You may recall, in May ‘21, Dems & the MSM alleged that “Jim Crow 2.0” had arrived in Georgia over new voting laws.
As votes roll in for this week’s election we’ve learned early voting is up 300% & black early voting is at record highs.
Care to explain, guys?⤵️
The original outrage was led - stumblingly, haltingly - by @JoeBiden, who referred to the measure as “Jim Crow 2.0,” and “Jim Eagle” (an evolved version of Jim Crow, perhaps?)
I can just feel the unity.
Any follow up, Mr. President?
But of course it wasn’t just President Biden pushing this conspiracy among elected Democrats.
Perhaps my favorite comes from @SenBooker, who called the move a step “toward authoritarianism and repression” because we are serious people living in serious times.
And lest we forget about our LatinX comrades, @JacksonLeeTX18 has us covered!
We even had almost-politicians. Perhaps no one was as upset online as Georgia shadow governor @staceyabrams
As ever, this went from Dems’ lips to the media’s ears.
I probably could’ve done an entire thread just on @CNN, who ran a series titled “Voting Rights Under Attack” an entirely unbiased work about one party’s efforts to address election integrity concerns
But their hyperbole may actually have been outdone by @MSNBC, who’s interviews and tweets were indistinguishable from the most unserious Democratic fundraising efforts.
@washingtonpost dedicated their entire editorial team to this issue, it seems.
Oh come on, @MotherJones. Even for you guys this is ridiculous.
@BusinessInsider doing their best Buzzfeed “you won’t believe what happens next!” impression.
@atrupar provides an answer to the timeless riddle: if the votes aren’t actually suppressed, can Dems still get attention by alleging voter suppression?
And you know I couldn’t leave her out. Where left wing conspiracy theories go, @JRubinBlogger is never far behind.
If you missed Trump’s address to Congress last night, I wouldn’t rely on media stories to explain it.
Rather than report on a speech viewers found “inspiring,” the corporate press played PR for Democrats.
Wanna know why trust in the press is underwater? Look. ⤵️
A @CBSNews poll of viewers found “A large majority of viewers approve” of Trump’s message, overwhelmingly describing it as “inspiring,” rather than “divisive.”
The speech was certainly partisan - and viewers skewed right.
But the press’s own view appears to slant their takes.
What leads me to claim that? Well, just look at how @CBSNews decided to report on the speech.
They tweeted out that “there was a horribly tense feeling,” and it was “filled with drama.”
Why focus on how their reporter felt, rather than viewers?
Having worked on the Hill I get the ubiquity of Politico Pro and its cost.
But I think it takes an enormous suspension of disbelief to call it a conspiracy theory to look askance at the millions of dollars the Biden admin paid the paper that ran this hatchet job on his opponent.
Which, to be clear, is exactly what outlets like @CNN are doing.
@CNN This from @axios seems particularly unreasonable.
It isn’t a “fake theory” to say that Politico is “funded by the government.” It is, to the tune of $8 million. That isn’t in dispute.
Quick 🧵 revisiting corporate media claims on the Covid lab leak theory then (a “conspiracy theory,” “misinformation,” etc.) vs. now (“okay the CIA even admits it”).
Trump’s return to the Oval Office has me reflecting on some of the worst “journalism” during his first term.
Of that long list, one in particular jumps out: the corporate press hype around the Steele dossier.
Do you *really* remember how bad it was? Follow along. ⤵️
Before I dive in, would really encourage you to read my full piece at @Holden_Court, because there’s too much to fit in a thread.
That said, surely you remember the dossier, a bunch of dramatic claims about Trump that even @nytimes now calls “discredited” open.substack.com/pub/drewholden…
But before that, there was the hype: the hero worship of Christopher Steele, the spy who was going to save American from Trump, the Russian puppet.
I mean, @washingtonpost put “hero” right in the title.
The rest of the piece is worse. WaPo repeats the claims — that the Russians had kompromat on him for engaging with prostitutes! Maybe Trump was compromised — verbatim without mentioning in the first instance that there’s no evidence these claims are true! Look at the highlights.
An unthinkable breach of journalistic ethics. There was plenty more.
Do you remember the media meltdown over Trump’s pardons? As Biden hands out decades-long passes to his family and friends, that concern is nowhere to be seen.
Biden no doubt wants you to forget this outrage in the glow of the inaugural.
Don’t. Screenshots help. ⤵️
When Trump announced pardons late in his first term, @nytimes said it “showed his willingness to use his power aggressively on behalf of loyalists” to “override courts, juries and prosecutors to apply his own standard of justice for his allies.”
When Biden did the same thing, @nytimes said he was using his “power to protect people targeted by…Trump” to “head off politically driven prosecutions.”