A great read from @sulliview. I agree with it.

There are a few things to note here.

1) White journalists not only ignored, but actively silenced Black and POC colleagues who signalled alarm about Trump's white supremacy https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/media/how-the-media-handled-trump/2021/01/12/0f13a0a8-54da-11eb-a817-e5e7f8a406d6_story.html

2) The open, intense theater of white journalists and politicians being shaken by Trump's violence and danger NOW is fundamentally insulting to POC.

Watching Maggie Haberman be shocked at the man she openly enabled -- despite warnings -- is a bleak journalistic spectacle.

3) Someone very smart mentioned that it's natural that people recognize danger when it's "close to home." yes.

But the surprise and shock of white journalists now is also an admission that they never saw Black and POC colleagues in that same home. That home was a white project.

Lastly, in 2020 when Black Lives Matter protesters took to the streets and were met with state violence -- and Trump threatened worse-- white journos often seized on a narrative that the protests were "riots" and protesters should "follow police orders and you won't get hurt" ...

...Black protesters and organizers pointed to hours of footage showing that police, on Trump's incitement, purposely harmed and hunted BLM protesters. They also harmed white marchers. BLM advocates noted that you cannot be "lawful" when the police are breaking the law...

...still, white journos focused on narratives of "property damage" and continued to write stories portraying the BLM protests -- protests for basic human rights -- as a radical movement. They ignored protesters who said Trump was inciting police violence against people..:

...people who lost limbs, eyes, or lives to unprompted, Trump-incited police violence.

None of that, apparently, showed many white journalists OR white politicians that Trump needed to be stopped.

Is it only when Trump harmed rich white people that his danger became apparent?

It is chilling -- genuinely, ice in the blood -- to see how most white journalists only took the white supremacist threat seriously when it hurt their sources.

Had Trump incited Proud Boys and Nazis to harm half of Black neighborhoods in DC, there would be no impe*chment.

Newsrooms should think carefully -- very carefully -- about their coverage of Trump and its wording. Journalism does not exist to amplify or protect rich white people who are sources to journalists. It is supposed to keep power accountable. That includes racism.

Additionally, newsroom leaders should extend apologies and promotions to all their Black and POC journalists who raised the alarms about Trump in 2015, 2016, 207, 2018, 2019 and 2020 -- constantly, exhaustingly, at personal cost and often harmed professionally by white editors.

This coup should be a complete clean-out in journalism. Access journalism has failed. It gave white reporters no clue or hint what Trump was capable of. Only skeptical, rigorous journalism did that -- reporting that did not rely on White House and Republican sources.

Let's talk about low-key racism in journalism. Let's talk about how Black journalists and POC journalists get shut down or discouraged in editorial meetings: "That's not a story." Or "you're too close to it, we need an objective (meaning: white) reporter."

This pervasive lowkey racism in journalism, perpetuated by comfortable white editors who find race uncomfortable, is a common topic of some astute journalists. @tanzinavega is one. @KendraWrites is another. There are many more. It's time for newsrooms to stop and listen.

We are not going to be able to move forward, in journalism, until we acknowledge how many white leaders -- Les Moonves and Jeff Zucker to start -- promoted Trump and gave him headlines and airtime to put pageviews and profits over journalistic responsibility.

Similar dynamics: https://twitter.com/letsgomathias/status/1349096527030059012

I shared this before and I want to emphasize: PLEASE read this thread https://twitter.com/farai/status/1348022232824619008