Recall the comedy that was witnessed when Taylor Lorenz, from the New York Times, was accusing Tucker Carlson of ”attacking” her for the grievous act of — using her NYT bio picture, and name on the air? Well, it seems that odd standard remains in place, with Julia Ioffe now instituting this effort.
In a piece of news this week that is both ridiculous and perfectly revealing, CNN has announced that they have signed Natasha Bertrand away from Polito to serve as their new intelligence reporter.
We're excited to welcome Natasha Bertrand, who joins @CNN as a reporter today. She will cover the White House with a focus on national security.
— CNN Communications (@CNNPR) April 26, 2021
This despite her career littered with many falsely attributed stories.
She was a loud proponent of the Russian collusion scandal and a big fan of the Steele Dossier. She was pushing hard that the Hunter Biden laptop story was driven by Russian disinformation, giving news outlets cover to not report on the story. And, on the topic of fake Russian stories, she was also a prominent voice of outrage over the Russian bounties scandal-that-wasn’t.
This is the resume of someone worthy to be demoted to working for Grit, not getting promoted up the journalism chain. But as Glenn Greenwald details in an excellent piece on Substack, this is a pattern in media — these major ethical problems are the kinds of things that help you fail upward.
But in his criticism of Bertrand’s record, Greenwald committed a major sin; he criticized a female! Thankfully Julia Ioffe was on the scene, to call him out on this major sin.
Man, Glenn Greenwald seems to have a thing for attacking young, ambitious, successful women. I got it back in 2013, now it’s @TaylorLorenz and @NatashaBertrand in his crosshairs. We see you, Glenn.
— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) April 27, 2021
Annnnd…Ms. Ioffe seems to have a thing for reflexively charging sexism.
No, he has a thing for attacking jacks who share false information.
— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) April 27, 2021
Translation: women should be above criticism.
— Galway Curiousblue (@iamcuriousblue) April 27, 2021
Glenn calls out insufferable people of all genders. Being a woman isn’t a free pass from criticism.
— Christina Pushaw • ქრისტინე (@ChristinaPushaw) April 27, 2021
Is it not sexist to suggest that women in politics are too fragile to be subjected to challenges and criticism?
If you're in the arena, you should be prepared to fight on an even playing field which means defending your position.
Or, be a typical feminist and whine that life is not fair and cry misogyny when you can't compete.
— Melissa Mackenzie (@MelissaTweets) April 27, 2021
This brings us to a bizarre reality — these reporters who are pushing for men to be able to compete in female sports are at the same time saying women cannot be criticized in the arena of politics.
And as it happens, when Lorenz attacks young ambitious women there is nothing to be heard in the way of criticism.
Oh please. Taylor herself has a record of "attacking" young, ambitious, successful women all over social media. https://t.co/XQvK1uBgM1
— Melissa Chen (@MsMelChen) April 27, 2021
Taylor Lorenz is herself such an awful bully though. She's been at the front of so many deplatforming campaigns.
— S___Elliott (@S___Elliott) April 27, 2021
Then there is another detail in this reaction.
Hilarious how you guys cried about Lorenz treating her like she was fresh out of J-school. She's nearly 40 ffs. If you can't handle criticism, go sell yoga pants.
— ericontrarian (@eriContrarian) April 27, 2021
Wait, I’m sorry, what is that? That ”young, ambitious” label is not completely accurate?!
she's in her late 30s, that is not young by any standard. very sad! pic.twitter.com/XW8bnjxi3I
— skinny boy (@citizenskinner) April 27, 2021
You're 39. They're 36 and 28. None of you are young, and you're very clearly middle aged.
— Nasica Serapio (@NasicaSerapio) April 27, 2021
Well, this is something else. But what about that piece from Glenn?
Julia here is hoping you do not actually read Greenwald’s article, because before he even gets to Bertrand he mentions a number of males who committed a number of very similar journalistic missteps.
Huh.
Then Glenn weighed in on the matter, with a telling detail. Julia Ioffe, who is railing at Greenwald for being critical of Bertrand, was herself vocally critical of Bertrand in the past — over the very professional missteps that Glenn was mentioning.
I added an update to the end of my article on the reckless and conspiratorial journalism of CNN's newly hired reporter Natasha Bertrand to include the serious accusation of ethical breaches voiced by @juliaioffe against Bertrand. Hadn't seen that before.https://t.co/9ZbKlTRKsm
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) April 27, 2021
Then he provided this Twitter nugget.
?♂️https://t.co/CQCmHysefU pic.twitter.com/x7uPkhMZ9Z
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) April 27, 2021
So hateful and intolerant, Julia. Shameful.
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