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Anatomy of a Puff Piece: The “enduring mystique” of kollaborator journalism.
The @nytimes Hicks diddler is a tipping-point in an existential crisis.
With truth an endangered species, normalizing enablers of an illegitimate president is dangerous and lame.
A puff piece thread:
The @nytimes Hicks diddler is a tipping-point in an existential crisis.
With truth an endangered species, normalizing enablers of an illegitimate president is dangerous and lame.
A puff piece thread:
I knew we were in derp sh*t when just minutes after the 2016 election results were in, @THR published this “exclusive” dreck.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/omarosa-reveals-what-went-down-inside-freight-elevator-brought-trump-his-victory-party-945791
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/omarosa-reveals-what-went-down-inside-freight-elevator-brought-trump-his-victory-party-945791
We expect a low, vichy bar from corporate-controlled broadcast news, but we’re constantly taken aback when print media doing some of the best work during this trying days, also puts out lame sh*t. https://twitter.com/washingtonpost/status/1130504777643831296?s=21
3/ Throughout the Mueller Report, the excellent work of print journos is referenced. The @nytimes is doing some incredible investigative work during this lousy dictatorship. So WTF was this? https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/28/magazine/how-far-will-sean-hannity-go.html
4/ People paying attention to the fact we’ve had 44 presidents and one lousy dictator are hopeful they can turn on TV news for some truth. This @CNN puff piece was low by even vichy standards. https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/20/politics/kellyanne-conway-badass-women/index.html
5/ Such a nice puff piece on a troll-hack. I guess Trump’s other campaign manager was already in prison by then. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/how-brad-parscale-once-a-nobody-in-san-antonio-shaped-trumps-combative-politics-and-rose-to-his-inner-circle/2018/11/09/b4257d58-dbb7-11e8-b3f0-62607289efee_story.html
6/ That time it took seven Washington Post reporters to write a Steve Bannon puff piece that didn’t mention Cambridge Analytica and his role in damning democracy. https://twitter.com/heidi_cuda/status/1056892561736880128?s=21
7/ My personal favorite. Billionaire fanzine Forbes rah rah victory “exclusive”.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevenbertoni/2016/11/22/exclusive-interview-how-jared-kushner-won-trump-the-white-house/ @Forbes
https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevenbertoni/2016/11/22/exclusive-interview-how-jared-kushner-won-trump-the-white-house/ @Forbes
8/ 
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/politics/all-the-best-people-donald-trump-jr/ @washingtonpost
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/politics/all-the-best-people-donald-trump-jr/ @washingtonpost
9/ And another puff piece on the troll hack. I guess Trump’s other campaign manager was ensconced in the pokey. https://twitter.com/wendysiegelman/status/1056873605731176448?s=21
10/ The glory days of Scamalot.
https://www.usnews.com/news/business/articles/2017-04-18/timeline-ivanka-trump-goes-to-washington-and-sales-surge @usnews
https://www.usnews.com/news/business/articles/2017-04-18/timeline-ivanka-trump-goes-to-washington-and-sales-surge @usnews
11/ That time Facebook was a seething cesspool of disinformation and democracy was burning and rather than confronting it, we got this sh*te. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/25/technology/zuckerberg-harvard-commencement-road-trip.html
12/ We had to spelunk 50 paragraphs down in this Erik Prince puff piece to learn he’s under investigation by the SCO. (Lotta zebra lines in the Mueller Report.) https://twitter.com/heidi_cuda/status/1016779606706171904?s=21
13/ Democracy was burning, as Russia attacked our election, and just hours after the heist, @cnn found time to ponder how Camalot would feel about Scamalot.
https://www.cnn.com/2016/11/10/opinions/what-would-jackie-say-brower/index.html
https://www.cnn.com/2016/11/10/opinions/what-would-jackie-say-brower/index.html
14/ “Quiet” “steadying” “cool”... the pox of the Kushner puff piece.
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/20/us/politics/jared-kushner-donald-trump.html @nytimes
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/20/us/politics/jared-kushner-donald-trump.html @nytimes
15/ The media’s addiction to Steve Bannon remains curious, as he parasitically traverses the world in search of fresh democracies to destroy. But this @60Minutes “exclusive” was an all-time low.
16/ In times of corporate infotainment, the puff piece is to be expected. In times of cyberwar—under siege by a foreign military attack—truth fights for daylight and the puff piece allies with the enemy. Each time the media parrots Trump, we lose.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/05/26/us/politics/trump-tweets-democrats.html @nytimes
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/05/26/us/politics/trump-tweets-democrats.html @nytimes
17/ Can’t emphasis enough how critical investigative reporters at @nytimes and @washingtonpost have been to rooting out the f*ckery of TrumPutin Inc. But with each puff piece, critical work fades into obscurity. You’d think the fourth estate wudda learned.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/1922-new-york-times-hitler/
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/1922-new-york-times-hitler/
18/ There is nothing cute about a lousy dictator who lies as he breathes. Trump is a veteran con artist, as 1000s of lawsuits evidence and those who enable him should be given the hairy eyeball fitting for sellout pariahs. Instead, we get puff pieces.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/sean-spicer-developing-tv-talk-show-1123249 @THR
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/sean-spicer-developing-tv-talk-show-1123249 @THR
19/ Pruitt puffery still blows hard.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/17/climate/scott-pruitt-political-ambitions.html @nytimes
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/17/climate/scott-pruitt-political-ambitions.html @nytimes
21/ Using dewy words in softball features is perfectly fine when a democracy isn’t at stake. But normalizing a multi-generational crime family linked to global mobsters aided into power by a foreign adversary’s military, just ain’t right. Behold @cnn 
https://twitter.com/cnn/status/1109558462197968897?s=21
https://twitter.com/cnn/status/1109558462197968897?s=21
22/ First time I referenced Trump in ink was in the @latimes in ‘96: I noted he was a has-been. Next time was in a TV news investigation I produced a decade later: he was the bait in a ponzi scheme. Point being, the truth was out there pre-2016. And yet... https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/08/19/donald-trumps-best-speech-of-the-2016-campaign-annotated/
23/ Some say puff pieces on Scamalot continue cuz MSM fears losing access. Let’s ponder that: Trump’s never met a camera he doesn’t like (except Special Counsel’s) and he even pretended to be his own flack. Without 24/7 media coverage, his propaganda dies. https://twitter.com/heidi_cuda/status/1079597855633887232?s=21
24/ Each time another puff piece surfaces in a mainstream publication during a cyberwar, truth gets closer to its last gasp.
And yet, the truth is out there. https://maewestside.tumblr.com/post/167438680076/the-shelf-life-of-anchorhack-a-deeper-look-at
And yet, the truth is out there. https://maewestside.tumblr.com/post/167438680076/the-shelf-life-of-anchorhack-a-deeper-look-at
25/ Giving ink to a chronic liar reviving old lies long since debunked in the Mueller Report actually contributes to the problem. Regurgitating lies spreads the mind virus. This piece is not puffery, but “Trump Desperately Clutches Straws” a better hedder.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-uses-discredited-conflict-of-interest-charges-to-attack-mueller/2019/05/30/2f7c7908-82f6-11e9-95a9-e2c830afe24f_story.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-uses-discredited-conflict-of-interest-charges-to-attack-mueller/2019/05/30/2f7c7908-82f6-11e9-95a9-e2c830afe24f_story.html
26/ @thehill headlines and clips regularly fan the mind virus. Here’s an example of the sound bite as puff piece: https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1134162558611410944?s=21
27/ “Finding euphemisms”... covering the propaganda orgies of a veteran con man who is clearly an illegitimate president* continues to be a conundrum for MSM. Well, consider this: propaganda dies in darkness.
https://www.vox.com/2019/4/29/18522340/trump-green-bay-rally-media-coverage-revived-an-inaccurate-refrain @voxdotcom
... covering the propaganda orgies of a veteran con man who is clearly an illegitimate president* continues to be a conundrum for MSM. Well, consider this: propaganda dies in darkness.https://www.vox.com/2019/4/29/18522340/trump-green-bay-rally-media-coverage-revived-an-inaccurate-refrain @voxdotcom
28/ The normalizing puff piece has been standard vichy fair for MSM. Post-Mueller Report, when it’s clear we are in a constitutional crisis and under foreign attack, while also dealing with a compromised party, @CNN baking a Melania puff piece is madness. https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2019/06/02/politics/melania-trump-queen-elizabeth-uk-visit/index.html
29/ An indelicate, nostalgic look back to a time when the media had balls. https://maewestside.tumblr.com/post/150888812156/hooker-dumped-at-seashore-and-other-lessons
30/ Lest we forget: the media’s normalization of a veteran con man in the run up to the 2016 election could not have happened without misogyny. We’ve come along way baby, but we barely have our sea legs. https://maewestside.tumblr.com/post/150744290461/the-marie-dressler-suffragette-society-or-how
31/ WHAT AILES AMERICA—“Fair and balanced” became code for putting liars on TV and calling it “news.” I was schooled by newsmen who taught me reporters must be biased and that bias is TRUTH—it’s our job to inform the facts. As @alaindebotton taught me... https://twitter.com/heidi_cuda/status/870747393611882496?s=21
32/ @CNN is going all in on its schizo vichy kollaborator normalization which negatively impacts real work by staffers. https://twitter.com/katebennett_dc/status/1138104055203581952?s=21
33/ CODA: And the kollaborator journos play on, the headlines more weaponized and sinister by the day, as the mind virus spreads.
https://twitter.com/newsweek/status/1146103758750912512?s=21 @Newsweek
https://twitter.com/newsweek/status/1146103758750912512?s=21 @Newsweek
34/ Moscow the Hudson. https://twitter.com/heidi_cuda/status/1202274720600608768
