In case you missed it, GOP Sen. Mike Lee recently said of the Capitol riots that “everyone makes mistakes, everyone’s entitled to a mulligan.”
Vox’s Aaron Rupar heard him and was appalled:
beyond parody pic.twitter.com/HguEJBP6mm
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 9, 2021
Because who wouldn’t be appalled by callous remarks like that?
Mulligan?!
Several died. Hundreds injured. Threats were made to murder the Vice President of the US and the Speaker of the House. Our nation’s Capitol Building was desecrated.
Senator this is not a damn golf game! #SeriousTimesforSeriousPeople pic.twitter.com/CeXYsSREWS
— Jaime Harrison (@harrisonjaime) February 9, 2021
You’re right, Jaime. It’s not a damn golf game.
And Mike Lee never suggested it was, which you’d never know if you only went by what Aaron Rupar chose to show you.
Former NRSC and Orrin Hatch comms guy Matt Whitlock did what Rupar was counting on his followers not to do and viewed Mike Lee’s remarks in context and go figure! Rupar’s characterization of what Lee said was deliberately dishonest:
This Mike Lee/mulligan kerfuffle is an egregious example of major media relying on Twitter to report.
A 5 second clip went viral of Lee saying “everyone’s entitled to a mulligan.”
It cut off that he was talking about DEMS’ heated rhetoric.. not Trump.pic.twitter.com/k6yGbwFHE5
— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) February 11, 2021
I’ll say it again— there is no foreign intelligence operation in the world as adept at rapidly spreading misinformation as @atrupar is here at home.
If you’re a major media personality and you fall for deceptive edits, you deserve the scorn.
Ask “why is this just 5 seconds?” pic.twitter.com/kCJOre9Ln9
— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) February 11, 2021
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It only requires a little more than five seconds to realize that Rupar wasn’t telling the whole story in this case. And no time whatsoever to understand what kind of journalist Aaron Rupar is.
There’s a REASON hacks like Harrison are sharing a 5 second version and not the full clip.
And major media either falling for or participating in the spread of misinformation by paid propagandists like Rupar own the collapse of trust in media.
This is just outrageous. https://t.co/GnfyZdbJGW
— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) February 11, 2021
This is Aaron Rupar and Co.
Amen! @atrupar is a walking and talking and in this case tweeting misinformation machine. https://t.co/nkHQeIIFls
— Reagan Battalion (@ReaganBattalion) February 11, 2021
2021’s word of the year should be “nuance,” since members of the media didn’t learn it in 2020. https://t.co/nAlt0tqG2i
— Beth Baumann (@eb454) February 11, 2021
Add it to the long list of things the media didn’t learn in 2020.
For what it’s worth, Rupar thinks Whitlock’s the one not presenting the full story:
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 11, 2021
It should be noted that Lee's "mulligan" line came after a clip of Cory Booker saying people should "get up in the face" of Trump-supporting congresspeople. But the idea is to bothsides Trump's encouragement of insurrection. Here's the full context. pic.twitter.com/qWoew4zKaY
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 9, 2021
See? Aaron totally included “the full context”! In a totally separate tweet. That he totally knew way fewer people would notice or care about or spread around.
Amazing the video with refuting context got about 1/20th of the views of the 5 second misinformation clip you pushed. Wild how that works!
How Twitter hasn’t shut you down for being a manipulated media misinformation enterprise is beyond me.
— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) February 11, 2021
It is not misinformation. If you actually listen to the question Lee is responding to you’ll see he’s also talking about Trump
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 11, 2021
Unlike your misled followers I did watch the video. He’s responding to clips of Schumer and Democrats threatening Republicans.
You cut it to 5 seconds so followers would think he was talking exclusively about Trump. That is textbook misinformation. And you do it constantly.
— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) February 11, 2021
Nope. I did it because that’s the key soundbite. And I attached another tweet showing my work
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 11, 2021
He attached another tweet, you guys!
The question is about whether Dem rhetoric is different than Trump’s. Lee says everyone deserves a mulligan. I attached a second tweet with the full context. https://t.co/LKyQadg0I4
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 11, 2021
Yes— a question specifically about Dem rhetoric. You’ve led your followers to believe he was saying Trump deserved a mulligan with your deceptively edited 5 second clip.
Amazing the follow-up with context didn’t get a fraction of the engagement.
— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) February 11, 2021
That was in fact what Lee was saying.
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 11, 2021
Do you get some kind of bonus for the sheer number of people/media personalities who (knowingly or unknowingly) spread your inaccurate version of events?
You’ve got a way of establishing an alternate reality (perhaps ‘alternate facts?’) and it’s quite chilling.
— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) February 11, 2021
You cut the context so nobody knows what the key soundbite was referring to. And you know this. This is such bad faith Aaron.
— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) February 11, 2021
Bad faith is Aaron Rupar’s M.O.
It's so blatant I can't even believe he's trying to defend it.
— Caleb Hull (I'm With the CCP Don't Ban Me) (@CalebJHull) February 11, 2021
Aaron Rupar will die on the hill of intellectual dishonesty.
At least he knows he’ll be able to dig his own grave.
Hey, did some Aaron-style editing on this one, turns out he confessed to misleadingly editing the video of Mike Lee, check it out: pic.twitter.com/2S02jaJZvn
— Logan Dobson (@LoganDobson) February 11, 2021
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