Before we dive in, quick backstory. Gay resigned in the wake of allegations of plagiarism that @FreeBeacon (particularly @aaronsibarium) has reported on extensively. You can read the ones that immediately preceded her resignation here: freebeacon.com/campus/harvard…
A number of outlets wanted to blame anything but Gay for her own academic fraud.
@nytimes blamed “a proxy fight over campus politics” for her resignation.
It isn’t clear how this proxy fight could have caused her to commit plagiarism.
@politico did the same, blaming conservatives for doing journalism about a powerful person who had committed fraud.
And @CNN’s @MattEganCNN included perhaps the most head spinning word salad to explain how it wasn’t actually plagiarism. (H/t @SteveGuest )
That Gay could have been the victim of her own bad behavior wasn’t something some folks in the media could accept.
Instead, many blamed racism. Here’s @ibramxk, who perhaps thinks that racism did the plagiarizing.
You’ll never guess what @MSNBC’s @TheRevAl blamed it on.
And I’m sure you’ll be equally surprised to hear that @nhannahjones did the same thing.
Her coworker @MaraGay did the same thing in this mind melting interview. (H/t @tomselliott)
@NBCNews convened a panel to figure out if racism was the culprit and — you’ll never believe this — @SymoneDSanders said that it was.
Perhaps the best take, by my lights, was @AP, who is outraged that conservatives appear to have discovered the new “weapon” of journalism.
Luckily, AP and the rest of the gang have largely abandoned that mantle.
And as @peterjhasson and others have pointed out @AP took some creative liberties with their history, too.
More examples in the piece. The media didn’t exactly cover themselves in glory today. Link again is here: freebeacon.com/media/harvards…
And fear not. Gay still has a job…teaching at Harvard.
Media reaction summed up:
They haven’t stopped. Was waiting on something ridiculous from @washingtonpost and they didn’t disappoint.
No mention in the tweet about what actually caused Gay to resign: her penchant for plagiarizing
@washingtonpost One thing that I think this coverage makes clear: the mainstream media views themselves as in a pitched battle to defend not just Gay but any other powerful person who’s wrongdoing was exposed by conservatives.
That’s a horrific miscarriage of journalism.
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With the news that Trump freed the hostages and brokered an Israel/Hamas ceasefire, I thought it would be a good time to check in on the folks who compared the president to Hitler over the last few years, for reasons that I hope are obvious to you.
Remember? ⤵️
You may think the “Trump is literally Hitler” phrase is just a silly joke.
But for years, media outlets and left-wing voices on the internet have insisted that, no, really, Trump is just like Hitler.
Few have done so with as much gusto as @CNN.
Back in 2016, @CNN alleged that Trump rallies were just like Hitler rallies because…Trump had attendees raise their right hands.
A newly declassified CIA report on Joe Biden & Ukraine blows the doors off claims from the legacy press, in the lead up to the 2020 election and beyond, that Trump was pushing a “conspiracy theory” about Biden’s corruption.
Remember how the press buried Burisma? ⤵️
First, the facts. The report unearths how Biden blocked the release of intel from Ukrainian sources validating allegations of bribery tied to Biden’s diplomatic push to oust a prosecutor there in 2015, tied to his son Hunter’s work with the gas company Burisma.
You may remember this story because Biden’s having helped oust a prosecutor in a foreign country to allegedly protect his family’s corruption came up in the 2020 election.
To hear @ABC tell it, that was a “debunked Ukraine conspiracy theory.”
The media are melting down about former FBI director Jim Comey’s indictment, calling it Trump’s “retribution.”
But if prosecuting a political rival is such an outrage, why’d they cheer along when Biden went after Trump, Bannon & Navarro?
Some side-by-sides ⤵️
I want you to help me spot the difference in tone.
With Comey, @CNN put five — five! — reporters on the byline to declare the indictment was an “escalation” in “Trump’s effort to prosecute his political enemies.”
Where was that when Biden’s DOJ indicted Bannon? “A victory”
And @CNN wasn’t any better on Peter Navarro, another Trump aide indicted under Biden.
Rather than an “effort to prosecute…political enemies,” CNN quoted the prosecutor to tell the story.
Why is the claim of the government the framing of the piece under Biden? I have a guess.
The outrage over Kimmel’s canning is incredibly stupid, but it’s also enormously rich coming from the same media outlets who have cheered the government actually censoring people, particularly during COVID.
Let me know if you can spot the difference in tone? ⤵️
This @CNN headline made me think this story needed a thread.
Kimmel’s suspension is “straight from a European strongman’s playbook,” per @CNN’s @brianstelter.
When Biden cracked down on free speech during Covid, CNN hyped up the effort.
Few promoted the government’s actual attack on free speech more aggressively than the same @brianstelter now calling a comedian’s shelving evidence of autocracy, or something.
I know there’s a lot going on but we just had a media conspiracy implode that I think captures something important about the corporate press.
Did you hear about how Trump was allegedly going after John Bolton as retribution for his criticism?
Well…follow along ⤵️
We saw a week straight of media suggestions that Trump was abusing the powers of the state to deal out “retribution” to John Bolton following the news that the FBI (“Trump’s DOJ!” headlines rang out) raided his house.
We were in “unsettling” times, to hear @nytimes tell it.
The *Editorial Board* at @nytimes put out an even more dramatic statement, asking who Trump’s next payback victim after Bolton would be.
A single poll has bootstrapped a media narrative that DC residents are outraged by Trump’s takeover.
I poked around the cross tabs of the poll — of 600 or so of DC’s more comfortable residents — and I think it’s pretty suspect.
How come? Follow along: ⤵️
Let’s start with the poll. The @washingtonpost talked to 604 people, of whom 90% — 90%! — self-described as living in “very good” or “good” neighborhoods.
So, fine. 80% of people who like where they live in DC are upset.
But even beyond that, it’s worth asking whether this poll really captures DC’s opinion.
In the poll, only 31% describe crime as a “serious” or “very serious” problem in DC.
When @washingtonpost asked this same question in May, *50%* said it was a serious problem.