Twitchy regular Drew Holden has another one of his mega-threads up, this one skewering the media on its prior coverage of Miles Taylor, the not-so “senior administration official” behind the Anonymous op-ed over at the NYT last year:
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Today we found out that the “Anonymous” “senior” Trump official (of @nytimes op-ed & book fame) was @MilesTaylorUSA, former staffer & current @CNN contributor (go figure).
I thought it was a good time to revisit all the hubbub. Some takes haven’t aged well.?
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) October 29, 2020
First up, from the New York Times:
First and foremost, no one has more egg on their face than @nytimes.
They made the – what appears now to be genuinely egregious – decision to run w/ the anonymous article despite it not actually being from a senior member of Trump’s cabinet, and then spun news cycles around it. pic.twitter.com/p9Z4GIPG3C
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) October 29, 2020
And here’s Mr. Kellyanne Conway:
Although I will say, right behind them is @gtconway3d. He’s made it his personal cause it seems to defend the heroism of Anonymous, which seems a weird hill to die on. pic.twitter.com/VAppbQq5Tb
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) October 29, 2020
CNN, of course:
But there were many people who fed into the rampant speculation we saw back in the early aughts of 2018.
Perhaps my personal favorite is the gossip mag coverage it got from @CNN. pic.twitter.com/SXz1LtVSMP
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) October 29, 2020
And we told you about Chris Cillizza last night:
In particular, @CillizzaCNN went all in.
Among the 13 people he speculated, none was less consequential than Fiona Hill. He had both VP Pence and the First Lady (??) on the list.
Right. pic.twitter.com/5exgrtzj3q
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) October 29, 2020
Bloomberg news speculated that it could’ve been VP Mike Pence:
@QuickTake kept a running tally like it was an office pool or something.
I know it can be hard to remember, but this was a multiple news cycle event. pic.twitter.com/z4g1Ig4IOm
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) October 29, 2020
NewsWEAK has entered the chat:
@Newsweek what…what are we doing here guys. pic.twitter.com/pP3itKl4Ot
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) October 29, 2020
They even did an article on Michael Moore suggesting it was President Trump who wrote the op-ed:
Also, courtesy of @Newsweek, come on down @SpeakerPelosi and Michael Moore! pic.twitter.com/3DpvWLhTCC
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) October 29, 2020
From the Washington Post:
@washingtonpost did the same water cooler gossip schtick, bizarrely speculating about all the high level and consequential people who may have authored the piece. pic.twitter.com/VEreU5wPe3
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) October 29, 2020
MSNBC’s Chris Hayes with a take that has not held up well:
I’m…not sure this one has held up well, @chrislhayes. pic.twitter.com/dPkoxGp2XI
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) October 29, 2020
The Atlantic’s David Frum called it a “constituional crisis”:
One of the other important take aways from the “Anonymous” reveal is that this news was never as consequential as many had framed it as.
Dueling perspectives from @TheAtlantic follow a similar pattern, guest starring @davidfrum pic.twitter.com/RoPz0ukGPF
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) October 29, 2020
Tom “the expert” Nichols:
Frequently wrong man on the internet @radiofreetom took a similar bent: we’re in a “dangerous political crisis” because of a disgruntled staffer’s op-ed. pic.twitter.com/0McO0QWX4K
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) October 29, 2020
Of course Dan Rather weighed in:
What happened to @DanRather? pic.twitter.com/u8DWVt8XfJ
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) October 29, 2020
As did Kurt Eichenwald:
Obligatory @kurteichenwald mention. pic.twitter.com/eNY38uA3oI
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) October 29, 2020
25th Amendment hardest hit:
You may‘ve forgotten the “invoke the 25th amendment” news cycle we had around this one. Here’s @MSNBC, @DickDurbin, @nytimes again and @YahooNews to refresh your recollection. pic.twitter.com/Ya6iAUdA7k
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) October 29, 2020
So, was there ever an “uprising”?
Perhaps it was a little hasty to call it “an uprising among senior staff” in retrospect, @kaitlancollins. pic.twitter.com/ept78tXtAS
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) October 29, 2020
And more!
This perspective from @wcruz73 REALLY aged poorly. And really gets to the heart of all of this.
People believed it because they thought it was actually from a name they would know. It wasn’t. pic.twitter.com/PWIdFeEZ4K
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) October 29, 2020
And of course there were the specific – in retrospect, ridiculous – guesses about who may have written the op-ed. @AnnCoulter and others said it was Jared Kushner. pic.twitter.com/75LVBSvmxo
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) October 29, 2020
@billmaher alleged that it was John Kelly. pic.twitter.com/XJVb3CULJE
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) October 29, 2020
Swing and a miss from @lawrence. pic.twitter.com/YedCQFF1yH
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) October 29, 2020
Remember @OMAROSA? Her guess was Pence’s chief of staff. pic.twitter.com/geHU9AuClH
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) October 29, 2020
There hasn’t been a wrong prediction in DC in generations that @BillKristol didn’t have a hand in. pic.twitter.com/Gn7YY2sss6
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) October 29, 2020
Some of the usual fan favorites made the cut. Welcome back to threadsville, @CheriJacobus pic.twitter.com/VcO5fXKb7T
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) October 29, 2020
The Times really does have to answer for this. It’s bad:
The lesson here is one that we’ve been forced to learn time and time again in the Trump era: don’t rush to act like the sky is falling without much evidence, and don’t trust people who tell you it’s falling when they get paid from your panic.
Both of those things happened here.
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) October 29, 2020
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