Thread by @DrewHolden360

🧵THREAD🧵

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.

Take, for example, how @washingtonpost talked about @SenWhitehouse vs. @SenatorTimScott.

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)

I mean. What are we doing here, @washingtonpost?

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.

I just don’t get it. When did it suddenly stop being appropriate to call something racist, @USATODAY, @BusinessInsider, @politico, @axios?

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:

If you’d like to read some hard-nosed reporting on @SenWhitehouse, here’s the piece that blew this one back up from @golocalprov: golocalprov.com/news/its-a-lon…