Thread by @DrewHolden360

🧵Thread🧵

Today’s news about China’s poor and deceptive handling of the coronavirus outbreak should serve as a wake up call for those in the media who praised and defended it.

Because it’s a long, long list of those who served as an apologist for China’s response. 👇

https://twitter.com/CNN/status/1333530775367671813

Given @CNN broke the bad news today on China, it seems like a good place to start the list of those who vouched for them.

They carried water for China’s propaganda for months, and criticized @VP for rightly blaming their response for the global death toll.

Of all of @CNN’s people on the anti-Trump beat, it seems @jgriffiths was dedicated to covering for China in their response, and obfuscating the truth in criticism from Trump and others.

And @CNN served as a conduit for attacks from Democratic politicians - including @JoeBiden and @NYCMayor (and Madeline Albright?) - to act as defenders of Chinese propaganda because Orange Man Bad.

But @CNN was far from alone.

Here’s @NPR, serving as a conduit for Chinese propaganda, too.

I’m not sure that there’s any excuse for this one from @alexnazaryan and @Yahoo.

Perhaps one of the “lessons to be learned” is the ways that the American media can help a foreign power spread disinformation?

@ABC is more or less indistinguishable from state-run media in China on this one.

The science outlets got in on this one, too. Not exactly covering themselves in glory over at @ScienceMagazine.

This from @qz is just demented.

@NewYorker had Chinese propaganda covered from both angles - first applauding their response (glossing over the arrests and killing/disappearing of dissidents) and then going in on how Trump was wrong to blame them.

Perhaps my favorite comes from @NYMag who had an article titled “Why Trump Deserves More Blame for the U.S. Coronavirus Crisis Than the WHO or China” which looks...less than compelling, in retrospect.

Time, space and patience are at a premium, so grouping together. Here’s @businessinsider (the doctors who had been disappeared couldn’t be reached for comment on “China look[ing] good”) @washingtonpost and @ForeignPolicy.

We had a few Democratic elected officials get in on the act. Here’s @ChrisMurphyCT and @RepSpeier.

In fairness, @realDonaldTrump didn’t do himself any favors on all this. If you remember, he was originally effusive in his praise of China and their handling of the pandemic.

Don’t ever forget the role that @WHO has played in carrying water for the CCP.

Here’s just a small sample of all the praise they heaped on China.

And it wouldn’t be a thread without the blue checks.

These takes by @funder aged...imperfectly.

My public penance for once liking @EvanMcMullin continues.

Here’s almost-VP @AmbassadorRice, giving China a pass to score political points.

Has there been a single moment in the last four years where a left-leaning group collectively believed and said things that simply weren’t true that didn’t involve @davidfrum?

@Amy_Siskind is quickly becoming a feature around here.

Orange Man Bad myopia as only @MaxBoot can deliver.

Last but not least, the think tanks got in on the act, unfortunately. This one from @BrookingsInst strikes me as the most egregious (see highlighted)

It wasn’t the only bad take, though. @amprog can always be counted on for such things.

As I’ve said throughout, we’ll need accountability all the way round on the coronavirus response.

But pretending like that accountability does not begin with China, who’s fault it is that the virus snuck up on the rest of the planet, is intellectually and morally untenable.

There’s been a lot of talk about political disinformation and the need to limit it. And for good reason.

It would therefore be helpful if the media would stop pushing this particular variety of it in service of the Chinese Communist Party.

Also, worth noting that some outlets pointed out that China’s timeline was a fraud early on. @WSJ and @axios (linked below) stood out to me. google.com/amp/s/www.axio…

I know it’s been repeated countless times, but the maxim really is true: China lied, people died.

I don’t have anything to sell but in your charity please don’t forget that the pandemic has taken an enormous toll on all of our neighbors & food pantries have been hit hard. If you’re in the DC area & can help, I strongly recommend Capital Area Food Bank: capitalareafoodbank.org