Twitter became a double-edged sword for journalists in the last election. On the one hand, they can have instant reactions to articles, breaking news, and interviews, but it also made their political bias more evident than ever.
Case in point, Olivia Nuzzi of The Daily Beast has shown her bias and smug attitude towards Republicans, Donald Trump, and anyone affiliated with his administration or movement.
After Bristol Palin had announced to the world that she was pregnant with her third child on Friday, Nuzzi mocked her on Twitter saying that it be easier for her to announce when she isn’t knocked up.
At this rate it would be less work for Bristol Palin to announce when she is not pregnant. https://t.co/kqAMNmeiF8
— Olivia Nuzzi (@Olivianuzzi) December 10, 2016
Conservative writer Mollie Hemingway slammed Nuzzi by claiming that she exhibited signs of fecundophobia, also known as a fear of children.
The Daily Beast writer tried to explain that her tweet was supposed to be funny because Bristol has been pregnant since she became famous. For the record, she’s been pregnant for 20 months over the last eight years.
@CathyYoung63 @MZHemingway I think it’s more that for as long as she has been in public life she has been pregnant
— Olivia Nuzzi (@Olivianuzzi) December 11, 2016
Nuzzi didn’t stop there; she reposted an image of Ivanka Trump right after she gave birth with the alt-right meme Pepe in place of her child.
lol pic.twitter.com/0lkvbxvHhB
— Olivia Nuzzi (@Olivianuzzi) December 11, 2016
Conservative writers were outraged at Nuzzi that she would claim to be a journalist, but would repost an image of a “hateful meme” over a child’s face. Sean Davis of The Federalist said she harbored hatred for happy women with kids.
@Olivianuzzi You seem to harbor a lot of hatred for happy women with babies. Why is that?
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) December 11, 2016
Tim Carney of The Washington Examiner stated that he was so disgusted by her posting the image he removed all the pictures of his children from Twitter for fear that they’d be “Nuzzi’d.”
I hesitated to post a pic of me holding my newborn. It was so cute I did it anyway. This by @Olivianuzzi convinced me to take it down. https://t.co/MDCAOo1gNu
— Tim Carney (@TPCarney) December 11, 2016
…and then I spent about 30 minutes today going back and deleting tweets that showed any of my kids’ faces, so they wouldn’t get Nuzzi’d.
— Tim Carney (@TPCarney) December 11, 2016
The Daily Beast writer revealed herself in a less than flattering way. She apparently finds some humor in mocking pregnant Republicans and their kids. More than that, her Twitter account gives anyone who considers themselves a centrist, a cynic, or center-right reason not to even look at Nuzzi’s reporting. Why would you? Just look at her tweets, her political bias taints everything she touches.
She’s not alone. Twitter and Facebook have made people’s political bend more visible and destroyed the notion of an unbiased journalist. Readers know that they’re picking up a story with a political bend, so they’re naturally inclined to ignore. It’s part of the reason that the media was helpless in trying to defeat Trump, despite all their many efforts.
