Thread by @AndrewFeinberg

This @perrybaconjr column on the sins of Politico is spot on at some points, but I would respectfully suggest that he has overlooked a significant problem that no one with any juice at any outlet seems to want to change. 1/

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…

Here’s the problem: Being right often gets you nowhere, being wrong gets you promoted.

As one of the reporters he writes about as having been “without such access” to lying Trump administration officials over the course of 2020, I would argue that the publications that… 2/

…ignored the signs that led to 1/6 haven’t made any effort to make any changes in how they hire and promote that take into account the extent to which most major publications failed to recognize the danger we were in.

All they’ve done is continue to enable the giant game… 3/

…of musical chairs between competitors that happens every few years.

I can name a whole bunch of people who got things right in 2020 but the folks I’ve talked to can’t seem to catch a break because the outlets that got it wrong prefer poaching staffers who got it wrong… 4/

…from their competitors so they can put out press releases and look prestigious rather than reward people who got it right.

And the people who got it wrong move from job to job & collect side gigs & prestige, & everybody stays friends.

You want to fix media? Fix hiring.

5/5