Thread by @kurteichenwald

1. In this world of endless outrage, some gross injustices slip by without sufficient notice. This one is about @Newsweek and its grotesque treatment of @JessicaGKwong, a reporter I do not know and, to my knowledge, have never met. But I hope she sues someone....

@Newsweek @JessicaGKwong 2...Kwong's crime? Following editors' instructions to write a dumb story, not being psychic, and fitting perfectly into a deceitful conservative "fake news" mantra.

Before we get more to Kwong, a reminder: Newsweek is the outlet that, after it was raided by law enforcement...

@Newsweek @JessicaGKwong 3...fired its editor in chief, managing editor and a couple of reporters. Their crime? Investigating why law enforcement had raided Newsweek. You know, journalism. But this touched on operations of the religious enterprise - most call it a cult - that owns Newsweek. So out...

@Newsweek @JessicaGKwong 4...they went. Half the staff resigned in protest, and most of its senior writers and contributing editors, including me, were gone.

Fast forward. Kwong is assigned to write a puff piece on "what is Trump doing on Thanksgiving?" story, for publication....

@Newsweek @JessicaGKwong 5...first thing in the morning on Thanksgiving. If you read the original, you would see that it met the "tell us what will happen" silliness that sometimes editors demand. But it said...nothing. It recounted what Trump had done in recent days, what he was scheduled to do, and....

@Newsweek @JessicaGKwong 6...what he had done in previous thanksgivings. Just the kind of filler story that appears on holidays.

Then, Trump appeared in Afghanistan for his surprise visit. No journalist knew it was coming until he was there. It was also Thanksgiving, meaning that the bare-bones...

@Newsweek @JessicaGKwong 7...staff might not immediately catch what was going on. Within a few hours, the story was revised to fit what happened, @JessicaGKwong tweeted she was deleting a tweet that mentioned the earlier story, and told of the revise.

Ho-hum. Error, correction. All in a puff piece...

@Newsweek @JessicaGKwong 8...but Washington Examiner attacks, proclaiming this to be a scandal. Don Jr. tweets "fake news!" And Trump joins in. And Kwong, who from everything I can tell did nothing wrong, is fired.

This woman cranked out stories for Newsweek on a daily basis, meeting their...

@Newsweek @JessicaGKwong 9...insane quota for publication designed by the magazine to win clicks through a convoluted algorithm, and when the obvious happens -a minor slip up - respond by firing the person who *could not have done anything different* other than to refuse to prewrite the story assigned...

@Newsweek @JessicaGKwong 10....the bottom line: Since successful editor in chief Jim Impoco was knifed by sleaze Matt McAllester who deceived owners that he could transform the place into a respected clickbait factory...

@Newsweek @JessicaGKwong 11...who in turn was fired because of allegations of rampant discrimination based on gender and other protected classes (issues @IQ2US, his new employer, apparently doesn't care about so long as people who attend their conferences don't find out)..
huffpost.com/entry/newsweek…

@Newsweek @JessicaGKwong @IQ2US 12...who in turn was replaced by editors fired for doing journalism, Newsweek has been destroyed. This publication that was near death, and resuscitated by Impoco, has abandoned any pretense of journalism, and just jumps when conservative publications bleat nonsense criticism...

@Newsweek @JessicaGKwong @IQ2US 13...so it is a terrible week for @JessicaGKwong. She didn't deserve any of it. And Jessica, you deserve better than them.

@Newsweek @JessicaGKwong @IQ2US 14...and one final note. Why is a news magazine so uncommitted to journalism, integrity or reason? Because it is owned by a cult. So when you read Newsweek, you support a clickbait factory generating cash for a cult called "The Community." rollingstone.com/culture/cultur…