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(THREAD) This thread summarizes the major-media investigative reporting on the TRUMP-CHINA SCANDAL, a bribery scandal involving Trump's hunt for dirt on Joe Biden in China, his debts to the Chinese government, and his decision to ignore life-saving COVID-19 intel. Please RETWEET.
UPDATE/ Trump supporters hope to sow confusion over one—of hundreds—of data-points undergirding this curation by noting that POLITICO updated its article on the Bank of China loan with a denial by the bank that it's been connected to the loan since 2012. The Trumpists axed this:
UPDATE2/ Moreover, a key purpose of the thread is to establish the thick web of business connections Trump has with China—which in no way begins or ends with the Bank of China loan (indeed, that was a very late—as in recent—addition to the curation). Those interests remain thick.
UPDATE3/ Most folks with education, common sense, or both understand what "reading" and "argument" mean to Trumpists now—glancingly undermining 1 assertion in a complex narrative and calling it movie-ready conclusive proof the whole of it is false.
Yeah—it doesn't work that way.
Yeah—it doesn't work that way.
UPDATE4/ Metajournalism *always* relies on the best major-media investigative reporting available at the time. As has *always* been the case in journalism, one or two of a particular curation's hundreds of data-points may at some future point be subject to correction or deletion.
UPDATE5/ The evidence of Trump's financial ties to China is *so ubiquitous* the correction/deletion of a data-point on this score has little effect at all on the larger curation (and this does not include what Trump may be *hiding*—unlike any POTUS before him—in his tax returns).
UPDATE6/ The right-wing playbook is obvious: 1) they rely on blogs and anonymous authors with no explanation for why they'd be reliable; 2) they rely on their own opinion, based in nothing; 3) on this basis, they simply baldly claim any journalism they dislike is false... {cont.}
UPDATE7/ ...and 4) having *already* completely *dismissed* any responsible journalism—for no reason whatsoever—they suddenly pay *attention* to the journalism and *act* like they *would* have credited it...the *second* any error is found in the journalism. It's a bait-and-switch.
UPDATE8/ Then there's a final insidious step: 5) if the media outlet the right has already—for no reason—refused to accept reporting from makes an error but does not issue a correction, they attack its integrity. And if the outlet issues a correction... they attack its integrity.
UPDATE9/ It's with this yawn-inducing right-wing parlor trick in mind that I note that POLITICO has now issued a correction as to *one* of the *hundreds* of data-points establishing substantial Trump-China financial ties. This changes *absolutely nothing*. https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/27/politicos-reporting-on-president-trump-and-the-bank-of-china-214107
UPDATE10/ As any journalism professor will tell you—including this one—the fact that POLITICO issued a correction *bolsters* its credibility. Just so, the fact that my curation of the Trump-China scandal is *virtually unaffected* by this new correction *bolsters* its credibility.
NOTE/ The mistake far too many in the reality-based community make is in thinking we're in conversation with Trumpists. We're not. They turned their backs on journalism—and they therefore don't get to engage us on the topic of journalism. Ever. They're lost and should be ignored.
MAJOR UPDATE/ Since I first wrote this Trump-China thread in April, there's been a major revelation I discuss in Proof of Corruption: Bolton witnessed Trump ask Xi for election aid in June 2019—and Trump confirmed his trade war is about electoral politics. https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/17/politics/bolton-book-trump/index.html
