Maggie Haberman may have great sources, but it sometimes seems that the New York Times’ ace reporter isn’t very bright. More likely, though, she’s just too quick on the trigger when it comes to bashing President Trump.
Readers may recall this tweet from Haberman:
Other than San Bernardino shootings, has there been a terrorist attack involving a non-US-born attacker since 9/11?
Um, yes. The Boston bombers, Times Square bomber, underwear bomber, Ohio State attacker, Chattanooga shooter, & numerous plotters.
Haberman also peddled the canard that 17 intelligence agencies concurred in the post-election report on Russian meddling. The Times had to correct her claim.
But it’s a tweet from yesterday that really makes me wonder about Haberman. In response a tweet from the AP’s Josh Lieberman about the Trump administration’s call for the Iranian regime to unblock Instagram and other social media being used by anti-government protesters, Haberman tweeted this:
The president often blocks individual people from seeing the @realDonaldTrump.Twitter feed https://twitter.com/joshledermanAP/status/948245681088626689
The idiocy of comparing Trump’s blocking to what’s going on in Iran is apparent. As
[T]hese situations aren’t remotely the same. Iran is shutting down entire systems of communication, specifically to prevent groups of people from organizing protests and sharing images of their activity. They are limiting communication for everyone in an attempt to dampen opposition to the theocratic regime.
By contrast, Trump has blocked a few individuals. Anyone blocked by Trump can still use the service and can create a new anonymous account and follow the President’s tweets.
What Trump has not done is order the FCC to shut down Twitter (or anything else) to limit the opposition to his administration. If you’ve been on Twitter recently, you’ve probably noticed there is no shortage of opposition to the president.
Haberman eventually claimed she was not comparing Trump’s blocking of a few individuals from his account to Iran’s shutting down of Instagram, etc. But clearly, she was doing exactly that.
Here’s the tweet by Josh Lederman that Haberman was responding to:
WASHINGTON (AP) — Trump administration calls on #Iran to unblock Instagram, other social media amid protests
Here, again, is what Haberman tweeted three minutes later:
The president often blocks individual people from seeing the @realDonaldTrump Twitter feed https://twitter.com/joshledermanAP/status/948245681088626689 …
This is not a stray criticism of Donald Trump, it is a comparison between his social media practice and that of Iran’s government. If Trump, or any politician Haberman doesn’t like, tried to deny this, Haberman would call him out in no uncertain terms. And she would be right to do so.
Today, as John notes, Trump tweeted that the new publisher of the Times should:
Get impartial journalists of a much higher standard, lose all of your phony and non-existent ‘sources,’ and treat the President of the United States FAIRLY. . . .
In the unlikely event that the president wasn’t thinking of Maggie Haberman when he decried the lack of impartial, fair journalists at the Times, he should have been.
Notice: All comments are subject to moderation. Our comments are intended to be a forum for civil discourse bearing on the subject under discussion. Commenters who stray beyond the bounds of civility or employ what we deem gratuitous vulgarity in a comment — including, but not limited to, “s***,” “f***,” “a*******,” or one of their many variants — will be banned without further notice in the sole discretion of the site moderator.