Taylor's Twitter Access Exposed

Paul D. Thacker was granted some internal access by Twitter engineers, and he was able to learn that under prior ownership, Lorenz had unique access to the upper executive level in the company. Specifically, she had the ability to turn to Twitter and have accounts that dared call her out or expose particular details that were public (but she preferred be hidden) and have those accounts struck. Also, if an account from one of her perceived allies had been suspended, she could reach out directly and lobby to have them reinstated.

This explains perfectly her report from last November that calmly and un-hysterically described Elon Musk taking over the platform as "Opening The Gates of Hell."

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1. Twitter Provided Privileged Access to Banning Queen, Taylor Lorenz #TwitterFiles

Twitter engineer walking me through their reporting system, "Wow! She's a heavy user." pic.twitter.com/z7Y7q5OEyi

— Paul D. Thacker (@thackerpd) May 18, 2023

DNC PR FIRM – TIME MAGAZINE

• They seem on the fence about him...

As the news leaked out that Ron DeSantis was poised to officially announce his candidacy, there has been an unsurprising wave of hit pieces coming out. Clearly, TIME had this one in the chamber, and they fired it off, with their claims of vileness actually coming across as selling points for a sound leader. One critique is that DeSantis leveraged GOP leadership to follow through with his proposals. GASP. One Republican legislator describes DeSantis: "He's not charming - but he's a terminator." In other words, awesome. To get to anything approaching harsh criticism, TIME relies on longtime state RINO David Jolly. If unfamiliar, he is a supposed Republican who has long railed against Trump – and he's a contributor at MSNBC. There ya go.

The magazine went with a rather grim portrait of the Florida governor on the cover. Un-subtlety aside, we suppose we should at least give them credit for showing him peeling an orange rather than dunking his fingers into a cup of pudding.

TIME's new cover: What Ron DeSantis means for America. @mollyesque reports https://t.co/COKSOQA04W pic.twitter.com/ZH8TqHMPVT

— TIME (@TIME) May 18, 2023

Low Octane Gas Lighting – HUFFINGTON POST

• We still have not gotten to the allegedly bad parts of this profile...

Joining in on the DeSantis dogpile was Huffington Post writer Dustin Seibert, and he takes a deeply curious angle on describing what makes the governor such a formidable danger if he becomes president: that Ron DeSantis is an extremely competent politician!

The Florida governor is more informed, tactical and calculated, which makes him way more dangerous. Imagine Donald Trump, but with brains and savvy. Imagine Trump, but with a stalwart dedication toward legislation that moves the country in a direction that should terrify most reasonable human beings. Enter Ron DeSantis.

We may have a grasp on what is driving this mindset. When President Jose Biden is your measuring stick for political brilliance, then maybe somebody actually in possession of a skill set does appear threatening.

The Florida governor is more informed, tactical and calculated, which makes him way more dangerous. https://t.co/Va82zWJfsM

— HuffPost Politics (@HuffPostPol) May 17, 2023

Legalized Press-titution – WIRED MAGAZINE

• There's a notable difference when Democrats get the profile treatment in publications.

Wired did an interview with Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg and frankly, in order to see a more thorough tongue bath, you may need to watch a mother cat with a kitten. By way of introduction, Virginia Hefferman gives us her impressions of Secretary Pete's mental acuity. See if you can pick up her measurement of his prowess:

Infrastructure occupies just a sliver of his voluminous mind. THE CURIOUS MIND of Pete Buttigieg holds much of its functionality in reserve. Even as he discusses railroads and airlines, down to the pointillist data that is his current stock-in-trade, the US secretary of transportation comes off like a Mensa black card holder who might have a secret Go habit or a three-second Rubik’s Cube solution or a knack for supplying, off the top of his head, the day of the week for a random date in 1404, along with a non-condescending history of the Julian and Gregorian calendars.

I slowly became aware that his cabinet job requires only a modest portion of his cognitive powers. Other mental facilities, no kidding, are apportioned to the Iliad, Puritan historiography, and Knausgaard’s Spring—though not in the original Norwegian (slacker). Fortunately, he was willing to devote yet another apse in his cathedral mind to making his ideas about three mighty themes—neoliberalism, masculinity, and Christianity—intelligible to me.

Bear in mind (pun intended), she is describing the man who has told us that roads and bridges can be racist.

With a remarkable blend of intellect and empathy, Pete Buttigieg brings a fresh perspective to the forefront of public discourse. https://t.co/mzbXgnvkSv

📷: Argus Paul Estabrook pic.twitter.com/KzI3qKrIA2

— WIRED (@WIRED) May 18, 2023

News Avoidance Syndrome – VARIOUS OUTLETS

• The obvious question, of course, is why leave this detail out?

At National Review, they provide us with a guest editorial by Graham Hillard, whose wife works at the Nashville Christian School where a transgender shooter killed six before police fatally ended the rampage. We still have not seen the manifesto released, and there has been little in the way of media pressure to have this made public. 

Mr. Hillard, however, has some insight into the motives based on a detail that he has come across regarding the actions that day of the killer. It is a detail that appears to reveal something about the killer, as well as revealing something about the protective press corps, considering how few – if any – even reported on this aspect of that day's events:

I decided at first not to write about the massacre. What changed my mind was an unreported detail, confirmed privately by both the police and a church deacon in charge of the physical plant. At some point during her spree, Hale went from the school to the (attached) neo-Gothic cathedral and fired seven bullets into a stained-glass figure of Adam, the first man, according to the Genesis narrative. A writer may try for a while to resist such a symbol, but, as the existence of this article proves, he is unlikely to prevail in the end.

I saw no mention of the 7 bullets Audrey Hale shot into a stained glass figure of 'Adam' inside the Covenant School's attached church. Why is that? 🤔 Whose decision was it to hide that bombshell from the public? FBI? ATF? Both?🤨#CovenantSchoolShootinghttps://t.co/oEtioAlD8l

— ƬЄƛƓƛƝ ƦЄƖԼԼƳ🍸 (@velvethammer) May 18, 2023

Reporting on the Mirror – CNN

• Yes, but this time, it's different!

In a move that is completely familiar to anyone who follows the press, the recently called-to-the-carpet media reporter Oliver Darcy opened his newsletter with the announcement that he would be taking time off for a conveniently-timed vacation:

Hello there. Before we get started, a housekeeping note: I am heading off on a pre-planned vacation. Yes, I know what you're thinking. I've covered many 'pre-planned' vacations before. But I can assure you, this is *not* that. It's my wife's 30th birthday and we are headed off for a few days somewhere special. Rest assured, I'll be back in your inbox on Wednesday. This newsletter will be on a mini-break until then.

This may very well be the case, but after being addressed by CNN's CEO about being too emotional in his reporting, this break is just the kind of detail that raises eyebrows. The telling part is that whenever these well-timed vacations occur, Darcy and others are quick to leap at the supposition that it is a punishment of sorts.

Justin sounds notably less cynical on the convenient media vacation timing ABOUT Oliver Darcy than he did WITH Oliver regarding other media vacations. https://t.co/SJvrbyesdK pic.twitter.com/qy7xuXV66a

— Brad Slager: CNN+ Lifetime Subscriber (@MartiniShark) May 18, 2023

"Riffed from the Headlines" is Townhall's daily VIP feature with coverage on the deeply flawed aspects of journalism in the nation, where Brad Slager looks to bring accountability to the mishaps, malaprops, misdeeds, manipulations, malpractice, and manufactured narratives in mainstream media.