Remember the Steele dossier? It went to hell today, barely making news.

Now that its been thoroughly discredited, anyone care for a trip down memory lane about how folks on the left & in the media hyped it up because it made Trump look bad?

🧵Thread🧵
wsj.com/articles/newly…
@CNN made it a point to bring up the dossier early and often, and frequently led with the most explosive claims. They even attacked @DevinNunes for being rightfully dubious.
One tactic was to bring on elected officials and other “reputable” people to talk up the dossier.

In retrospect, I’m not sure they picked the most trustworthy folks.

Featuring James Clapper, Lt. Col. Ralph Peters, @RepSwalwell and @RepAdamSchiff.
@RepAdamSchiff didn’t exactly cover himself in glory on this one.
And some of CNN’s voices you’ll surely recognize chimed in. Here’s @brianstelter.
CNN wasn’t alone. One of the most consistent media voices in all things Russian Collusion has been @NYMag
Much of NYMag’s discussion was led by @jonathanchait, the same journalist who advanced the theory that perhaps Trump has been a Russian agent since 1987.

It’s hard not to look at this as similarly conspiratorial at this point.
But probably the most vociferous cheerleader of the Steele dossier was @maddow, who hyped it at every turn.

Select screenshots of it are below, but well worth your time is @ErikWemple’s series on this: google.com/amp/s/www.wash…
Really just a lot from @maddow, including on @MaddowBlog.

Also another feature from Clapper.
And she managed to suck in much of the rest of the network. @MSNBC was probably the worst of the mainstream outlets on this. (1/2)
More from @MSNBC, including having the cofounder of Fusion GPS on to very believably speak to the impeachable standards of Fusion. (2/2)
And Maddow gets us to one of the original advocates of this theory, @DavidCornDC of Mother Jones. His original reporting kicked off a lot of this firestorm.

The central allegation is that the POTUS is beholden to our geopolitical enemy. Black helicopters stuff.
While more outlets than I expected were reasonable about all this, @Newsweek was not one of them. I continue to be mystified at what this paper has become.
@Slate went pretty full-blown conspiracy monger on all this, too.
We had many of the usual voices check in on this one. From behind the block is @therickwilson.

Is anyone worse at predicting how the future will turn out?
@JoyAnnReid’s penchant for conspiracy theories deserves a lot more attention than it receives.
I mean, seriously, @JoyAnnReid
Obligatory @JRubinBlogger mention, featuring “what is remarkable is how accurate the reporting has been on this all along”
No surprises from @MaxBoot
And ditto for @MalcolmNance, yet another big fan of Russian collusion. Also getting @SteveSchmidtSES in here.
Obligatory @SethAbramson mention.
Running out of space and patience but don’t forget about:

- former democratic 2020 presidential front runner @MichaelAvenatti
- @matthewjdowd (I don’t share your confidence here) and

-“there is not a single part of the Steele dossier that has been discredited” @CheriJacobus
I couldn’t possibly leave @funder off of this list. He may be the best example.

Any follow up on that “analysis” of yours, @funder?
And no thread is complete without @kurteichenwald.

Any more thoughts on conspiracy theories?
Anyway, take away here should be clear: our media should have a shred of incredulity when it comes to enormous and explosive claims, up to and including the leader of the free world being a Russian puppet.
Couple bonuses to throw in.

First, @thedailybeast, who even did an exclusive with Mr. Steele.

Now it isn’t just “Trump’s defenders” pointing out that the dossier is concocted.
@JaneMayerNYer was one of the media personalities at the forefront of pushing the validity of the dossier.
@AdamParkhomenko doing the Trump capitalization schtick.
And okay one more for @funder
Also, how could I forget @tribelaw.
I don’t have anything to sell or link to. But don’t forget this is an incredibly difficult time for many & food banks across the country are really hurting.

I’m sure your local food bank is asking for donations. If you don’t have one, here’s my parish’s: adw.org/ways-to-give/f…

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More from @DrewHolden360

Feb 21
You know, I always kinda thought this one was bullshit.
There’s a few others that I remember from my days (briefly) as a psych major where I was like, huh. This sounds like pop pseudoscience. Stanford Prison Experiment, that fake electroshock one, the beating up the clown one.
Basically, I am a psychology denier. I think we draw overbroad inferences about people and the world based on limited (and sometimes bogus) studies designed by weirdos.
Read 4 tweets
Feb 21
Sorry are we supposed to take as an article of faith that this particular attention-desperate guy was the victim of a mysterious, futuristic weapons attack out of a van in the middle of the night that would also align perfectly with his political org’s talking points about Trump?
Next we’ll find out that a Lincoln Project staffer was abducted by aliens wearing MAGA hats.
Also, for those not following the arc of this story, it’s just a relitigation of this piece where NYT alleged that Trump was ignoring attacks on American diplomats because he didn’t want to upset Russia or China. nytimes.com/2020/10/19/us/…
Read 6 tweets
Feb 21
This piece is stupid and bad faith top-to-bottom but where it really insults the intelligence of the reader is when the author claims that Ilya Shapiro has “a pattern of bias that isn’t just a poor choice of words” because he…also opposed the confirmation of Justice Sotomayor. ImageImage
Oh and because Senators were anti-Semitic in 1916. I don’t believe Shapiro was among them, fwiw
Let me break this down for you: this piece only exists because, with the wisdom of hindsight, even the most unserious people on the left recognize that firing Shapiro for this tweet is preposterous.
Read 10 tweets
Feb 14
Man, that sucks.
Obviously happy for Stafford and Donald and Whitworth getting their first rings. Great to see guys like OBJ and Von Miller succeed. And happy for all 8 fans of the LA Rams. But man.
Same, girl.
Read 4 tweets
Feb 11
🧵THREAD🧵

Blue states across the country are finally allowing kids to go to school without masks.

You may remember, a few short months ago, Florida was demonized for allowing the same.

Who’s up for a little side-by-side? And where does @GovRonDeSantis go for his apology? ⤵️
You may remember that, when DeSantis banned mandates, @CNN put together a heart-wrenching story about how even 12 year old kids knew that masks were necessary in schools.

But when it isn’t Florida allowing kids to be unmasked, we just get the facts.

Why the change?
Over at @CNNPolitics, the same agitprop story got recycled in Florida.

But now? We’re told “Democratic governors outpace the White House with masking pullbacks.”

Oddly, I don’t recall the term “outpace” being used about DeSantis.
Read 27 tweets
Feb 9
I still can’t get over this @tedlieu tweet applauding Newsom for relaxing the Covid guidelines.

Lieu urged masking when cases in California were *1/10th* the current level in April 2021 & *1/7th* current in March.

How do these numbers add up?
(Here are the numbers - now vs. early March 2021 vs. early April 2021)
Yes, of course it’s good that states are relaxing their guidelines, which never made sense anyway.

But doesn’t it matter that elected officials are so clearly full of shit when it comes to the rationale? Doesn’t that matter?

Don’t you care that they’re lying to you?
Read 5 tweets

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