Thread by @TomLevenson

This is what happens when an elite consensus starts to fall apart. It's clear that the initial narrative on Afghanistan is both false & disbelieved by the broad audience on whom the DC media world ultimately depends

So you get stuff like this, written in a faux "street" style...

https://twitter.com/joshrogin/status/1430519729626755083

2/ Notice that Rogin does not say that Biden's people actually said any of the things in quotes. Because, of course, they didn't.

Notice that the existence of Donald Trump is still, STILL, unable to penetrate the eternal sunshine of the elite media account...

3/ Note above all the assertion as fact, of three bad things the Biden administration has done, none of which are, actually, facts on the ground.

All this to deflect from two uncomfortable true things...

4/ First: there is no real alternative that anyone has come up with to alter current circumstances except a continuation of the war, wh. a) doesn't seem more likely to work in its 21st year than in the previous 2 decades, & b) the American people pretty decisively do not want...

5/ Second: the actual facts available to reporters suggest that after a rocky start, evacuation of both US nationals & Afghans at risk because of prior work w. US forces has gone smoothly.

Instead of leading with that, @joshrogin went all "be like" on Biden.

Why?...

6/ Because, I think, acknowledging the rush to judgment of a week ago would require several different uncomfortable threads of self-analysis, which the current consensus of elite DC media and at least some of their (captured-by?) sources cannot stomach...

7/ The risk, of course, is that trust in institutions, once lost, is very hard to rebuild–see, e.g., the impact of sustained GOP propaganda and policy attacks on the ability of government to govern....

8/ By the same token, there is a whole ecosystem of print, radio and TV that shapes elite media concepts of acceptable journalism...but if that ecosystem suffers the media analogue to drought: distrust, disdain, and ultimately disinterest.

In sum...

9/ Sticking to an Afghanistan narrative that few buy, and doubling down by attacking an administration many/most see doing OK in a difficult circumstance might reduce the embarrassment of this particular journalism fiasco.

It might also deepen it, as more & more tune out...

10/ Anecdata: my 21 y.o. son, passionately interested in politics, is deeply informed–almost entirely through podcasts & related vehicles. He regards the kinds of elite media I've written for (and consumed) over 5 decades, captives of those on whom they report...

11/ His friends, year 3 and 4 at an R1 public uni, are in a similar place. Anecdata, certainly, but a) I wish I could w. more confidence say they're wrong. (They are, in part, but not close to wholly so.) And b) no one in the DC charmed circle should feel good such reax. /fin