Jay RosenFeb 9, 2023

Clown car hearings exploit a weakness in mainstream journalism's source code, which gives no clear instructions for how to report truthfully on events that are themselves false, meaning they spring from a propagandistic intent and taking them seriously only furthers the scam.

And yet: They can't be ignored because they show what the Republican party does with its power.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/republican-led-us-house-panel-probes-twitter-block-hunter-biden-story-2023-02-08/

#uspolitics #uspol #journalism

Former Twitter execs tell Republicans they erred on Hunter Biden laptop story

Former Twitter executives told a Republican-led U.S. House committee on Wednesday that they made a mistake by blocking tweets about a laptop said to belong to President Joe Biden's son Hunter but said government officials were not involved.

Reuters
Show threadRae Hodge

@jayrosen_nyu This question of how to cover the circus has been stuck in my craw for a month.

But I don't think it's just a source-code thing. Or, if it is, the source code can be fixed by heightened ethics: outlets need to include in their basic editorial standards a transparent effort to acknowledge the impact of their coverage and wield it responsibly.

That sounds like naive, high-view banter but it's made practical in basic ways like...

Feb 10, 2023 at 12:41amWeb
Show threadRae HodgeFeb 10, 2023

@jayrosen_nyu
1. No boilerplate "everything that happened in cmte" stories, no false-balance. A news article's premise ≠ a congressman's claim.

2. "Heightened scrutiny" for lawmakers' on-camera time. Find the line between broadcasting a performance and documenting a scene.

etc.

The corps are spread thin, and trust is low. Neither of those problems are helped by assigning bleeds-leads garbage.