We all know how massively the media distorts their coverage depending on who is in power, and that includes who is in power on a state-by-state basis. Their “reporting” on covid and covid policy is some of the worst there is for that kind of deceptive switching, and when you see it all side by side it’s actually breathtaking.
So even though it’s on Twitter, home of deception, this thread is worth EVERY second spent reading it, because it does exactly that. It shows it side by side.
It’s actually so disgusting how bad this is America right now that it’s hard to just sit here and read it without losing your mind. But try to take deep breaths and make it through to the end.
🧵THREAD🧵
Blue states across the country are finally allowing kids to go to school without masks.
You may remember, a few short months ago, Florida was demonized for allowing the same.
Who’s up for a little side-by-side? And where does @GovRonDeSantis go for his apology? ⤵️
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) February 11, 2022
You may remember that, when DeSantis banned mandates, @CNN put together a heart-wrenching story about how even 12 year old kids knew that masks were necessary in schools.
But when it isn’t Florida allowing kids to be unmasked, we just get the facts.
Why the change? pic.twitter.com/S9aqWPqLLa
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) February 11, 2022
Over at @CNNPolitics, the same agitprop story got recycled in Florida.
But now? We’re told “Democratic governors outpace the White House with masking pullbacks.”
Oddly, I don’t recall the term “outpace” being used about DeSantis. pic.twitter.com/triNfLPuwH
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) February 11, 2022
We saw the same thing out of @CBSNews. When it was Florida allowing kids to go to school unmasked, we had viral letters urging mandates.
But now? Apparently these things no longer go viral. pic.twitter.com/6MvKbhyUNp
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) February 11, 2022
Again. Where are the feature stories on distraught children who are no longer going to be forced to wear masks in these states, @TODAYshow? pic.twitter.com/Zpb8Mt702f
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) February 11, 2022
Perhaps my favorite about-face was from @BusinessInsider, who ran a piece about how 3 teachers in Florida died from Covid *during their summer vacation* as a scare story but now it’s Biden who’s in the wrong for “getting left behind by his own party” as blue states lift mandates. pic.twitter.com/OicahXyy9I
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) February 11, 2022
And we saw the same thing from @nytimes.
In Florida, the story is about the angry school boards. Not so when “several Democratic governors” end mandates – then it’s all about the good reasons they’ve offered for their decisions. pic.twitter.com/rm8wYznbST
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) February 11, 2022
The criticism of DeSantis (predominantly) wasn’t that he’d overstepped his authority; it was that he was going to get kids killed b/c schools won’t require masks.
Take @PressSec. Her worry about a world where “there were not masks in elementary school” is curiously absent now. pic.twitter.com/g2qfK2PXuX
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) February 11, 2022
And throughout all this, it was never just DeSantis. @MSNBC worked themselves into a hysteria about @GovernorVA doing something similar merely two weeks ago.
But when blue New Jersey does away with masks? Oddly, the anger is absent. pic.twitter.com/iQMZPFpR4F
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) February 11, 2022
But back to DeSantis.@ABC treated schools in Florida as if they were Berlin during the US airlift when DeSantis banned mask mandates.
Now the story is far simpler: states change rules. That’s it. pic.twitter.com/yaqoJYgzVt
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) February 11, 2022
@therecountput together a full timetable of “the pandemic problem child” Florida’s decision making around masks and schools.
But over in New Jersey, the state with the third-most deaths per capita (a full 15 spots ahead of Florida” instead it’s just “mandate no more.” pic.twitter.com/xqWxQnS4Nv
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) February 11, 2022
@NPR took a break from their round-the-clock coverage of how innocuous things are racist to raise the alarm about the number of new Covid cases in Floria (in a district that still required masks!).
Think we’ll get that breathless coverage in these other states? I doubt it. pic.twitter.com/aXVbNehE0j
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) February 11, 2022
In Florida, the story from @thedailybeast was that the state had “just found a way to be even more COVID reckless “
But in blue states? Well, they haven’t even covered the lifting of their mandates. Maybe because they’re spending their time watching Fox talk about them instead. pic.twitter.com/BlrGElm95q
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) February 11, 2022
I try to talk a lot about framing, and how it can (and is) used by outlets to give their readers a clear indication who they ought to believe are the good guys & the bad guys based on which voices are elevated in coverage.
This, in my view, has been a pretty egregious example.
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) February 11, 2022
The media are the enemy of the people, and no American will be free until the press faces a reckoning.