Thread by @MediaActSquad

1/ Corporate media put the blame for Afghanistan on Biden and his numbers are dropping. But the entire process was sabotaged by Trump et al. What factors made media avoid all context and report "Biden Chaos?"

1) An inherent RW bias
2) Media wed to military industrial complex.

2/ On RW bias: Though NOT ONE US person has died in the evacuation, media had Republicans who lied about the election on speed dial, ready to pass their propaganda onto the nation. Scalise and Scott are known public liars. Tapper assisted by making an absurd Saigon comparison.

3/ In its rush to pass on relentless RW messaging, few in corporate media provided Americans with any of the ESSENTIAL context that Trump, Pompeo, Miller, et al sabotaged the effort. Trump released the leader of the Taliban from prison!

4/ Trump and Pompeo also released 5,000 Taliban prisoners. Then, they negotiated the withdrawal solely with Taliban, boxing out the Afghan government, destroying the will to fight amongst local leaders in an already very corrupt country. Taliban bribed all of them to surrender.

5/ Their sabotage was lengthy and ongoing and obvious to any reporter paying any kind of attention. They tanked the visa system. Corporate media was aware of these factors yet they refused to share with America during their breathless reporting of "DISASTER" and "EPIC FAILURE."

6/ We're even granted a real time look into the Republican strategy by @byamberphillips, WHILE corporate media was actively adopting that strategy. If you doubt RW bias, look at how she completely whitewashes the facts on Iraq. Then she normalizes Kevin McCarthy, a known liar.

7/ Reminder in all of this:

NOT ONE US person has died while Biden has been Prez. A country collapsed because of Trump sabotage and many Afghans panicked at an airport. Yesterday @nytimes convinces us of "MISCUE AFTER MISCUE" WHILE we are successfully evacuating thousands.

8/ So after the GOP gets media to say everything they want, totally absent of context, media does a sober accounting of how their handiwork has affected us all. They PRODUCED a story of chaos, with Republicans as directors, and hammered our perception with it. OPTICS! POLLS!

9/ We wonder where American's go the idea it was bad?

10/ But also, media is wed to the military industrial complex (MIC). There's tons of scholarship on it. We should always be suspicious when media covers war. researchgate.net/publication/35…
miscellanynews.org/2021/04/15/opi…

11/ War is big business. For 20 years the MIC had a cash cow on their hands. Those rich and powerful interest's desires are communicated to us by news outlets with strong military relationships. Here, @nytimes publishes the opinion we should remain in Afghanistan forever.

12/ Here's the bio of indefinite war advocate, Ryan Crocker:

13/ Here's more on media and military plus a fun screenshot of a WH correspondent suggesting just a little more light war: washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/styl…

14/ This adds up to why Biden is holding the bag for doing what the majority of Americans want and all with no US casualties. A successful withdrawal from Afghanistan is not what (majority lying) Republicans and the MIC want. Context isn't tough. It's omission is purposeful:

15/ News makes reality. And newsmakers have choices. An absolute TON of direct quoting of liars and shills for the MIC, blasted across network and cable TV news and in the press, will always overwhelm a couple of stories that get at the meat of the matter. The public suffers.

16/ While most Americans are busy as hell, news is produced in the background of their lives. Most are lucky to get the outline. Such irresponsible coverage of major events impacts our ability to obtain the information we need to self-govern and to select our leaders.

When it's all about optics, when biases within reporting aren't revealed, when the people in office who LIE to us about our elections are sought for their "analysis" of a political opponent, we remain in a vicious cycle. Our information diet becomes cheap and malnourishing.

17/ We demand truth, context and transparency in every piece of reporting. The alternative is killing us.

Follow @Sulliview @MattNegrin @EricBoehlert for excellent analysis of the DISASTROUS, EPIC media failure on Afghanistan.

washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/medi…

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