Drew Holden Profile picture
Oct 22, 2024 • 24 tweets • 8 min read • Read on X
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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. Image
My favorite take came from @nytimes, who appeared outraged that…Trump didn’t wear a hairnet.

No, really. They included it in the subtitle. Image
@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? Image
I mean, @MSNBC brought on an elected official to provide a real-time reaction to…Trump handing out McDonald’s french fries. Image
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. Image
Going a step further, @CNBC said that Harris’s campaign “scoffs” at the “stunt.”

Take that, Trump! She’s scoffing! Image
Feast your eyes on this cope from @NYMag.

Again, no one is forcing them to cover this!! Image
“Surreal footage” @thedailybeast declared.

I think the media’s befuddlement about the wisdom of this says much more about them than Trump. Image
What would we do without these guys? Image
This @washingtonpost headline is just dripping with disdain — how dare Trump not address the minimum wage during his “stage-managed campaign stop”? Image
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? Image
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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. Image
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@AP just covering itself in glory here. Image
Why did the public need this detail, @brianstelter? What does this add, on the eve of an election? Image
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. Image
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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. Image
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 Image
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.

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More from @DrewHolden360

Sep 3
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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. Image
The *Editorial Board* at @nytimes put out an even more dramatic statement, asking who Trump’s next payback victim after Bolton would be.

They dubbed the raid “revenge.”

Democracy was in truly troubled waters. Image
Read 24 tweets
Aug 26
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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. Image
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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.

What gives? Image
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Read 26 tweets
Jul 15
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I feel like I’m losing my mind about the Biden autopen pardons.

The former president said he made every decision. His staff says that he didn’t actually make the final call on thousands of them.

We’re supposed to treat this as normal?

I try to unpack. ⤵️
This got new life from a Biden interview w/ @nytimes.

NYT leads by repeating Biden’s claim that he made the calls…burying the admissions that 1) he really didn’t & 2) where he allegedly did, the aids sending details to the autopen weren’t in the room when the call was made… Image
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…instead, they relied on what senior staff had allegedly heard, which was then passed along.

The piece ends with the revelation that Biden’s then-chief of staff gave the final sign off.

Given what the former admin has lied about, why should we trust this reporting of events? Image
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Read 20 tweets
Jun 11
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The coverage of the anti-ICE riots in LA is perhaps the clearest example of advocacy “journalism” in Trump’s second term.

Reading the reporting, you would never know the most significant fact: the American people support Trump’s deportations.

Follow along ⤵️
First, the facts about the riots.

You’ve seen the burning cars, looting & clashes between police & protestors.

Demonstrators blocked the freeway, attacked ICE agents, all in an effort to prevent the deportations of illegal aliens. Trump deployed troops to allow ICE to operate. Image
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As @MarkHalperin and @seanspicer discussed, the situation in LA is so tranquil that the mayor has instituted a curfew for the city.
Read 25 tweets
May 29
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The new book “Original Sin” from Jake Tapper & Alex Thompson recounts the effort to cover up Biden’s cognitive decline ahead of the election. The authors point to many guilty parties.

The one glaring omission? Their colleagues in the corporate press. Follow along ⤵️ Image
There are numerous dramatic reveals. The Biden team considered condoning him to a wheelchair? Maybe in his fog he forgot about the border?

But as I worked on a review for @commonplc, the one thought that I kept coming back to was that you can’t tell this story without the press.
Perhaps no one was more vital to the continued fiction that Biden had it together than the media.

Tapper and Thompson even highlight some of the telling moments.

Did they forget what the media reported?
Read 21 tweets
May 20
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Biden’s cancer diagnosis is a tragedy I know first-hand.

But our sympathy can’t silence questions about Biden’s cognitive decline, clarified just days ago by the Hur tape.

The media tried to bury the story then. They’re trying again now.

I’ve got the receipts. ⤵️
When the report first came out in 2024, outlets rushed to demean Hur, accusing him of serving as a Republican hatchet man.

Just look at this take from @USATODAY, who assembled sympathetic voices to make the case that Hur “crossed the line.” They found an expert to call it a “disgrace” and then featured the obviously unbiased Eric Holder to lead a section titled “Way too many gratuitous remarks.”

The audio makes clear that Hur, if anything, played down how alarming the claims were.Image
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(If you haven’t listened to the Hur audio yet, you should.)
Read 26 tweets

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