Burn After Reading

Matt Lee (@apdiplowriter) from the Associated Press last night provoked a torrent of abuse on Twitter. I have long been a fan of Lee's adversarial nature during State Department press conferences. He is among a group of journalists that I trust, a group that doesn't even come to a handful.

He drew the ire of Sarah Kendzior (@sarahkendzior) for defending the AP. What did AP do? They published a story that didn't mention "Trump’s scandals or legal violations – past or present." For Kendzior, this is enough to imply that the AP is in the tank for Trump.

The AP, she says, ran a "fact-deprived Trump piece... days after the author of it met with the staff of the Trump campaign." What is the world coming to, when a journalist is allowed to talk to a campaign?

But it's not just AP. In Kendzior's fever dreams, even MSNBC is covering for Trump. She tweeted, "Last appearance was on MSNBC two weeks ago. They got me off fast when I noted media complicity in promoting Trump."

Who else? CNN's Brian Stelter pointed out that AP has done "10s of 1000s of stories about Clintons over the years." Kendzior than attacked Stelter, tweeting that "What AP and CNN don't seem to grasp is you don't *have* to obey the strategy of a man who favorably IDs with Leni Riefenshtal."

Well there is a big word. Funny coming from someone who contributes to Al Jazeera.

This earned a well deserved "calm down" from Matt Lee. Apparently telling a woman to "calm down" is sexist and misogynist.

Sarah Kendzior is a journalist that writes with a straight face that Donald Trump called "for Hillary’s assassination," and that Trump's rallies are "violent." It would be nice if she noted that Trump rallies are essentially wildings for antifas, and that Trump supporters are openly preyed upon.

Calm down, Sarah. You're hysterical.