This past June, the Washington Examiner’s Becket Adams stepped away from Twitter. Hard to blame him, given that most of the time, it’s a flaming hellscape of awfulness and outrage.
But today, he briefly returned with a message that everyone — especially the media — needs to hear:
welp
— T. Becket Adams (@BecketAdams) October 10, 2018
Along with everything else – the protests, the anger – the Kavanaugh confirmation battle also produced some of the worst journalism of the Trump era.
I've collected it all here: “Confirmation bias: Brett Kavanaugh and the major media's worst moment”: https://t.co/yXc9Itti3T
— T. Becket Adams (@BecketAdams) October 10, 2018
It’s a depressing tick-tock of desperation and unethical editorial calls. Farrow’s self-immolation, NBC giving Michael Avenatti a platform, reporters and editors not understanding the definition of “corroborate,” etc.
— T. Becket Adams (@BecketAdams) October 10, 2018
The behavior by so many supposedly professional newsrooms was so bad, in fact, that I’m breaking my own stupid Twitter exile to help correct the record on what’s true and what’s not.
— T. Becket Adams (@BecketAdams) October 10, 2018
For all the recent talk about combatting “fake news” and winning back trust, some of the biggest newsrooms failed miserably in the SCOTUS fight. NBC stands out as the worst of the bunch, but it isn’t alone. Many “YES MR PRESIDENT WE’RE REAL NEWS” organizations also let you down.
— T. Becket Adams (@BecketAdams) October 10, 2018
Also, a quick shout out to @AG_Conservative, who apparently had to do everyone’s job for them because they couldn’t or wouldn’t.
— T. Becket Adams (@BecketAdams) October 10, 2018
Recommended
Ok. That’s all I wanted to say. Goodbye again. Have fun devouring one another. pic.twitter.com/NxY60LrewJ
— T. Becket Adams (@BecketAdams) October 10, 2018
Not so fast, buddy! You get back here and make an ass of yourself like the rest of us!
— BT (@back_ttys) October 10, 2018
Heh. In all seriousness, though, Adams is right. About all of it.
Save this post. Share it widely. https://t.co/gznOYTMLkg
— Lee Doren (@LDoren) October 10, 2018
Thread…… read it… think about it…. be better. https://t.co/G1B0UQ3sAr
— Mickey White (@BiasedGirl) October 10, 2018
Do yourselves a favor and read Adams’ piece, too. Here’s an excerpt:
Taken separately, a fair-minded person could say the authors of these and still more unfairly anti-Kavanaugh reports were merely ignorant or sloppy. But taken all together – and mind you, this doesn’t even include the commentaries – it paints a far more damaging picture for some of the nation’s most prestigious and vaunted newsrooms.
From the smaller errors to the more egregious ones (like NBC’s decision to air the Swetnick interview), there’s only one thing that ties all the awful reporting together. Every single story worked against Kavanaugh, as if with a unity of purpose intended to ensure that he would never be given a fair chance to clear his good name and reach the Supreme Court.
Kavanaugh has a lifetime appointment now, which may or may not be worth what he had to put up with to get it. But the clear victim here is the credibility of the news media itself, which has suffered far more damage than any number of attacks by President Trump could inflict upon it.
You really should read the whole thing.
This piece by @BecketAdams is brutal. The media should be doing some heavy duty reflection but we all know they won’t. https://t.co/uyLvWabb2L
— Heather (@hboulware) October 10, 2018
After reading @BecketAdams' expose of the media's shameful and shameless behavior in the Kavanaugh affair, you can only agree with him that the main culprit in perpetuating the idea that the media peddles fake news is the media itself. https://t.co/9hQBpgpMMW
— Varad Mehta (@varadmehta) October 10, 2018
The worst — and most frustrating — part of all of this is that the media, who most need to confront their egregious sins, have a chance to be better and learn from Adams’ thorough dressing-down. But they won’t learn a damn thing. They never do.
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