Washington Post Declares That Leftwing Matt Taibbi and Bari Weiss are "Conservative Journalists" In Order to Discredit Their Reporting to the Post's Neoliberal/Neofascist Audience

"Conservative" is now just an epithet flung by the Regime Left which only means "unwilling to reliably repeat and relay our propaganda."

The Washington Post was blasted for characterizing the center-left reporters behind the viral "Twitter Files" as being "conservative journalists."

Twitter owner Elon Musk tapped independent journalists Matt Taibbi and Bari Weiss to report on internal documents that have shed light on the company's controversial decisions like the suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop story and the deplatforming of former President Trump, as well as confirming long-held suspicions like the practice of shadow banning conservative users.

Taibbi, a Substack writer who used to be a scribe for Rolling Stone magazine, and Weiss, the editor of The Free Press and host of the "Honestly" podcast who used to be the opinion page editor at The New York Times, are widely seen as being left of center, although they have become thorns in the sides of traditional liberal outlets since going independent.

Despite their progressive views on a host of issues, the Post still labeled them "conservative."

But the Post still calls Jen Rubin and David French "conservatives," because that helps the left's propganda efforts.

In a report about Twitter dissolving its so-called "Trust & Safety Council" and the alleged harassment that former Twitter head of trust and safety Yoel Roth has been facing ever since Musk took over the company, the Post briefly mentioned Roth's role in the "Twitter Files" that has been reported by Taibbi and Weiss.

"As head of trust and safety at Twitter, Roth was involved in many of the platform's decisions about what posts to remove and what accounts to suspend. His communications with other Twitter officials have been posted in recent days as part of what Musk calls the Twitter Files, a series of tweets by conservative journalists Matt Taibbi and Bari Weiss," the Post wrote Monday evening.

Critics panned the "Democracy Dies in Darkness" paper for its "inaccurate" label for Taibbi and Weiss.

"Painfully embarrassing for the Post to print this," Grayzone host Aaron Maté reacted.

"Calling those two conservative is so patently ridiculous. Wacky WaPo gaslighting like crazy," Sky News host Rita Panahi exclaimed.

"It is rather insane that news publications are ascribing political ideologies to journalists that don't remotely fit because they want to discredit the journalism being done," conservative writer A.G. Hamilton tweeted.

"They are not interested in actually telling the truth. Everything is spin," National Review contributor Pradheep J. Shanker wrote.

"'Conservative' is just a smear to the MSM. It has no other meaning except to brand someone as unworthy. To signal to its readership that such a person can be safely ignored," journalist and author Abigail Shrier tweeted.

"We must understand how leftists and wokesters use words. They don't care that calling Taibbi and Weiss conservatives is a lie. WaPo uses that word to signal to its NPC readers that Taibbi/Weiss are the evil out-group and therefore everything they say should be ignored," The Federalist co-founder Sean Davis blasted the paper.

"There's almost a medieval quality to a lot of political discourse. If you don't agree with every mainstream liberal opinion, then you're a conservative? They see the world in black and white," The Intercept investigative reporter Lee Fang said.

Taibbi is used to it. The neoliberal/neofascist Regime has been deploying this tactic for a few years now:

"That is hilarious," Taibbi reacted to Fox News Digital, adding, "Anyone who steps out of line in any way is labeled conservative or pro-Trump now. It's automatic and predictable."

Glenn Greenwald has also been refashioned into a "conservative" by the neoliberal/neofascists, so he's seen the Regime's use of this deplatforming technique up close and personal.

Glenn Greenwald @ggreenwald

The editorial policy of The Washington Post and many Brooklyn-based liberal digital sites is to falsely label people as "right-wing" as some weird punishment for deviating from liberal orthodoxy. All this term really means is: "one who sometimes rejects Dem Party orthodoxy."

There's not a single significant view Taibbi has changed since he was universally described as "left-wing" (same with @rustyrockets) [Russell Brand].

As for Bari Weiss: she is a fanatical supporter of US aid to Israel and the Israeli Govt generally, but so is almost all of the Dem Party.

These labels are now bereft of meaning. They're just in-group signifiers. It's sometimes necessary journalistically to refer to various political factions by the words most often used for them, but liberal journalists now weaponize these labels as vapid enforcement tools.

What this really is about is the inability of media liberals to understand the world except through the crudest and most primitive prism: you're either in their Dem-loyal clique, which means affirming every last one of their pieties, or you're a far-right fascist. Nothing else.

There are *millions* of Americans who twice voted for Obama, then voted for Trump.

Many (including @joerogan) said their 2 favorite candidates were Trump & Sanders.

Media liberals have no capacity to understand this, except to call all these people stupid and incoherent.

And this practice where major newspapers like the WPost publish something blatantly dishonest and false, then quietly remove it once there's backlash on Twitter or elsewhere, is pathetic. Own your mistakes. Add an Editor's Note explaining the change[.]

Sorry I'm fighting off what I hope is the last of this cold. I'm not capable of good work today.

posted by Ace at 05:00 PM

| Access Comments