THREAD: The Arizona fraudit was a trap and many journalists walked right into it. Mainstream outlets mostly communicated, across the breadth of coverage, that the process was a sham. But their topline framing often implicitly legitimized it. /1

cjr.org/the_media_toda… If the fraudit had claimed that Trump actually won, credible outlets would never have reported that it “overturned” Biden’s win. By using words like “confirmed” to describe the contrary outcome, they pegged the legitimacy of the process to its result.../2

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Whatever the truth of the Florida-Publix vaccine partnership, the fallout from 60 Minutes' corruption insinuations has glossed over very real equity issues. Following the money is a hallowed tenet of journalism; following the lack of it, less so. /1

cjr.org/the_media_toda… Not as hallowed—but still a tenet—is covering leaders’ *political* momentum in ways that can obscure their records. We've seen this often with DeSantis and COVID. The truth is messier—in part because his officials have tried to keep it from reporters. /2

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John Boehner's book and Matt Gaetz's... erm... Matt Gaetzness are both in the news rn, and some folks have drawn a direct line from Boehner's warnings about right-wing media celebrity to the Gaetz mess. Gaetz *is* practically a Boehnerian case study... /1

cjr.org/the_media_toda… ...but he and Boehner aren’t, as some coverage has implied, at opposite poles of a sane-crazy continuum. As critics including @CharlesPPierce and @mehdirhasan have noted, Boehner failed, as speaker, to rein in the Matt Gaetzes of the world. /2

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A media scooplet from me for @CJR: Rep. @tedlieu is working on legislation aimed at reviving the Federal Writers' Project—a 1930s New Deal program that put unemployed journalists and authors to work documenting America on the public dime. /1

cjr.org/special_report… The timing and details of the bill are tbd, but Lieu's office told me a new FWP could be anchored within the Labor Dept or a cultural agency, and could run as a grant program administered through existing community institutions—including newsrooms. /2

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THREAD: For @CJR today, I assessed the media criticism and analysis that Barack Obama has repeated, time and again, on his book tour. It certainly merits a hearing. But it merits skepticism, too, on three grounds:

cjr.org/the_media_toda… 1. Obama has a deeply tarnished record on matters journalistic: he pledged to run the most transparent administration in history, then oversaw highly-secretive policies, prosecuted more leakers under the Espionage Act than any prior administration, and subpoenaed journalists.

Lines outside polling places don’t so much reflect democracy in action as democracy in inaction—a reminder of America’s shameful, ongoing history of voter suppression. Add in COVID and they aren't just a democratic disgrace, but immediately dangerous. /1

cjr.org/the_media_toda… More broadly, in assessing all the early voting, we need to remember the still-very-high rate of people who won't vote—because hurdles like lines put them off or because they've lost faith in politics. If these aren't both forms of suppression, they at least share causes... /2

THREAD: The Union Leader's Biden endorsement seemed a sign of the times—another extraordinary media rebuke of Trump. Look closely at the endorsement race, though, and it seems less a divining rod for a changed public mood and more a case of 2016 redux. /1

cjr.org/the_media_toda… In the same vein, we've seen a retreading of the quadrennial debate as to whether endorsements are good or not. Critics say they don't sway voters, make news reporters look biased by association, are often silly, and are representationally problematic. /2

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NEW: For @CJR, I spoke to one of my favorite writers, @rickperlstein, about his new book, the big media themes lurking beneath the surface of his work, why 2020 is really *not* 1968, and his advice for reporters covering this election. Some smart quotes:

cjr.org/q_and_a/rick-p… On media criticism in his work: "The secret is I’ve really produced a three-thousand-page exercise in media criticism, with some politics thrown in for good measure... The media has done a lot more than historians generally appreciate to shape our own political world."