I got my start in news at @politico. I would quit on the spot today. Handing their newsletter to a proudly bad-faith Republican to spread this pure shit is the grossest thing I’ve seen happen there
This isn’t even part of the “is this journalism” debate. This is just sickening
Don’t worry it’s not just inventing a lie that Bernie Sanders told his supporters to shoot people (???) and claiming Trump’s voter fraud lie is the same as Stacey Abrams’ loss (????) it’s also grotesque apologia for Republicans who are — get this — patriotic victims. Hooooly fuck
When we say the news industry is broken beyond repair we mean that decisions like this are made by people once thought of as titanic geniuses but have somehow been poisoned by a desire to so blindly trust a party of strategic liars that they give them full editorial control
There’s no doubt they defend this by saying they’re letting Democrats write Playbook some days and Republicans on other days to get Both Sides. This is a fundamental misunderstanding—or willing buy-in of the lie—of the way the parties approach the truth (big thing in journalism)
One party is openly anti-truth. They’ve been open about it for four years and it’s defined them. Their lies caked the conversation like napalm to the point where those lies were covered as strategy. The other party opposes those lies, but that’s treated as a partisan position
Journalists are supposed to be pro-truth and anti-lie. Since Trump won, that’s been the Democrats’ position, which makes it awkward for journalists because they’re not supposed to agree with one side over another. This is how Republicans weaponized their false sense of neutrality
Ben Shapiro lying about Republicans’ role in the terrorist attack as the author of Playbook is an extreme result of that false belief. Platforming Republicans is already a huge issue but this is something else entirely. And if I worked there now I would have quit immediately
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Steve Scalise incited a terrorist attack, intentionally gave covid to people in a room with him by refusing to wear a mask during the attack, then voted for the terrorists’ cause after the attack. There is video of all of this
Roy Blunt LIED about the election and helped Trump incite a terrorist attack
And today @FaceTheNation let him lie about it again. @margbrennan did not ask him ONCE about how he refused to acknowledge Biden as pres-elect
This is Fox News level propaganda on a major news network
For WEEKS after the election, Blunt refused to say Biden won. He spread the conspiracy theory that election was stolen. This lie led directly to Wednesday's attack
This was not even MENTIONED by @margbrennan. Instead Blunt was allowed to lie and say he had nothing to do with it
Worth noting that on Wednesday @CBSNews prohibited its journalists from calling the terrorist attack a terrorist attack or even an insurrection. They protected the pro-Trump mob and censored their journalists from telling the truth. A clear pattern of helping to rehab Republicans
This is a lie. Trump did not “pivot” after witness tampering during his impeachment trial. He continued to do it and WH said it was free speech. @chucktodd either doesn’t know this or wants this lie to spread. He didn’t push back at all
Mulvaney is telling the same lie on Fox. @NBCNews should be better than Fox and issue a correction immediately. @chucktodd should apologize for spreading this misinformation to his viewers either intentionally or ignorantly
The Republicans who incited Wednesday's terrorist attack are being rewarded by the news media
@FaceTheNation is platforming Roy Blunt, a conspiracy theorist who refused to say Biden won, while @MeetThePress rehabs white supremacist Mick Mulvaney
The media is Republican
You can literally run a disinformation campaign against elections, assault democracy because it serves your disgusting goal of catering to a rabid and racist base, incite an actual fucking deadly coup, and STILL GET BOOKED BY @CBSNews TO TALK ABOUT WHATEVER THE FUCK YOU WANT
Pretty fucking gross of CBS — which prohibited its reporters from calling Wednesday's terror attack a terror attack or even an insurrection — to outdo @chucktodd and let Roy Blunt on after he refused, repeatedly, to say Biden won the election WEEKS AFTER HE WON THE ELECTION
The day after Donald Trump incited a domestic terrorist attack on the U.S. Capitol @DanaBashCNN said he is showing "a very different tone"
@DanaBashCNN The news industry must be completely demolished, from top to bottom and every meticulous detail in between, just annihilated. Journalism is poisoned and the only cure is a total redo
@DanaBashCNN In the most generous interpretation of this, Dana didn’t have a good analysis and just had to say something to fill the air. @DanaBashCNN you should apologize this is absolutely fucking nuts. Trump incited a mob that killed people