for being a German-American real estate developer. Period.

https://twitter.com/KevinMKruse/status/952575997702033408

For an even better look at the context, check out this terrific piece by @christinawilkie.

The organization behind it was thrown together by a real estate buddy of Trump's named William Fugazy who got a half million in business from Trump that year.
huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-t…

And yes, the guy behind this whole thing was seriously named "Fugazy."

But here's the thing -- across the wasteland that is social media, most of this context doesn't matter.

People will skim past the photo of Trump with Rosa Parks and Muhammad Ali, and whatever lies are written around it, and assume that's all true.

This is why it's always important to dig deeper, to move beyond the quick image and really get into the messier world of facts.

(As a public service announcement, we historians do this off-line in things called "books." I really can't recommend them enough. Seriously.)

But even if we just stick with that photo, and broaden it beyond the crude cropping to the full original, we see a bit more truth.

Here's the broader shot, with Joe DiMaggio and Victor Borge on the left.

In the middle there, that's Anita Bryant, famous in the '70s and '80s for leading campaigns against equal rights for gays and lesbians, whom she called "human garbage."

Bringing her into the picture undercuts the idea that these awards were for people who "celebrated diversity."

(As an aside, you might only remember Anita Bryant's name from the tribute they paid to her in the movie "Airplane!" when Leslie Nielsen's doctor reacts to everyone on the plane violently vomiting.)

But broaden the context more, beyond the full picture to the fuller story told in papers at the time, and you get a better sense of history.

As I noted here, there were eighty people invited, though most didn't bother to show up to the awards ceremony.

https://twitter.com/KevinMKruse/status/952579432253919232

If you focus on those people, not narrowly on Parks and Ali, you'll find lots of other interesting folks.

Like this convicted bank robber who was so crooked he was barred from the Nevada gambling industry. Wonder why they never compare Trump to him?

https://twitter.com/KevinMKruse/status/1029570995294691328

Anyway, the lesson of this too-long story is that a picture isn't really worth a thousand words. Pictures are often too neat, too easy, and divorced from the messy context that really matters.

And once again -- check out these "books" I mentioned.