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What Walter Shaub is doing now is an important illustration of why our media environment failed us in the Trump era.
Shaub lied to his large following. When he was called out for lying he blocked those who called him out, ninja deleted his posts, and began a temper tantrum.
Shaub lied to his large following. When he was called out for lying he blocked those who called him out, ninja deleted his posts, and began a temper tantrum.
After deleting his misinformation, he started to engage ONLY with blue check marks claiming he just wanted to “have a conversation” and playing the victim.
Because the pundit and celebrity class protect each other you saw all the “agree to disagree” banter.
Because the pundit and celebrity class protect each other you saw all the “agree to disagree” banter.
Now that he’s purged his timeline of false accusations and character attacks, he’s reframing the entire episode as him being ethical and relying on other blue checks to support him because they, too, may one day need to escape public accountability from us lousy peasants.
All of this started because Walter Shaub:
1. Misrepresented the facts and made an accusation against the President.
2. Did not correct the facts when called on it.
3. Began to post assumptions and nasty character attacks against the Bidens instead of owning his own mistakes.
1. Misrepresented the facts and made an accusation against the President.
2. Did not correct the facts when called on it.
3. Began to post assumptions and nasty character attacks against the Bidens instead of owning his own mistakes.
All he had to say at any point:
“I shouldn’t have accused the President of wrongdoing based on current facts, and it was unnecessary and inappropriate for me to make derogatory statements about the President’s son. I still push for ethical review of this situation.”
“I shouldn’t have accused the President of wrongdoing based on current facts, and it was unnecessary and inappropriate for me to make derogatory statements about the President’s son. I still push for ethical review of this situation.”
Instead, Shaub, like so many other privileged white men with enormous egos, raged, engaged reasonably only with those who would protect his status, and highlighted only the most easy to dismiss complaints against him. Then he deleted his wrongdoing and played victim.
Now he’s reframing the last few days as one of being persecuted for holding a moral position and having his pundit enablers circle wagons for him. Because Twitter is so mean to privileged white dudes, y’all.
All of this was unnecessary. All he had to do was admit he’d made a bad choice in the heat of the moment, clarify the facts, and move the fuck on.
But his ego could not (and still cannot) allow that.
Do not make heroes out of these dudes.
But his ego could not (and still cannot) allow that.
Do not make heroes out of these dudes.
