Yesterday Michael Avenatti was sentenced to 2.5 years in prison after having been convicted of attempting to extort millions of dollars from Nike. That would be the same Avenatti that CNN, MSNBC and many other media outlets carried on their shoulders because of many “Orange Man Bad” reasons.
And right on cue, Drew Holden has documented many, many examples showing media cheerleading that has aged poorly.
The thread you all have been waiting for. https://t.co/AAaJNa8Aa9
— Dog guy (@Catsorange1) July 9, 2021
This is perhaps one of the best end to end top to bottom examples of media bias gone awry. Journalists have become fanboys and fangirls instead of doing their jobs. Great job Drew! This should be required reading in J School. #MediaBias https://t.co/4w3jSJ1F0e
— Occam's Razor Scooter (@OccamScooter) July 9, 2021
Mega-thread incoming:
🧵THREAD🧵
The downfall of Michael Avenatti was obvious many miles away. Well, to everyone except the mainstream media.
With the news of Avenatti’s sentencing, I thought it was time to go down memory lane for some of the best Avenatti takes. ⤵️
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) July 8, 2021
And away we go…
We need to start this with some of the all-time greats.
Perhaps my favorite comes from @ChrisCillizza. pic.twitter.com/9qehnWcfAU
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) July 8, 2021
How embarrassing.
Now I say perhaps because these two takes from @JoyAnnReid should be etched into stone for the rest of human history. pic.twitter.com/ulsf2DrxYF
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) July 8, 2021
But maybe the all-time best comes from – who else – @JRubinBlogger, who politely asked Avenatti to consider running for Congress before running for President (“I love ya, but…”) pic.twitter.com/wEMAjDoXPx
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) July 8, 2021
But don’t be fooled. This wasn’t just the fangirling daydreams of a few chatty media types.
We had countless stories just like this one from @NBCNews that helped build Avenatti into a folk icon.
They have…not aged perfectly. pic.twitter.com/XoEtJdhpnR
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) July 8, 2021
There were a lot of takes about how brilliant Avenatti was, so well positioned to strike at Trump, so likely to be his undoing.
This from @latimes captures the sentiment well. “Trump meets his match” pic.twitter.com/yluqNm2h3K
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) July 8, 2021
I’m…not confident this should be the takeaway, @JuliaDavisNews. pic.twitter.com/hF6Cz8lo2l
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) July 8, 2021
For @USATODAY, Avenatti had “cornered” the President and his team (this was around impeachment – Avenatti repeatedly said Trump wouldn’t serve out his term) pic.twitter.com/u4DpFCTyse
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) July 8, 2021
Some of the framing was…a little much.
Here, @frankrichny for @NYMag says that, despite the criticism, Avenatti is “the one media whore I can’t get enough of” pic.twitter.com/xnuRCbfTF4
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) July 8, 2021
There were loving profiles in places like @nytimes.
(That also includes glowing actual coverage about Avenatti and, as we’ll get to soon, his future ambitions). pic.twitter.com/XICNFrEI7S
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) July 8, 2021
But it wasn’t just the Times who profiled him. Here’s @NPR which, as a reminder, gets a cut of your tax dollars, doing the same. pic.twitter.com/WnQ58lxhIo
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) July 8, 2021
And of course the media hung on every twist and turn of the Avenatti saga.
Who can forget the fawning coverage of his presidential ambitions?
I’m not sure the idea that “Michael Avenatti’s Past Won’t Stop Him” – running for President or otherwise – has held up @TIME. pic.twitter.com/ZI932HaUUl
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) July 8, 2021
Who can forget this classic chyron from @brianstelter @ReliableSources pic.twitter.com/fVZWlDav7J
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) July 8, 2021
But @CNN pushed Avenatti hard even beyond just Stelter.
Although I will say, having Avenatti on to talk about “the news media’s credulity” is a little too on the nose, @brianstelter
Take a look: @ChrisCuomo @Acosta pic.twitter.com/uSlRlpyp4h
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) July 8, 2021
If the media were capable of feeling shame, they’d be having those pangs right about now.
This from @Slate presented without comment. pic.twitter.com/Ex4sixxYFO
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) July 8, 2021
But the worst outlet had to be @MSNBC. Avenatti was a regular fixture on the outlet. They all but played comms director for him, even covering his Twitter spats with President Trump.@maddow helped push some serious propaganda. And @AriMelber I…I don’t know what to tell you. pic.twitter.com/NJ0HuwbUzo
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) July 8, 2021
A few predictions & other commentary on the network haven’t exactly aged perfectly.@JoeNBC, might you have preferred your original skepticism?
And @JonathanTurley, do you still stand by the idea that “the Michael I know would not make any allegations that he couldn’t back up”? pic.twitter.com/YbbO3v7tqA
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) July 8, 2021
Some of the coverage was paparazzi-esque.
Avenatti was a media creation. And they squeezed every ounce out of him that they could – even in weird ways. @washingtonpost @Eugene_Scott @VanityFair pic.twitter.com/pS7WTETpbj
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) July 8, 2021
Again, the coverage was weird. But I think I will – in this case and in all others – dispute the suggestion that “CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin is America” @washingtonpost @AlexHortonTX pic.twitter.com/klg9QLp4jL
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) July 8, 2021
As @FreeBeacon wrote about, just @CNN and @MSNBC gave Avenatti nearly *$200 million* in free airtime in a two month window: https://t.co/QsfFJCIqmR
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) July 8, 2021
A lot of reporters were obviously star struck with Avenatti – who will be spending 30 months behind bars for attempted extortion.
That includes @NicolleDWallace (I don’t think the teaching gig will happen), @chucktodd (maybe pushback would’ve been warranted?) & @atrupar pic.twitter.com/CvJGQ2geTi
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) July 8, 2021
Some of the blue check takes were really…something.@SteveSchmidtSES (“clairvoyant”)@ananavarro (not sure this comparison held up!)@funder @kurteichenwald (yikes man) pic.twitter.com/71Nm5OlU7O
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) July 8, 2021
Navarro even told Avanetti that he should be added to the panel at “The View” — which maybe could still happen if Avanetti is granted work release.
There should be an enormous lesson here: the media is incredibly vulnerable to a certain variety of camera-savvy huckster who tells them what they want to hear.
The media was the mark, and boy did they get taken by Michael Avenatti.
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) July 8, 2021
The question now becomes: will anyone learn anything?
Alas, my hunch is no. No one has faced consequences from promoting and fawning over the fraud of Avenatti. Avenatti was good for business. And we’ll see more like him in no time.
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) July 8, 2021
Avenatti is the apotheosis of a character that’s been all-too-common in the Trump era: a thinly veiled fraud whom the media push because they say mean things about a Republican.
If the media hopes to build any trust with the American people, they need to stop creating Avenattis.
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) July 9, 2021
It doesn’t appear that the media ever learn any lessons, so they’ll likely keep on creating Avenattis.
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