Vox Pillow Fight - Matt Yglesias Calls out the Fake News of the Atlanta Sheriff, but Then Learns His Writer Was the Source

Aaron Rupar’s false news item was called out by the equally risible Matt Yglesias…sort of.

When your hack of a boss recognizes the problem, then you have a HUGE problem. When a famed member of the press resorts to another false storyline it raises few eyebrows. But when those from the same outlet who work above the joke of a journalist recognize the falsehoods, it becomes significant. Matt Yglesias, himself a risible media star, explained in detail why a narrative erupting around the officers investigating the recent spa shooting in Georgia was in error. He did not go so far, though, as naming the culprit; this was surely due to the fact it was someone underneath his own roof.

Currently, the press is in a frenzy of racial hysterics over the Atlanta shooter who took 8 lives this week. Without anything directly pointing to race being the motivator behind the killings — including the killer himself saying otherwise — the media is busying itself in selling us on the concept that this was an intended targeting of Asian Americans. The only issue? They lack any firm proof supporting their claim.

This lack of tangible evidence, of course, is not seen as a roadblock to a narrative, according to our media complex and in their desperation, they will latch onto any piece of confirmation bias that will help sell their version of events. Aaron Rupar, the resident prevaricator over at Vox, created a storm of outrage when he ‘’reported’’ that the lead officer in the shooting, Cherokee County Sheriff’s Captain Jay Baker, was making sympathetic comments about the shooter. Rupar’s assessment — using his usual method of clipped recordings and contorting the intent — was picked up by numerous news outlets and became a viral detail. And it was all a damned lie.

Rupar was called out for his hackery — eventually — but the intended damage was already inflicted. Tens of thousands of people shared his fable, and the media agreement with it only cemented the lie. Lost in this manufactured hysteria was that this underscored how vacant the accusations were behind the charge of race-based shootings. Even had Baker’s words been accurate (and they most certainly were not) they were completely devoid of a connection to the shooter and his actions. False or accurate, they in no way proved the media storyline, in any fashion. But they needed the outrage to keep the narrative on life support.

Here is the initial message from Rupar, where he completely misrepresents the Sheriff’s words.

"Yesterday was a really bad day for him and this is what he did" — a law enforcement official explains Robert Aaron Long's decision to kill 8 people in a strange manner pic.twitter.com/u0zFcqjbNK

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 17, 2021

It is obvious of the tactics Rupar engaged in here. He took a select passage from the news conference to deliver this interpretation, when watching the full video you can easily discern the sheriff was conveying the words of the shooter, as he spoke them to the investigators. Just how obvious? Vox co-founder Matt Yglesias felt the need to come forward and correct the record as to what the officer was saying. But…not the entire record.

Remember the racist cop who excused the Atlanta spa shooter by saying he had a “really bad day”?

Turns out that if you watch the video in context that’s not what happened … he was relaying the suspect’s statement to the press as part of a briefing. https://t.co/RjRcsjroXz

— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) March 19, 2021

His use of ‘’turns out’’ is a clunky way of making things out to sound almost surprising. He is positioning this all as if watching the entirety of the news conference to learn what was being said was a bit of happenstance for the staff. You know, instead of being the work of basic journalism. He is essentially saying, Hey, guess what we discovered after investing 5 minutes of watching the presser? Also of import; he stops short of calling out who it was behind this dastardly delivery of disinformation

Rupar, in desperation mode of being called out, tries reframing the episode to remain accurate and be exposed as the liar that he is.

My tweet is not misleading at all. The clip I posted is of the officer explaining Robert Long’s rationale for killing 8 people, which is exactly what I wrote. https://t.co/WvA80wHV4Y pic.twitter.com/BwEJcfASjU

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 19, 2021

It’s not misleading at all and the clip isn’t edited. The officer is explaining the shooter’s rationale, which is exactly what I wrote in the tweet along with the direct quote.

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 19, 2021

The clip was, in fact, edited. He did not give the entirety of the sheriff’s comments in his original tweet, which would have shown he was delivering the impressions given to the investigators. And even as Rupar admits that Baker was paraphrasing he still tries to sell it as Baker passing judgment. Ken Vogel, of the New York Times, actually was calling out Rupar’s garbage assessment while getting the details completely accurate.

Framing it as the officer's explanation, rather than the shooter's, is fundamentally misleading.

— Kenneth P. Vogel (@kenvogel) March 19, 2021

There were many ways you could have captured the idea the officer was paraphrasing the shooter's (horrible) explanation, without suggesting that the officer was offering the explanation on his own.

It was misleading, which I think you probably realize.

I unblocked you to say so

— Kenneth P. Vogel (@kenvogel) March 20, 2021

For his part, Yglesias followed up, but he appears to possibly be trying to worm out of the fact he ended calling out his own writer. After making a firm stance on the misinformation surrounding the sheriff, his stance on whether his writer was the cause for this in the first place is far less cemented.

Here is Aaron’s original tweet.

Folks can decide for themselves if the way he phrased it made it clear that this was a paraphrase of what the suspect said rather than the official offering his own explanation. pic.twitter.com/VqomL7BdY7

— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) March 20, 2021

It certainly looks as if Matt came to the realization that Rupar initially was the one pushing the concept of Baker delivering his own impressions. After correctly pointing out the fact that the press conference was not presented accurately he cannot go the full trip and criticize his man who was the source of that presentation. He is stumbling, Rupar is offended, and the rest of us are left to either shake heads in disgust, or laugh over the collective incompetence of this group.