Last night, the Washington Post published an article about the plight of Yoel Roth, who until only recently served as head of Twitter’s Trust and Safety Council (which Musk officially disbanded yesterday). Apparently Roth and his family have had to flee their home, reportedly due to online threats.
Yoel Roth's "Trust & Safety" team censored political opponents, while secretly working with the FBI.
WAPO: Yoel Roth is a Victim of Mean Tweets pic.twitter.com/qwui8AgNby
— Matt Orfalea (@0rf) December 13, 2022
Whoopeeee. I get threats every day. Mostly because of this douche and what he has allowed.
— Chad Prather (@WatchChad) December 13, 2022
To be clear, Roth is a vile and nasty piece of work with some disturbing predilections and ideas about what’s appropriate for other people, particularly with regard to sexual stuff. But he doesn’t deserve to be harassed and driven from his home.
All that being said, the Washington Post’s article seems a whole lot more concerned with stirring up sympathy for Roth than with doing accurate reporting on the whole situation. Case in point, this bit:
Right off the bat, you should be able to spot the problem:
This is baldly inaccurate. @mtaibbi is not a conservative journalist, as anyone familiar with his work knows. pic.twitter.com/vK4mnhf8xc
— Walter Kirn (@walterkirn) December 13, 2022
Conservative journalists? Really?
God how embarrassing pic.twitter.com/LkvXbqcxJR
— Jon Levine (@LevineJonathan) December 13, 2022
Too bad the Washington Post is no longer capable of shame.
See what Wash Post did here? pic.twitter.com/LPH51b8Rvd
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) December 13, 2022
Was there no one at WaPo who could be bothered to double-check that Matt Taibbi and Bari Weiss are conservative journalists? Or does no one at the Washington Post care about good journalism anymore? If you’re keeping score at home, it’s the latter.
If you report something WaPo likes, you're a "journalist". If you report something WaPo doesn't like, you're a "conservative journalist"!😂 pic.twitter.com/5Y5e5OZEmD
— Matt Orfalea (@0rf) December 13, 2022
Amazing.
Noted conservative Matt Taibbi, the same Matt Taibbi that danced on Andrew Breitbart’s grave.
— SuperStevie (@joesghost99) December 13, 2022
Matt Taibbi is many things, but conservative is not one of them.
Nobody will be more surprised at that label than Matt Taibbi and Bari Weiss.
— Captain Oblivious 🏴☠️💀🔥 (@TryingToSmile3) December 13, 2022
Well, they won't be surprised. It's wrong, but they won't be surprised.
— Mostly Peaceful Cat (@MaxPaxCat) December 13, 2022
That’s probably true. Weiss and Taibbi have been around long enough to know how the Washington Post and the MSM in general prefer to operate.
At this point conservative just means having a single contrary thought about any subject
— Jon Levine (@LevineJonathan) December 13, 2022
It just goes to show that they’re nothing but propagandists.
— Derek M (@KeredStymie) December 13, 2022
Journalorenzing.
— Blame Big Government (@BlameBigGovt) December 13, 2022
What a perfect term for what this is.
— John Hasson (@SonofHas) December 13, 2022
Also left-wing bias in quotes
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) December 13, 2022
Oh yeah. The scare quotes around “left wing bias” are just … well, they’re so on-brand for the Washington Post, it hurts. Notice “conservative journalists” didn’t even get the scare-quote treatment. Because WaPo was so confident that it was accurate — or, rather, that their readers are gullible enough to believe it’s accurate (to be fair, they’re probably right about that).
Anyway, after getting roasted for a little while, someone at WaPo decided it was time to correct the record. They were just hoping that no one would notice.
NEW: The Washington Post stealth-edited a report that initially labeled Matt Taibbi and Bari Weiss “conservative journalists” after Fox News asked the paper to respond to the backlash it was receiving.https://t.co/664yEj1lRb
— Joseph A. Wulfsohn (@JosephWulfsohn) December 13, 2022
(The byline also grew by two reporters, which is mildly interesting.)
WaPo scrubbed the word “conservative” from its paragraph about Taibbi and Weiss’ reporting on the Twitter Files without placing an editor’s note or correction to acknowledge the change (the article shows it was “updated” at 10:57pm ET).
H/t @redsteeze for the initial screenshot. pic.twitter.com/P31UU5yA17
— Joseph A. Wulfsohn (@JosephWulfsohn) December 13, 2022
(In case you were wondering, the scare-quoted “left wing bias” did not get scrubbed from the article in the updated version. Guess they didn’t take as much heat over that as they did for calling Taibbi and Weiss conservative.)
OK, calling @mtaibbi (and @bariweiss, for that matter) a "conservative journalist" was clearly wrong and needed correcting, @washingtonpost. But not noting the correction? Just own up to it!https://t.co/Fz4b0ZWygp https://t.co/e2Rzic0I1F pic.twitter.com/mgaS1hoQ4U
— Jeryl Bier (@JerylBier) December 13, 2022
The article notes that it was "updated", but not what the "update" consisted of. https://t.co/Fz4b0ZWygp pic.twitter.com/jYKXJcMfA2
— Jeryl Bier (@JerylBier) December 13, 2022
If the reporters and the editor thought it was worth including in the first place but then also worth removing after publication, how can it not be worth noting that it was removed from the story with a correction or an editor's note?https://t.co/Fz4b0ZWygp https://t.co/UCidouuh1k pic.twitter.com/zoV6Q8nGgi
— Jeryl Bier (@JerylBier) December 13, 2022
Based on @washingtonpost's corrections policy, calling @bariweiss and @mtaibbi "conservative journalists" was not considered a "significant" mistake.https://t.co/BCuhLFi1wT pic.twitter.com/VxNewFFKE5
— Jeryl Bier (@JerylBier) December 13, 2022
Well, based on the Washington Post’s overall quality of reporting over the past several years, the Washington Post should not be considered a significantly useful media outlet.
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