We see a LOT of bad news cycles but this one has been impressively bad.
Drew Holden did what he always does (God love him) and put together a thread of the ridiculous coverage we’ve seen around Ma’Khia Bryan, not to mention the ridiculous and embarrassing behavior of our good, honest, friends on the Left.
This one’s a doozy:
?Thread?
This one is a little different than usual, but I wanted to break down the news cycle around the police shooting of Ma’Khia Bryant.
It might be the worst I’ve ever seen.
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 22, 2021
For Drew to say it might be the worst he’s ever seen you KNOW it’s bad.
A number of outlets rushed to break the news – about a 16 year old girl who was killed by Columbus Police – before we had any details, tying it to the George Floyd verdict. @nytimes @washingtonpost @Slate pic.twitter.com/ePsN3YqySc
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 22, 2021
WaPo front and center being gross and awful.
As usual.
Other places raced to get the story out without context, including @BBCWorld, @Newsweek, @Reuters and @thedailybeast, who broke the original story that relied on the account of a relative who proved unreliable. pic.twitter.com/43wTjF9yDV
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 22, 2021
‘Unreliable.
Then, later that night, the body cam footage of the officer came out. It clearly shows the officer shooting Bryant just as she is about to stab another child.
Stills are below. pic.twitter.com/j2IaPbwJVM
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 22, 2021
At the risk of being uncharitable, it is inconceivable to me that, anything but what the officer did would have resulted in serious harm to or the death of the other girl.
But this point was entirely lost among the reporting and the conversation more broadly.
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 22, 2021
Recommended
They needed to make the cop the villain no matter what, and in doing so made themselves look so so so bad.
@NPR’s storytelling here is a classic case of how outlets can set narratives that are too stubborn to yield to updated information.
Look at the number of retweets for the supposed story vs. the updated, more accurate version post-body cam.
Almost a 20x drop-off. pic.twitter.com/0fFUf7kdbQ
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 22, 2021
They leave the original debunked story up to push their narrative and quietly correct it later.
And others included that there was body cam footage but deliberately elide what the video actually shows: a police officer protection a girl who otherwise could well have been killed.
How can @NBCNews, @MSNBC, @Newsweek and @BuzzFeedNews omit this? pic.twitter.com/YtgzG9q3Ll
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 22, 2021
I don’t know how you can watch the video and have these be the details that stand out to you if what you’re concerned about is whether or not the officer did the right thing. @DLamontJenkins @rolandmcs @Phil_Lewis_ pic.twitter.com/T3mYuMz2ps
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 22, 2021
Other outlets – like @washingtonpost – fell back on the public outrage over the killing.
Is it any surprise that the community is upset when the mainstream media has painted an inaccurate picture of what happened? pic.twitter.com/2faXeDpnoH
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 22, 2021
Media is responsible for so much of the outrage and misinformation we see.
Lots of activists jumped on the cause -facts be damned- to push the narrative.
It’s intellectually disingenuous to conflate killing an unarmed civilian & an armed one threatening bodily harm.
When’d that become controversial, @jemelehill, @JamilSmith, @shannonrwatts, @RBReich? pic.twitter.com/kqARIifcPe
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 22, 2021
Hey man, that narrative ain’t gonna write itself.
There was also a rush to equate the experience of Bryant with that of Kyle Rittenhouse.
But that doesn’t make sense. This isn’t about apprehending a suspect. It’s about stopping an attempted murder in progress. @franklinleonard @SimoneGJohnson @David_Leavitt pic.twitter.com/qOtBvWUe1G
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 22, 2021
Awww yes, because the white kid who defended himself from other white people wasn’t shot … and of course, David Leavitt is in there.
Plenty of people just acted in bad faith. @ProfessorCrunk, @ValerieJarrett, @BreeNewsome & others tried to act like knife fights are a routine part of adolescents.
A 13 year old was stabbed to death by another teen down the street in Cincinnati on Monday. https://t.co/qLSZmcv3uU pic.twitter.com/RGTTjvB97X
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 22, 2021
Acted in bad faith is the name of the leftist game.
Sorry, not sorry.
And it wasn’t just activists. You had a sitting senator, @SenSherrodBrown, run with this narrative. And @CoriBush in the House.
These are our legislators! Pushing a false story made to look needlessly divisive. pic.twitter.com/GityY8MO5s
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 22, 2021
Those were some of the WORST.
Some people – like Floyd family attorney @AttorneyCrump – just lied about whether or not she was armed. pic.twitter.com/GewGSIqMxs
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 22, 2021
It’s one thing when activists lie in furtherance of their goals. But when the media is deliberately misleading their audience for the sake of a narrative, it’s an enormous, malignant problem.
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 22, 2021
An enormous, malignant problem that’s been an enormous, malignant problem for years.
Yup.
@thedailybeast, what’s the goal of this type of reporting? What benefit does the public have from this? pic.twitter.com/laasjOAqXZ
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 22, 2021
CLICKS AND TAPS BABY.
It calls to mind the @KingJames post, which I can’t imagine reading as anything but targeted harassment.
I won’t share the full thing, but when you say “you’re next” and share the image of a police officer in the public crosshairs, how can it be read as anything but a threat? pic.twitter.com/Ew046HkqIg
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 22, 2021
He’s an ass.
We’ve got to remember that Ma’Khia Bryant is clearly a victim in all this. Numerous people and systems failed her in her short life to get to this point. That is enormously, irreparably sad.
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 22, 2021
Ma’Khia absolutely is a victim in all of this – she’s being exploited for a narrative that upholds and even supports the very system that failed her.
This thread, about the odds facing kids like Bryant in the foster care system, is depressingly illuminating.
Bryant’s story is tragically familiar. https://t.co/FQJACk8u51
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 22, 2021
But suggesting that the problem here is the police is bad faith, as is pretending like any police use of force is illegitimate. This type of push is a recipe for civic disaster (and a world where police forces nationwide see their numbers dwindle dangerously low).
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 22, 2021
Bad faith.
Indeed.
And this isn’t to overlook that we have serious, systemic problems with policing in this country. Many of them intersect with issues of race.
But we aren’t going to get anywhere on any of them by shutting our eyes to the facts of what happened, as @ProfessorCrunk is doing. pic.twitter.com/OEvQSmtENI
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 22, 2021
We’ve got to tell the truth. Lying to fit the narrative may earn clicks, but it won’t change hearts and minds. And it won’t address the tragedies that led to the death of Ma’Khia Bryant.
And the American people deserve better than to have falsehoods foisted on them by the media.
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 22, 2021
Sometimes folks ask what they can do to support the work I do. The simple answer is I’ve got nothing. But you should take what you might donate & help a local food bank who needs it. Particularly for folks in DC, Capital Area Food Bank is a great choice. https://t.co/mtSmgEq0Up
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 23, 2021
Scream the headline, whisper the correction.
— Federalist Musket?? (@Patriot_Musket) April 22, 2021
That’s EXACTLY what they do, and why the falsehood may bet 1 BAZILLION retweets and likes while the correction gets maybe a dozen of each.
And there are zero consequences for them.
***
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