Another Russian-related lie was exposed today, this time the allegation that @nypost’s Biden coverage was “Russian disinformation,” something that every corner of the media & Democratic Party assured us was the case.
Don’t believe me? Well, take a look👇
Getting us started is @CNN, who had chief Russian conspiracist James Clapper on the program to talk about how the Post story was “classic textbook Soviet Russian tradecraft” (his words) and then did an “anatomy” of the “dubious” story.
But right behind them was @nytimes, who ran a similarly incredulous story, and whose chief political reporter @maggieNYT doubled down on the Russian disinformation angle.
But the real leader - as with all things Russian hoax related - was @MSNBC.
Perhaps the organization that looks the worst in all this is @CBSNews. One of their reporters, @BoKnowsNews, dared ask Biden about the allegations and was shot down on twitter by his own news director (and that may not even be the worst of it).
@davidcicilline may fly under the radar on it but he’s been a died in the blood Russian collusion guy, too.
But it was the bluechecks who really outdid themselves on this one. You’ll see many of the same names here as who pushed the Russian collusion hoax way back when. Here’s @Amy_Siskind
@neeratanden went full black helicopters on this one.
One of the loudest voices in all of this continues to be @brhodes, which is pretty incredible when you consider that the only reason we know his name is because he duped a media establishment that loved his boss.
As ever, the former Republicans found a way to outdo themselves on this one. Here’s @MaxBoot checking in with the four-boxer, and also bringing @CNNTonight along for the ride.
I will never forgive myself for once speaking positively of @EvanMcMullin.
There’s no way to fit all of the NeverTrumpers, so we’re bundling them together. Here we’ve also got @BillKristol, @davidfrum and @WalshFreedom
Space and patience are almost gone. Here we’ve got:
It is ENORMOUSLY dishonest for anyone to pretend that a politically inconvenient story is disinformation from a hostile foreign power.
Our entire media establishment just did this - AGAIN - along with elected officials and thought leaders.
Shameful. Just all around shameful.
We can’t live in a world where everything the left doesn’t like magically becomes “Russian disinformation.” No one even bothered to show this was disinfo - all they had to do was say it & it built the narrative on the left and in the mainstream media.
Okay, follow up. There was just too much to cram in.
You had to know that @ThePlumLineGS would be all over a good Russian conspiracy theory.
@NatashaBertrand and @politico thought it would make sense to quote **a Biden adviser** about whether or not the Russian disinformation allegations were legit.
This one is likely my longest and perhaps most savage threads. So much - too much - to tee off on.
Also @Twitter can you let me know how to flag potentially misleading tweets about the 2020 Election? I’ve got some recommendations.
Also, of course, these are the same people who shouted about the Steele dossier and the “pee tape” and everything else related to “Russian collusion” for the last four years.
I’ve got a separate thread with some of the worst offenders.
In case you missed it, I’ve been working on a series called “A COVID Autopsy” for the last couple of months, revisiting what the legacy media (and their frequently quoted “experts”) got wrong during the pandemic.
As you can imagine, there’s a lot. I started writing this years ago, got sidetracked by some life events (getting married, getting cancer, beating cancer, starting a new job) but finally finished it. I’ve linked to all six parts published at my newsletter (link to it is in my bio) in the thread below.
If you’re interested in how I think the response to COVID broke America, I hope you’ll give it a read, and share (with me in the comments, with others as you see fit) what you think.
Do you remember the start of COVID? Do you remember what the legacy media said back then, about the virus being no worse than the flu, and that masks didn’t work?
Do you remember the lockdown protests? Before protesting for “social justice” got a pass, the legacy press suggested protesting should cause the forfeit of health care.
A quick side by side of things legacy media outlets will describe as Nazi-adjacent when they’re about Trump vs. how these outlets talk about Graham Platner’s Nazi tattoo, which an ex-gf of his confirmed to the NYT was deliberate.
Look ⤵️
Trump’s MSG rally? Nazi-related for @nytimes.
NYT, who broke the story that Platner told an ex-gf he had a Nazi tattoo, about his Nazi tattoo? Not Nazi. Just “new reporting…about his vulnerabilities.”
(It is funny to me that so many of the photos in pieces about Platner for NYT show him holding up his arm in a way that the paper would surely tie to the Nazis if, say, @elonmusk had done it)
When I saw the news that the Southern Poverty Law Center funded the hate groups like the KKK & Unite the Right they relied on to claim that white supremacy, inspired by Trump, was on the rise, I just knew the legacy media helped make it possible.
Boy was I right ⤵️
First, what happened.
A federal grand jury charged the SPLC with fraud for using donations to pay hate groups like the KKK millions of dollars, fomenting their activity in the lead up to the Unite the Right rally and after to drive more donations to SPLC.
I know it’s been a few days, but the entire legacy media ran with the claim that Don Lemon was arrested for doing journalism, when he was actually indicted because a grand jury found he violated worshippers’ freedom of expression.
Quick live🧵thread🧵, starting with @nytimes. ⤵️
Same thing at @NBCNews.
Omitted from the headline is what the actual charges are: interfering with these churchgoers rights.
Predictably, @CNN has gone to bat for Lemon.
What’s at issue isn’t “reporting” of a “protest,” and claiming to the contrary is pretty obviously misleading.
There’s another media hoax from Minnesota. Legacy outlets churned out headlines about a 5-year-old child used as “bait” by ICE.
The reality? The kid’s father, an illegal immigrant, abandoned him when he saw the agents. As even these outlets later concede.
Look ⤵️
Here’s how these hoaxes start. @washingtonpost alleges ICE used a 5-year-old kid as “bait” to arrest his father.
Not until five paragraphs into the piece do they acknowledge what really happened: the child’s father, an illegal immigrant, abandoned him when he saw ICE.
But this allegation was everywhere. We saw the same thing from @AP.
Explosive claim in the headline: “used as ‘bait’” (from the school, no less)
Reality: six paragraphs down, father abandoned child.