A lot of media outlets are bending over backwards to avoid saying that @SenWhitehouse’s decades-long membership in and familial part-ownership (!) of an all-white beach club is racist.
Take a look at the mental gymnastics involved so far ⤵️
I want to start with @nytimes because the way they’ve handled it is emblematic of coverage broadly for two reasons:
1. They’ve mostly ignored it - so far, just a brief mention in their daily roundup 2. They’ve omitted the actual criticism from the title (“exclusive” not racist)
This “exclusive” (vs. problematic) framing is everywhere.
At a time when race/racism has dominated US media coverage, having a (Democratic) Senator as a member/his wife as a part-owner apparently makes it simply an “elite private club” instead of an all-white one to @CBSNews.
But the award for most bizarre framing has to go to @Forbes, who referred to the all-white club as - I kid you not - “historically homogenous”
And when was the last time you saw a mainstream media outlet couch an allegation related to race against a conservative with the term ‘allegedly’?
I mean, Whitehouse admits to the premise here! @NBCNews
@MSNBC could only muster a brief mention of the incident - of course w/ the “allegedly” qualifier - but it reminded me of how they relayed @SenWhitehouse’s (now very rich) gripe about “11 white male Republican senators” who questioned Blasey-Ford back when.
Pots, kettles, etc.
It’s particularly jarring when you see how outlets talked about race-related issues for people who aren’t elected Democrats.
Again. Very interesting how @washingtonpost frames this episode vs. @SenatorTimScott’s suggestion that America isn’t a de facto racist country (although it seems Sen. Whitehouse’s beach club may not be as progressive)
Plenty of outlets haven’t even touched this one at all.
@CNN, do you think a “controversial” pageant from decades ago involving an actress is more important for the American people to know about than a sitting senator belonging to a segregated beach club?
Speaking of Ellie Kemper, look at the difference between how @YahooNews couches/frames the situation with @SenWhitehouse vs. how they did with Kempell.
Again, for Whitehouse, we just get “exclusive,” & his defense that being racist is just “a long tradition in Rhode Island”
Do we really think that @NPR, who’s had no issue calling everything from birds and the 2nd amendment to Tom Hanks’ acting career (??) racist can’t find the time to figure out whether @SenWhitehouse’s activities might be questionable?
Still no mention of it.
Also, some history: @SenWhitehouse said back in 2006 (!) that he’d leave the club & again in 2017 that he would advocate for diversity.
He’s conceded - repeatedly - that this place that his wife has an ownership stake in has a race problem. This isn’t disputed.
All of a sudden we’re left with “exclusive” or “elite” which is…a curious way to describe places that restrict guests based on skin color.
In case you’ve been living under a rock, we’ve had a serious reckoning over the last 14 months about race in this country. More than (probably) most conservatives, I think that’s a good thing.
But why do white Democratic senators get a pass in the media?
The media has incredible power to cover topics as racially problematic (or not). We’ve seen lots of folks take creative liberty in the use of the term lately.
But when there’s a pretty cut-and-dry case against a Democrat, those voices are conspicuously silent.
If the media wants to have any moral high ground on issues of race, they’ve gotta be better here.
Holding @SenWhitehouse accountable would be a good place to start.
It appears @CNN did post a piece. I’ll re-up my earlier criticism:
Good to see the NYT’s considerable resources being put to finding the truth in a debate between private citizens that led one of them to raise a flag upside down.
Real afflict the comfortable, comfort the afflicted stuff here.
It has only become “news” because of the pivot to left wing clickbait that Trump inspired among the press.
It’s politically inspired harassment and not only is it noxious it’s driving a deep animus among its target demo that is fraying what remains of the bounds of our body politic and society more broadly.
I’ve got an oldie-but-a-goodie for you from the archive of unhinged media coverage.
Do you remember how insane the coverage of Trump’s killing of Iranian Gen. Soleimani was?
I bet it’s worse than you remember. Follow along ⤵️
It all started with what I’ve gotta say might be the coldest presidential use of social media in history.
After ordering the strike that killed Iranian General Qaseem Soleimani, Trump tweeted out simply a picture of an American flag.
Many in the media went berserk.
First, the issue was directly with what Trump had done. Outlets claimed that he was rushing America into a war. @washingtonpost tried to point out the hypocrisy of a president who had said he would prevent a war.
My hottest take is that, outside of the Beltway (something, to be clear, I am not!) most Americans to the right of MSNBC simply don’t feel anything like “vertigo” about Trump.
I think part of why Trump is such a visceral experience for so many people who have been in DC for a long time is that these types of people (again, me included!) weren’t familiar with the idea that they could viscerally hate a politician even when he’s out of office.
I think, for lots of people, hating a politician for who they are is not a new experience, but is in fact their default setting for politicians of at least one political party — if not both.
The day after my 30th birthday I was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor.
Two years later, I’m in remission. I don’t talk much about what happened, but I wanted to write it down, both for myself, and in case it could help others.
If interested, follow along. ⤵️
This is admittedly uncomfortable for me. I’m trying to learn how to talk about the experience, because it’s obviously become a big part of my life.
If you aren’t interested in the details, I totally understand. But I want to get this story in one place.
In early 2022, I started getting headaches and dizzy spells. I thought they were just part of getting older.
But one morning I woke up and couldn’t get out of bed. My head was splitting. I started to get dizzy pretty often.
I’m sure you’ve all seen the protests and attendant anti-Semitism at many elite American universities. What you may not be aware of is the hypocrisy in how schools have handled them.
Do you remember what these places said about protests in 2020? I’ve got receipts. ⤵️
We’ve gotta start with @Columbia, given their central role in this drama.
In 2020, the university pledged to change how campus police operated, and said protests were part of a “heightened state of consciousness” on race & were driving the “revitalization of American democracy.”
That, unsurprisingly, led @Columbia to embrace defunding the police on their website, citing a professor.
It’s hard to square that sentiment with calling in police in riot gear to rough up students on campus, @Columbia.