Chuck Todd helps Boehner spread the lie that it was a group of “knuckleheads” who took the GOP in a bad direction and not he as House speaker who embraced the racism of the tea party and stopped any chance of gun control because he doesn’t care who lives or dies
Senator Roger Wicker spread conspiracy theories about “voter fraud” and pushed the Big Lie to overturn the election. He is a proven liar
Today @ThisWeekABC invited him on as if it never happened. It never came up
@ABC is an active participant in the GOP effort to erase history
This is a Republican talking point, crafted in bad faith with the goal of getting Republican journalists to repeat it on major platforms as if it’s valid. @ABC is the easiest target for them
On just @ThisWeekABC alone, Republicans who lied about the election and tried to overturn it have been given airtime to repeat that lie and push even more lies. Every week they are thanked for their time and later invited back to do it again
Sen. Roger Wicker told the Big Lie that led to the insurrection and is getting a red-carpet rehab
Last week @chucktodd invited him on @MeetThePress and didn’t mention Wicker’s role in Jan. 6 *once*
Tomorrow @ThisWeekABC is inviting him on to help erase his history as a Big Liar
The network Sunday shows—@MeetThePress@ThisWeekABC@FaceTheNation and @FoxNewsSunday—have proven in the last 3 months they are pro-Big Lie. They help Republicans rewrite history and pretend they played no role in it
These shows encourage Republicans to lie. They are fooling you
The reflexive take on 60% of Republicans still believing Trump won the election is “Fox News is poisoning people’s brains” but real news outlets rewarding Important-Looking Big Liars—like @SenatorWicker—with prestigious Sunday show slots tells a viewer “this person is reliable”
Chuck Todd opens Meet the Press quoting the Onion headline “‘No Way To Prevent This,' Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens” then immediately blames both sides for inaction on gun violence, not understanding whatsoever that doing that is specifically part of the problem
Wow, this Onion headline really gets at some truth here. It’s amazing we do nothing about guns. I’m the political director of a news network and have no idea why this is, it must be because of our “political system” and the fault of Democrats somehow
One party wants more mass shootings and one party wants fewer mass shootings. As a network journalist I am unable to figure out who is to blame for mass shootings—the party that wants them, or the party that doesn’t. As a network journalist I must blame them both. If it’s sunday,
News outlets are endorsing voter suppression based on the Big Lie by calling these laws “sweeping changes” to “election integrity,” leaning on “protesters say” to frame it as a both-sides story, and printing bad-faith quotes from Republicans while using their preferred language
Republicans are stopping Black people from voting. If you can’t call it that, you are doing PR work for anti-voting Republicans. This is the equivalent of an asteroid headed toward earth and describing it as “earth shape reform” followed by a quote from the asteroid
Journalists are supposed to be in the business of truth-telling and, yes, fighting against anti-democratic actors. If you don’t have the courage to describe plainly what’s happening in your own neighborhood then you’re helping the bad guys cover it up. They’re counting on you
Politico @playbookdc — once a “here’s what’s really going on” tipsheet that has undergone a disgusting metamorphosis into a talking point playdoh factory and made Ben Shapiro its top reporter — is uncritically repeating snakeshit from Stephen Miller as if he’s a reliable source
“Just got a response from Stephen!!”
“NICE. Put it in!!”
“Should we check to see if it’s true?”
“No, he said it so it’s true that he said it!!”
“Haha sweet!”
“We did it!”
“We did it!!”
“I wonder what ben is up to”
The only good case for putting bad-faith liars on TV is you can "hold them accountable" and "challenge" them
Almost nobody can pull this off because it's virtually impossible to fact-check liars who aren't there to engage in good faith and are just abusing your platform
Mehdi is the only interviewer who can really do this almost perfectly. I'd still argue that Crenshaw, a liar, gets a win just by being booked - he looks legitimate, when he's knowingly spreading false information. But nobody challenges them like Mehdi
Yes I wish more hosts would interview Republicans like this, which requires a lot of research and prep time and actually knowing the material and having the no-stakes-if-they-hate-you approach of cutting off a liar
But Crenshaw can still hold this up as "I took on the lying msm"