Some might have seen the unceremonious departure of CNN's walking punchline Brian Stelter as the opportunity of a lifetime for his long-time sidekick, Oliver Darcy. Instead, against all odds, Darcy has managed to perform less capably and make "Reliable Sources" even more of a laughingstock.
For the better part of two weeks now, Darcy has been covering Elon Musk's reign as Twitter king like another Malaysian Airlines plane went missing – wall-to-wall commentary, instantaneous feedback, repetitious analysis. And it just keeps getting funnier to watch.
When Musk turned his account suspension minions loose on several alleged "journalists" (this group includes known hoaxers like Aaron Rupar and conspiracy loons like Keith Olbermann) for doxxing his family in real time and endangering his son, Darcy swallowed his tongue:
There will never be anything as funny to me as watching the self-important put their self-importance on full display while everyone who knows how unimportant they actually are point and laugh. Darcy may be unaware, but stupid memes and funny viral videos are the "lifeblood" of Twitter. Then comes sports and pop culture, then cancel mobs. "Journalists" rank somewhere between killer recipes and the promoted photoshop guy's ads as the platform's most sought-after.
Let's be clear that Darcy isn't alone. Here was an email that the Washington Post's Drew Harwell sent to Musk before his own suspension:
Is there anything about that email – literally anything – that remotely resembles the kind of professionalism you'd expect would accompany an actual journalist's request for information? This decayed and degraded state of a once proud, and still vital, field is truly something to behold. No wonder Americans have such disdain and distrust for modern media. The entire profession needs a total overhaul, beginning with the universities and colleges that feed them.
Yet, after he had been suspended for violating Twitter's terms of service, Harwell raged that he was simply guilty of "journalism." And Darcy was more than happy to press his, and the other "journalists'" objections.
Now of course, this is exactly what has been happening to right-leaning reporters, commentators, and journalists for years under Twitter's aggressively left-wing censors. And far from wringing his hands in concern over those situations, Darcy himself was exposed by George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley for pushing bans and de-platforming of conservatives. Turley noted Darcy was a, "vocal advocate of censorship and speech controls."
What's funny is, Turley warned Darcy that his predilection for silencing people over "misinformation" wouldn't end well. "Once you cross the Rubicon of speech regulation, there is little reason or inclination to stop," he cautioned. You have to wonder if those words still ring in the CNN reporter's mind as he composes tweets like this:
One user laughed at Darcy's obliviousness, writing, "Imagine being so used to complete ideological hegemony that you don't know what a standard Twitter ban looks like." Ah, but Darcy will tell you this isn't a standard ban. See, these left-wing journalists don't agree that they broke the rules…
See how this is different? These left-wing journalists (if you dispute the ideological label, please see the Harwell email above) are disputing that they broke the rules in the tweets they are being suspended for, whereas before, right-leaning individuals were disputing that they broke the rules in the tweets they were being suspended for. So it makes total sense why this is so much more serious of an issue today, right? It makes total sense why Darcy would be worked into a lather now, but not then, yes? Journalists being held to the same standard everyone else was held to while those journalists yawned…oh the humanity.
Mark Hemingway clearly appreciates the seriousness:
While I recognize this whole spectacle may be too niche for some, I really wish that wasn't the case. Watching the pompous peacocks of American media huff and puff about their social media martyrdom is too funny not to enjoy. I mean, really:
I don't know if anyone in media has embraced that hilariously theatrical "Thursday Night Massacre" title yet, but if not, I can tell you who I'm betting will be the first:
