Thread by @MatthewFoldi

New from me @TheSpectator:

The REAL @katieporteroc scandal that literally everyone is ignoring is the fact it took an anonymous instagram account, @DWS________, to do the job that the Capitol Hill press corps *exists to do*

Here we go...

thespectator.com/topic/katie-po…

(1/xx)

#CA47's @katieporteroc, darling of the liberal media, is having a rough couple of weeks. The congresswoman has recently been accused of: firing an employee who allegedly gave her Covid; using racist language, and fostering a hostile workplace!

thespectator.com/topic/katie-po…

(2/xx)

These are explosive allegations to be levied against @katieporteroc, yet the general public would NEVER have heard of any of them were it not for @DWS________, an anonymous Instagram account that did the job of the *entire* DC press corps.

thespectator.com/topic/katie-po…

(3/xx)

“Rep. Katie Porter fires staffer after both test positive for COVID,” @DWS________ posted last week, sharing Signal messages purporting to be from @KatiePorteroc’s now-former staffer where the congresswoman berated her employee #ca47

https://twitter.com/DWS________/status/1608512680985239552

(4/xx)

“Well you gave me Covid,” @katieporteroc messaged. “It took you not following the rules to get me sick.” Porter’s office subsequently confirmed that the staffer was punished, but argued she was simply banned from ever returning to in-person work.

dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1…

(5/xx)

#CA47 @KatiePorteroc’s staffer, the office’s Wounded Warrior Fellow named Sasha Georgiades, told Porter that she forgot to follow Covid protocols because one of her friends had just been MURDERED. This did not matter to the progressive icon.

thespectator.com/topic/katie-po…

(6/xx)

The eye-popping account of @katieporteroc rebuking Georgiades was just the first of her problems. @DWS________ has issued follow-up post after follow-up post, where former Porter staff tear into the progressive legend.

thespectator.com/topic/katie-po…

(7/xx)

So how come more well-established outlets aren’t breaking these stories about Porter’s problems? According to some journalists, they’ve known about these horror stories for YEARS and simply choose to ignore them.

Because journalism!

thespectator.com/topic/katie-po…

(8/xx)

Don’t just take my word for it: listen to @AlexThomas, a former Washington correspondent for Playboy: “The Katie Porter stuff is not new… Dem staffers have been talking about [this] for at least two years,” he wrote.

https://twitter.com/AlexThomas/status/1609715392586584064

(9/xx)

For journalists — especially in the Capitol Hill press cartel — open secrets are actually no fun once they become public knowledge.

thespectator.com/topic/katie-po…

(10/xx)

Congresswoman Porter can be a horrible boss for years, run for reelection in a competitive House race and get away with it… if it wasn’t for @DWS________? I’m not sure that’s what students paying over $70,000 for a journalism degree are taught.

thespectator.com/topic/katie-po…

(11/xx)

🚨 All too often, modern-day journalists invert one of the profession’s highest callings — and comfort the comforted while afflicting the afflicted. 🚨

In the wake of the @katieporteroc story, some are admitting it!

thespectator.com/topic/katie-po…

(12/xx)

A further problem is that the use of anonymous sources lacks standardization, which benefits powerful Dems. A different journalist admitted this, saying he’s “tried getting stuff on terrible bosses in the past but...nobody would go on record.”

thespectator.com/topic/katie-po…

(13/xx)

After years of anonymous source-based reporting in Trump years, this rings hollow — does it count as journalism only if staff is required to go on the record about how awful their boss is? This is a power discrepancy that only benefits powerful

thespectator.com/topic/katie-po…

(14/xx)

The same journalist explained that since anonymous accounts like @DWS________ are not reporters, their work is “not journalism because it’s not verified. But it can LEAD to good reporting.” Yet that isn’t even the case with @katieporteroc!

thespectator.com/topic/katie-po…

(15/xx)

The account @DWS________ followed up by posting a message from another @katieporteroc staffer, who claimed Porter says “rude/racist things (anti-black esp)”; outside of conservative stories like @HoustonKeene's piece, this isn’t even reported!

foxnews.com/politics/rep-k…

(16/xx)

In another follow-up post, @DWS________ posted a message from someone claiming to be a former Porter staffer who “can confirm what prior staffers said.”

https://twitter.com/DWS________/status/1609003571315449856

(17/xx)

“I can also personally confirm that sexual harassment is not taken seriously and is swept under the rug,” the anonymous poster further claimed to @DWS________.

https://twitter.com/DWS________/status/1609003571315449856

(18/xx)

In a different @DWS________ post, former @katieporteroc staff wrote that “this is just the tip of the iceberg in how abhorrently and abusively she treats staff… she’s prone to fits of rage...and is incredibly arrogant, mean spirited, and petty.”

thespectator.com/topic/katie-po…

(19/xx)

In an effort to rebut criticisms levied by journalists that the anonymity of @DWS________ means that it is less reliable, the account claims that “everything shared to us is from verified congressional staffers.”

https://twitter.com/DWS________/status/1609587143399149569

(20/xx)

Lest anyone think that @katieporteroc is the only Dem to escape criticism, journalist Alex Thomas further admits that the press corps also hid the open secret that #MNSEN @amyklobuchar, too, is a horrible boss.

thespectator.com/topic/katie-po…

(21/xx)

“It’s the exact same thing as Klobuchar. like, everybody knows.”

#MNSEN Klobuchar’s now-infamous staff treatment was kept under wraps until she ran for president, when her intra-party rivals could use it to kneecap her from the start.

https://twitter.com/AlexThomas/status/1609715711869587456

(22/xx)

#MNSEN Klobuchar was safe to throw binders at her staffers, until that revelation would help another Dem. Given Thomas’s claim, do we really believe that if she weren’t in a Dem primary for president that that story would ever have seen daylight?

thespectator.com/topic/katie-po…

(23/xx)

With what we now know about @katieporteroc, it’s no wonder that she’d love to join Klobuchar in the Senate. Porter’s allies are plotting behind the scenes to position her for a #CASEN run if Senator Dianne Feinstein leaves the scene.

politico.com/news/2022/12/0…

(24/xx)

The Capitol Hill press corps’ unwillingness to burn bridges was best exemplified during the coronavirus. Nancy Pelosi kept the House grounds closed to all but congressional staffers and reporters with hand-selected press credentials.

freebeacon.com/democrats/dem-…

(25/xx)

The rampant @HouseDemocrats and @SenateDems office closures remained covered up by Capitol Hill journalists, until I exposed that @FreeBeacon.

After we broke that, the Capitol Hill press corps continued to ignore it for years

freebeacon.com/democrats/dem-…

(26/xx)

The problem with complicity in covering for Dems like @katieporteroc is that it will never stop. Thomas’s explanation for press corps’ silence over Capitol Hill’s horrible bosses is: “we were all just kind of waiting for politico to write it up”

thespectator.com/topic/katie-po…

(27/xx)

Guess what? Politico was apparently waiting for an anonymous Instagram account to give it permission to do so before dedicating a tiny write-up to the scandal!

politico.com/newsletters/pl…

(28/xx)

Of course, it’s possible that Politico had spent years with a dedicated investigative team working around the clock for months in an attempt to stand up or debunk the rumors of Porter’s conduct. But does it seem likely?

thespectator.com/topic/katie-po…

(29/xx)

In fact, in the irony of ironies, Politico clearly reads @DWS________ — it’s run multiple stories about the account, and even published a glowing profile of its author, to whom it granted anonymity!

politico.com/news/magazine/…

(30/xx)

As long as journalists will wait for a different journalist to do their job for them in blowing the lid on Democrats’ malfeasance, the American people will be left out of the loop.

thespectator.com/topic/katie-po…

(31/xx)

Journalists can claim democracy dies in darkness, but sometimes the cure is an anonymous Instagram account, not another liberal arts major running cover for the Democratic Party.

thespectator.com/topic/katie-po…

(32/xx)

Since the Capitol Hill press corps apparently won't cover anonymous tips when those disservice powerful Democrats, anyone can obviously submit anonymously to [e-mail]!

thespectator.com/topic/katie-po…

(33/xx)

I guarantee that if a Republican member of Congress made international news for being a monstrous boss *last week* that that would at least be alluded to in a Politico story about their plans to run for Senate

Not so for @katieporteroc!

https://twitter.com/burgessev/status/1611472487119835148

(34/xx)