The New York Occasions is doing its finest to reduce the controversy over Twitter’s squelching of conservative opinion throughout the Trump-COVID period, as proven by its bizarre protection of a Home Committee listening to on the social media platform’s biased conduct and stress from authorities businesses to push the corporate to censor conservative speech.

In Thursday’s paper, Luke Broadwater and Kate Conger discovered “5 Takeaways From the Home G.O.P. Listening to With Former Twitter Executives.” However they conveniently passed over the juicy scene of Republican Rep. Nancy Mace questioning the medical experience of Twitter executives for limiting the affect of Stanford medical professor Jay Bhattacharya for the sin of questioning COVID lockdowns, as an alternative shaping an anecdote to painting Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez as a heroine.

From the beginning, it was clear the reporters have been solely going to speak concerning the bits that will curiosity their liberal viewers: Much less FBI interference, extra Chrissy Teigen.

Home Republicans on Wednesday summoned former Twitter executives to reply to accusations that the social media platform has tried to silence voices on the precise, however the hourslong listening to yielded new revelations about how the corporate didn’t restrict hateful speech or materials that would incite violence, generally altering its personal guidelines to keep away from doing so.

How the tables flip!

The Oversight and Accountability Committee referred to as the listening to to analyze a choice that the corporate has for years admitted was a mistake: blocking an unsubstantiated New York Submit article concerning the actions of Hunter Biden, President Biden’s son, in Ukraine earlier than the 2020 election, wherein his father was working in opposition to President Donald J. Trump.

“Unsubstantiated,” nonetheless? Didn’t the Occasions lastly admit Hunter Biden’s notorious laptop computer was certainly genuine? The paper even ran an extended expose in January on the Biden son’s shady overseas enterprise dealings, together with Hunter throwing his then-VP father Joe’s weight round in Ukraine.

Their first “takeaway” from the listening to was a foolish Twitter spat between President Trump and mannequin Chrissy Teigen, headlined: “Mr. Trump tried to get the mannequin Chrissy Teigen censored for insulting him.” But Twitter didn’t delete Teigen’s vulgar tweet, which makes the entire anecdote a bit pointless.

Below the heading “Twitter modified inner guidelines to keep away from limiting Mr. Trump’s tweets,” the Occasions relayed a nothingburger story about Twitter altering its guidelines to permit a imply tweet from Trump aimed on the left-wing “Squad” in Congress, giving Rep. Ocasio-Cortez room to carry out a gotcha and discredit the concept of anti-conservative bias at Twitter:

“So Twitter modified their very own coverage after the president violated it with a view to probably accommodate his tweet?” requested Consultant Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Democrat of New York and the highest-profile member of the Squad.

“Sure,” Ms. Navaroli replied.

Ms. Ocasio-Cortez responded, “A lot for bias in opposition to proper wing on Twitter.”

The piece ended with sympathy for former Twitter govt Yoel Roth, who stated he needed to promote his dwelling whereas struggling on-line threats.

Twitter Recordsdata journalist Matt Taibbi crammed in among the blanks on Twitter: “…we confirmed businesses just like the FBI despatched spreadsheets with 1000’s of names at a time. And Adam Schiff’s workplace requested that ALL SEARCHES of his workplace be blocked. However certain, Chrissy Teigen.”

Writing on the UK Spectator, Ben Domenech puzzled what had occurred to Democratic embrace of free speech:

It fell to Republicans like Oversight Chair James Comer to make the case that the federal authorities and the intel group pushing Twitter behind the scenes to censor speech is form of an enormous deal.