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7 tweets,
2 min read
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You seem more annoyed that I pointed out Taibbi debunked it than the fact this hoax traveled from 2 shitposters in Oregon all the way to US Congress. Your single tweet w/ 8 RTs and 25 likes was just one small link in a cascade that added legitimacy to their troll. 1/
I never said Taibbi was first. I actually debunked it myself 3 months before both of you and I think Eugene Antifa was first, but who was first doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if you retracted your tweet 30 seconds later. Disinfo like this travels too fast to be debunked. 2/
It also doesn't matter if you currently work for CSM or not. Your verified account & bio linking to your work at CSM gives the appearance that you're an authority (I'm sure on many topics you are) but the optics are *still* being used to discredit the media in a wider sense. 3/
It's a form of social engineering and in this case was successful. *That was the entire point of my thread* Correcting the broadcast media (Chris Hayes) & Congress (!) IMO is more important than your single tweet but how can the record be set straight at this point? It can't. 4/
At any rate I didn't lie about you and glad to know you retracted 45 mins later. You on the other hand have called me stupid, shitty, accused me of lying and said I suck at my job (fwiw this is not a job. I do this because I can and because I care. I'm also good at it.) 5/
I'll still give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you saw my thread very late at night and don't know me or what I do. I also wasn't trying to drag you for making a mistake. Everyone is vulnerable to this kind of social engineering. It's a perfect example of why it's bad 6/
Finally I'll add that for the past 3 years I've been trying to tell people not to blame Russian trolls for every damn thing and anytime I said that would get dog-piled and bitched at like I'm some kind of conspiracy theorist. Which has been really fun. 🙄
