Thread by @DrewHolden360

🧵Thread🧵

I know it seems silly, but the media meltdown about Trump working at a McDonald’s is clarifying about why trust in the press has cratered.

Before we get to that, let’s revisit some of the most deranged takes. ⤵️

The press’s response to Trump deciding to troll Harris for her unsupported claims that she worked at McDonald’s by working at the chain himself sent the media into a tizzy.

Here’s @CNN, suddenly apologetic about a corporation in the political limelight.

My favorite take came from @nytimes, who appeared outraged that…Trump didn’t wear a hairnet.

No, really. They included it in the subtitle.

@NBCNews went with “pre-selected customers,” as if perhaps anyone believed Trump just slipped into the kitchen.

Why does the press need to attack everything Trump does with such gusto?

I mean, @MSNBC brought on an elected official to provide a real-time reaction to…Trump handing out McDonald’s french fries.

As others have pointed out, what Trump did was basically just the Iowa State Fair in miniature.

But to @RollingStone, it was a “bizarre attempt to troll” Trump’s opponent.

I don’t think regular people saw it as bizarre at all.

Going a step further, @CNBC said that Harris’s campaign “scoffs” at the “stunt.”

Take that, Trump! She’s scoffing!

Feast your eyes on this cope from @NYMag.

Again, no one is forcing them to cover this!!

“Surreal footage” @thedailybeast declared.

I think the media’s befuddlement about the wisdom of this says much more about them than Trump.

What would we do without these guys?

This @washingtonpost headline is just dripping with disdain — how dare Trump not address the minimum wage during his “stage-managed campaign stop”?

And that subtitle sentiment, that the problem with Harris’s baseless claim that she worked at McDonald’s isn’t the issue, just Trump’s claim she didn’t that supposedly lacks evidence, was all over the place. Here’s @nytimes @Forbes @latimes & @AP

Do they know how logic works?

You might think that such a silly story would quickly move from the headlines.

You’d be mistaken. On Day 2 of the McDonald’s Election, we got even more unhinged takes. Here’s @CNN, @nytimes, @qz and @MSNBC.

You’ve just gotta read the headlines.

@AP just covering itself in glory here.

Why did the public need this detail, @brianstelter? What does this add, on the eve of an election?

I don’t usually include internet randos these days but some of these takes were just too much to leave out.

Trump has broken the brains of @RonFilipkowski, @AaronParnas (“YIKES”), @Keith Olbermann (you knew that) and former thread favorite @SethAbramson.

I didn’t expect to say this, but I think the best analysis of this kerfuffle comes from…@cenkuygur.

Trump looks like a real person. The media look detached from real people.

But why? Why did the media feel compelled to spend so much ink trying to dunk on Trump over something so silly, so anodyne?

Didn’t they realize all it did was amplify what he was trying to do?

This all may seem like nonsense. And it is, in a sense.

But it’s also clarifying. The media’s inability to tolerate anything Trump says or does, and their rush to attack every example, puts their bias on display in a way that couldn’t be more obvious.

In this case it was something trivial.

In countless other cases, it was something trivial. Or something misleading.

What matters is the default response to a former POTUS, who may well be the next one, is head-spinning outrage.

How can that make quality news coverage?

It doesn’t. What it does make is outrage porn masquerading as media analysis.

When that becomes the dominant thread of media coverage when it comes to anything a former (and maybe future) president touches, as it has with Trump, it makes a mockery of the profession.

So to those who lament — as I do! — the loss of faith in the media, let me point you to the forces that have caused that erosion. @ChrisCillizza

And, I’ve gotta say, whoever’s idea it was to do this, bravo.

The fry cook cameo took Harris’s birthday (!!) and turned it into a multi-day media cycle of the press highlighting their bias and demeaning everyday Americans, while making Trump look, well, normal.

The media has to be better than this if they want to restore any semblance of trust.

The prospects of that don’t look good.