Thread by @GoAngelo

1/ So, I took a little respite tonight. Had some cookies, a couple glasses of prosecco. Gave some thought to this chapter of the Trump saga coming to close.

For me, this all started about 8 1/2 years ago...

2/ In 2012, I was wrapping up the project that originally brought me to Media Matters from law school - a campaign focused on Glenn Beck's advertisers and News Corp's phone hacking.

Then I started a petition to get Macy's to fire Trump. It took off.

3/ As we approached nearly a million signatures, Trump started to attack me. He attacked me on Twitter, tried to sue me for $35 million, sent his bodyguard to threaten me in person at a petition delivery (yes. that really happened), he went after my dad's business, etc...

4/ Most employers at that time would not consider legal threats and harassment from Trump to be a badge of honor. In fact, it made me a bit radioactive. But, my boss at Media Matters at the time didn't care. They were so used to right-wing attacks that it barely registered. lol.

5/ Once I get into campaign mode, I can't let go. I recognize that persistence matters and so I just kept plugging away. The fact that MMFA was so supportive further endeared me to the team and its mission. I doubled my commitment and worked even harder.

6/ So, my multiyear tussle with Trump and his absurd backlash, was at least one factor in ensuring that I would stay at MMFA -- and many years later end up as the org's CEO.

7/ I continued the Trump effort for years, watching his ascent and the way that he was connecting various parts of the right-wing echo chamber. (Macy's eventually dumped Trump, which was a nice bookend.) In way, my personal experience with him gave me a lot of insight.

8/ When he announced his run for president, I drew on that insight when I discovered and exposed that he hired paid actors to attend his announcement speech.

9/ During the summer of 2015, when most in the media were treating him as a joke, I remember warning that this was distinct and they were missing something. It was clear then that what he's was doing was organizing power on the fringes. Easy for media to miss (and fuel).

10/ I remember one conversation with a prominent NYT reporter that summer. This reporter was skeptical of my warnings about Trump. They insisted that Trump was good for Democrats because Trump would damage Jeb and because he could never win. That convo still haunts me.

11/ As I look back, there's a lot of awfulness and damage that Trump caused as president. Others are better positioned to describe that. Here's what blares brightest for me:

a) Trump was preventable;
b) Media recklessly enabled Trump;
c) Right-wing echochamber field Trump

12/ Even during much of Trump's presidency, the news media simply didn't know how to handle Trump. They never sufficiently adapted nor did they adjust swiftly enough to see how the ecosystem that fueled him was getting worse and metastasizing.

13/ You see that even in how they handled his disinformation fueled COVID briefings for weeks or for how late they were in recognizing the growth and harm of QAnon. I could go on....

14/ As COVID ravaged the country and Trump's conduct got increasingly more authoritarian, the media did stiffen spine and get a bit more proactive and less willing to both sides everything.

15/ I do wonder how long that will last, how much much of the improvement was fleeting in response to conditions so over the top as opposed to a reflection of a deeper shift.

16/ All this is to say: Trump is going. But the disinformation engine that propelled him is humming along. It spilled over and helped facilitate the insurrection on January 6.

17/ If we don't address it fast: it will disrupt our ability to ever deal with COVID. They'll attack vaccination sites and convince far too many not to take the vaccine. The same Fox News that propelled hydroxychloroquine and reopen protests will undermine public health measures.

18/ Nothing will get better unless we deal with Fox News and platforms enabling of disinfo. And, if we don't ensure that OANN doesn't end up in everyone's basic cable package this year and ensure journalists keep those spines stiff, it won't be long before see another fascist.