Thread by @ggreenwald

The media employees who spent the weeks before the 2020 election calling the materials about Joe Biden on Hunter Biden laptop "Russian disinformation" have never apologized or admitted error -- literally none one of them -- because their audience wants noble lies.

Same here:

https://twitter.com/ShantMM/status/1630255914719772672

Given how balkanized most corporate media is - where employees only speak to readers and viewers with the same partisan affiliation and ideology - the key attribute for success isn't truth.

Only prerequisite is saying anything to advance that side; if it's lying, all the better.

When journalists at corporate outlets lie to advance the Cause -- "the Joe BIden reporting is Russian disinformation"; "COVID lab leak is a debunked conspiracy theory"; "Trump takes orders from Putin" -- it actually *helps* their careers.

"They're even willing to lie for us!"

As reported below, @BrianStelter this week vehemently denied CNN ever said the materials about Joe Biden on the laptop were "Russian disinformation," and thus had nothing to explain. Watch this CNN segment 2 weeks before the election and see for yourself:

https://twitter.com/JoeConchaTV/status/1629292000129294343

Even if Stelter's defense weren't factually false -- we never said *for sure* it was Russian disinformation, just that it might be, that would still require retraction once you learn it's false. But the above-video shows they want *way* beyond that:

https://twitter.com/JoeConchaTV/status/1629292000129294343

Corporate outlets invented previously unthinkable journalistic practices to enable them to spread lies with plausible deniability. After @jonathanchait published a NY Mag *cover story* speculating Trump was a Russian agent since 1987, Chris Hayes aired the story with this label:

Just think about that. Why kind of "journalistic outlet" would air to millions of people an inflammatory claim they admit is **improbable** on the ground it "might be true?" Everything falls into that group.

But MSNBC and NYMag did it because they knew their audience wanted it.

And now, having spent years spreading one outright lie after the next because their liberal audiences demanded it -- even inventing new standards to air insane conspiracies ("improbable but true") -- they now insist you need them to protect you from "disinformation" by censoring.

I neglected to include the CNN segment I was referring to, so you can watch it and decide if @BrianStelter was telling the truth when he said CNN never claimed the laptop materials were "Russian disinformation" and thus has nothing to apologize for:

https://twitter.com/CNN/status/1317307227963678721?lang=en