when your randomized quote fabricating program grabs the same syntax twice
at this point there is an entire twitter ecosphere that just marvels that zito somehow keeps getting this shit published and not one editor touches it or major mainstream outlet will ask the question
linking a bunch of zito greatest hits in this thread for reference, if you haven’t seen them before you are in for a fun ride
a most remarkable series of events keeps happening to zito at gas stations 
I gotta hang out at the gas station more often
love to hang out at an abandoned gas station on the astronomically off chance someone will pull in in and anonymously mutter a killer quote that just so happens to synchronize perfectly with my story
the lady cleans up at gas stations, friends
amaaaaaazing
here we see salena tracking down ed harry and selling him as just some rando blue collar trump fan when in fact he was profiled twice by two different news outlets as a prototypical trump democrat TWO YEARS AGO
(this is me being charitable and granting the benefit of the doubt that she actually *did* interview ed harry and not just lift the quotes from the prior pieces, right down to the uncanny description of ed harry in a penn state sweatshirt matching the photo)
I mean
I guess it is certainly possible ed harry ordered toast and wore the same outfit and uttered the same quotes for two interviews
or she just lifted ed’s quotes and massaged them
WHO CAN SAY
or she just lifted ed’s quotes and massaged them
WHO CAN SAY
friendaloos, I’ve made an error
turns out there were FOUR ed harry profiles by FOUR separate outlets, all prior to salena’s
turns out there were FOUR ed harry profiles by FOUR separate outlets, all prior to salena’s
get the fuck out of here
she went to the ed harry well for two different columns
she went to the ed harry well for two different columns
ed has a very firmly established wardrobe
I screwed up again, it’s actually at least five separate profiles
oh it gets better
ed harry made the book
ed harry made the book
interviewing the chamber of commerce director as a random source for political chatter, forgetting to mention the chamber of commerce director part
(fun bonus, the other two randos mentioned after kathy also seem to be chamber of commerce staffers)
hey who’s up for fisking a 30 tweet zito screed loaded with rebuttals to points never argued that deliberately ignore the very integrity issues raised while leveling hilariously paranoid new allegations that anyone would raise them? go get a drink, we’ll be here for a while
petty shit first, salena rewrites the series of events leading to this debacle. ICR clearly stated another account was blocked, so they created the ICR account. a tweet at the end of the thread shows the ICR account itself being blocked much later.
salena rebuts an allegation not made in an effort to further scramble things for anyone not familiar with the SE cupp ordeal. ICR clearly states a *cupp* column was corrected by NYT, not a *zito* column, yet here she is stating she didn’t write that column
the cupp column had to be corrected because salena failed to note in her book giles-maurer was a GOP official, leaving cupp with egg on her face for trusting her source (zito) to be up front and disclose that sort of thing, because, you know, basic journalistic integrity
“an engaged GOP primary voter” is how zito describes “paid GOP official”. if you think failing to make that sort of distinction is trivial & doesn’t really matter then I guess ask the NYT why they had to correct a column over it
here’s salena expending eight tweets repackaging the premise of her book because uh well look who knows but the upshot is this is a nonsensical babbling interlude materially unrelated to the items in question
it’s painful trying to figure out what salena is trying to talk about instead here re Great Lakes but the upshot is she did not write in her book that dave rubbico is a paid GOP official, & dave rubbico is a paid GOP official - if this were the ONLY instance then maybe who cares
dawn martin, though her story of struggle may be utterly fascinating, is a paid GOP official and salena did not at any time write in her book that dawn martin is a paid GOP official
neil shaffer is a paid GOP official and - say it with me, kids - salena did not write that neil shaffer is a paid GOP official
cynthia sacco is a - hey here’s some variety! - former GOP delegate married to a current GOP delegate and salena did not write that cynthia sacco is a former GOP delegate married to a current GOP delegate
patty bloomstine is a paid GOP official *and* - BONUS FUN - a right wing PAC official, and salena did not write that patty bloomstine is a paid GOP official and a right wing PAC official
salena feels very strongly that pointing out that her writing fails - almost as if by design - to disclose certain extremely, extremely pertinent details is “trying to destroy her”, how highly uncooperative to note these very similar things all at once in a single twitter thread
okay that’s swell, a recording of their interview has nothing to do with FAILING TO DISCLOSE THAT THEY’RE PAID GOP OFFICIALS WHILE PITCHING THEM AS SWING VOTERS
I literally just posted everything in that thread side by side with salena’s rebuttal and I can’t find a single lie, let alone a malicious one. being a big author who interviews the president receives criticism. grow the fuck up, snowflake.
it’s definitely soros and I wouldn’t worry about denying your readers the truth, they wouldn’t recognize it if you carved it into an 8x10 and nailgunned it to their heads
salena again insists she tapes her interviews - ok great, but that’s not relevant to failing to disclose the nature of the interviewees while simultaneously pitching them as something totally different! that’s pure deceptive storytelling while claiming to tell truthful stories
additionally the problematic zito “gas station” type quotes CANNOT possibly be recorded and they simply beggar belief - and this goes entirely unaddressed, because let’s face it, those quotes are simply indefensible in any level of journalism
we can get into “release the tapes” all we want but tapes are utterly and completely irrelevant to why she failed to disclose the nature of the interviewees in such a consistent manner. is it deception via sloppiness? is it deception via malice? doesn’t matter. it’s deception.
now, pile that deception on top of a long, long, history of overhearing folks uttering picture-perfect quotes while sitting in their uncannily bumper sticker-adorned car at the gas station in the rain while the radio blares, and you know what, maybe you’re just full of shit, lady
final addendum: there’s an alternate reading to salena’s tweet regarding shaffer than the interpretation I had on first reading it. still not sure exactly what she means but this may in fact be fully disclosed in which case that’s great! no issue taken!
feel it’s appropriate and helpful here to tack on some personal thoughts on why, of all the many things to choose to give enough of a shit about to tweet a thread on, I give enough shits to deconstruct the fabulous salena zito tales
we live in a world where tucker carlson runs a recurring white nationalist gimmick about south african farmers and the president watches it, can’t differentiate fact from fiction, and starts threatening action
we live in a world where lou dobbs runs a segment based on sharyl attkison’s charlie-in-the-mailroom-building-a-yarn-map media bias analysis, the president sees it, can’t differentiate fact from fiction, and threatens to regulate the internet
we live in a world where the president goes on infowars and jim hoft’s outlet gets WH press passes and the president’s kid will retweet any fucking conspiracy theory jack posebiac and mike cernovich DM to him
is salena zito as malevolent as any of those actors? certainly not. but she is an extremely influential figure - she interviewed the president! - who can immediately inject a narrative into the MAGA media bubble and that narrative can be acted on by the most powerful man on earth
so if zito wakes up one day and says you know what? fuck it. I’m gonna write five stories interviewing rando anonymous real Americans on how -making up an extreme example here- GMOs gave their kids learning disorders, do you think anyone in power will hesitate to amplify it?
while her motivations today are largely self promoting, what am I supposed to do, sit back silently, ignore that her work is *clearly* beneath all reasonable standards, watch her gain increasing access to the ecosystem, and just hope her intentions never take a nose dive?
I don’t care what salena writes about and how hilariously deceptive or embellished or concocted or contrived it is if she’s just another journo out there mucking it up for a living with the rest of the pack, but when her narrative gets to the level of the WH, it’s time to care
