A new inspector general’s report that says U.S. Park Police did not violently clear protestors from Lafayette Park so President Trump could do his Bible photo-op in front of St. John’s Church last summer. NBC News’s Ken Dilanian admitted, “the narrative we thought we knew was not the reality,” but some, like Joe Scarborough and Jim Acosta, have decided to smear the Interior Department Inspector General and stick to the original narrative. “This was almost a whitewash,” said Acosta, accusing the IG of “auditioning to become inspector general at Mar-a-Lago.”
As Twitchy reported, Park Police sources told WTOP’s Neal Augenstein that Park Police did not use tear gas and did not know about Trump’s march to the church. They said the crowd was disbursed with smoke canisters because they were pelting police with water bottles.
Drew Holden has gone back and pulled up articles and tweets from last summer reporting that peaceful protesters were violently cleared out of Layfayette Square so Trump could get his picture.
🧵THREAD🧵
Another Trump-related conspiracy has crashed & burned, this one about protests a year ago at Lafayette Square Park.
We were told Trump acted like a tinpot dictator for a photo op.
But an IG investigation found that wasn’t true. I think some apologies are in order ⤵️
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) June 10, 2021
Let’s start with @CNN, because they’re emblematic of the trend.
The causality here is clear: protestors forced out for Trump. The rest of their reporting fits that framing.
The thing is: that wasn’t true. @Kevinliptakcnn, @MarquardtA, @evanperez, @davidgshortell, @JDiamond1 pic.twitter.com/sEGOKmCGhV
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) June 10, 2021
A few of CNN’s key voices chimed in along similar lines. Here’s @Acosta, running with the same point about causality that the IG report dashes.
“Just an unbelievable use of military and police force to clear out Lafayette Park protestors for a photo op”
Any follow up, @Acosta? pic.twitter.com/AJnKeHiOMR
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) June 10, 2021
Recommended
One of the more insidious problems of the last few years in journalism is using “fact checking” to offer commentary.
“No. They cleared peaceful protestors out of the way for a photo-op” from @ddale8 sure seem like an example of that problem. pic.twitter.com/4xWuzWlx2O
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) June 10, 2021
But it wasn’t just CNN, of course. Lots of examples from @nytimes, too.
I ask this earnestly: @peterbakernyt, @maggieNYT, @katierogers, @KannoYoungs, @ktbenner, do you still stand behind this reporting? Do you think this is neutral and accurate framing of what happened? pic.twitter.com/IBl3rCpor2
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) June 10, 2021
@washingtonpost may have been the most egregious in their commentary.
They had *multiple* pieces of “news analysis” – so not opinion commentary, mind you, this is the news section – comparing the United States to dictatorships because of the incident. pic.twitter.com/39OuLjm5s5
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) June 10, 2021
“From Tiananmen Square to Lafayette Square.”
But @MSNBC was pretty close behind them, both in print and broadcast. These are just a few examples.
Again, causality is clear: this thing happened because Trump wanted it to. They had a rotating series of guests on to drive the point home (more on that soon). pic.twitter.com/5zYAKmfaQJ
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) June 10, 2021
This narrative was omnipresent. Here’s @AP picking up the same framing, both when the incident happened and even months later: “peaceful demonstrators cleared from Lafayette Park so Trump could walk across park to church” pic.twitter.com/sZBFaAIj1n
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) June 10, 2021
You may wonder what the impact of getting this wrong was.
I would recommend reading the inimitable @davidshor on polling “the real inflection point in our polling was the Lafayette Park incident…that’s when support for Biden shot up and it’s been pretty steady since” pic.twitter.com/OlCHgDt4bo
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) June 10, 2021
At the risk of putting too fine a point on it: this moment, while surely not a unicausal phenomenon, represented a turning point where current President Biden overtook former President Trump in the polls.
We’ve now learned that the narrative surrounding that event wasn’t true.
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) June 10, 2021
Some of the about-faces on this were pretty dramatic. Here’s one example from @ABC, that elides how they could have possibly gotten the story so dramatically wrong to begin with.@bgittleson and @JordynPhelps, what say you? Does this causality still pass muster for you? pic.twitter.com/fvILRZJvoT
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) June 10, 2021
More of the same on that front – with a little more hyperbolic language – from @USATODAY. pic.twitter.com/jsM1Ycru9b
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) June 10, 2021
Notice how the true account always includes the disclaimer, “inspector general finds,” while there’s no such thing on the original report.
These from @NPR almost exactly a year apart presented without comment. pic.twitter.com/gkZN9FVGyl
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) June 10, 2021
And this one from @ForeignPolicy. I don’t even know what to say. pic.twitter.com/ROBYcXfyR6
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) June 10, 2021
I don’t have room for all the other bad takes but here’s just a smattering from @voxdotcom, @frontlinepbs, @kasie/@11thHour and @TheView. pic.twitter.com/EjdEjHfqFT
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) June 10, 2021
And it wasn’t just the media. Plenty of Democrats across the country used this coverage as a cudgel against Trump and Republicans heading into the election.
That includes President @JoeBiden and Vice President @KamalaHarris. pic.twitter.com/eM8kKpr9qY
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) June 10, 2021
@SpeakerPelosi made it a rallying cry, too, suggesting that Trump’s actions had “denied” “residents of Washington, DC” “their right to fully participate in our democracy” which beggars belief in a few different directions. pic.twitter.com/Rq8BBRFLGj
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) June 10, 2021
But other members of her party in the House quickly picked up the charge. Often on @MSNBC. Here we’ve got @RepRubenGallego (“a preplanned operation to incite violence”) and @repblumenauer. pic.twitter.com/F8B0WurlcA
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) June 10, 2021
Their colleagues in the Senate were even more active, led by @SenSchumer.
The framing of the protestors as peaceful is also dubious at best. Sound familiar? pic.twitter.com/vxLtNIa8hZ
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) June 10, 2021
Violent but mostly peaceful.
@SenWarren/@ewarren needs her own specific mention, as perhaps the most outspoken member of the Senate.
She called on Barr to resign (multiple times). pic.twitter.com/xYGBuA0FGj
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) June 10, 2021
And of course the commentariat got involved. I’m short on space so I’ll need to double up for some of them.@DavidAFrench captures the (now known to be incorrect) thrust of the criticism here. @davidfrum takes it a step further in his thread. pic.twitter.com/4K5X3eBHb3
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) June 10, 2021
And of course the usual suspects at the @washingtonpost opinion page, @JRubinBlogger and @MaxBoot, went all in on this one.
Given previous history, I can’t imagine there will be much revisiting. pic.twitter.com/ePq3WXK34D
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) June 10, 2021
But I think that @matthewamiller captures this phenomena best. It’s hard to get the punchy, sexy soundbite that gets you on tv without outrunning the facts, at least a little.
But when you play fast and loose with those facts, sometimes it turns out that you’re just wrong. pic.twitter.com/uAq6j7FOzg
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) June 10, 2021
Getting the facts right should matter.
Don’t these outlets and individuals care about getting to the truth, particularly given the impact? Can’t people see the connection between incidents like this and declining faith in the media?
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) June 10, 2021
In all, this was another of now countless examples where a media narrative reflected the worldview and political perspectives of those covering it rather than the facts.
That’s bad for everyone, most of all the American people. And without changes, it’ll only keep happening.
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) June 10, 2021
Full report here: https://t.co/aiuZjHFh91
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) June 10, 2021
Serious question, does it sometimes feel like you’re shouting into the void with all these lit threads that *should* make these people accountable, but it seems like 95% of the media doesn’t care?
— Wayward (@PithyThought) June 10, 2021
Our MSM is garbage.
— Steven Smithwick 🇺🇸 (@SmittyWestLA) June 11, 2021
They will never apologize. They will double down
— Jay (@Javier93313666) June 10, 2021
See Acosta, above.
https://twitter.com/JacketbyBerth/status/1403132153819537410
Related:
Joe Scarborough and Jim Acosta smear Interior Department IG over Lafayette Park report https://t.co/YPTWfvZx0q
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) June 10, 2021
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