Judd Legum

Judd Legum @JuddLegum

RT @JuddLegum: 2. The Rosetta Stone of this effort is this tweet by @lansing, the president of @WinRed, the main GOP online fundraising veh… — PolitiTweet.org

Judd Legum @JuddLegum

RT @JuddLegum: 1. Right-wing operatives have deployed a MASSIVE network of fake local news sites to weaponize Critical Race Theory in polit… — PolitiTweet.org

Judd Legum @JuddLegum

Mark Penn frames this as an argument for Biden to tack to the center but his only tangible piece of advice is the put back two progressive priorities - paid family leave and adding dental/hearing benefits to Medicare - into Build Back Better. https://t.co/O6BcFe3dh5 https://t.co/9zjPOvP3r7 — PolitiTweet.org

Judd Legum @JuddLegum

@mattyglesias Oh OK. Was not trying to put words in your mouth. I misunderstood your point — PolitiTweet.org

Judd Legum @JuddLegum

@mattyglesias You keep coming back to CRT as a reasonable term for a variety of real societal changes and perhaps it is for you but it is not a term that is deployed to foster debate. It is a term being used as a political cudgel to shit down debate. Anything under the CRT umbrella must end. — PolitiTweet.org

Judd Legum @JuddLegum

RT @katestarbird: Another example of an online news “echo-system” where the same (or very similar) articles get posted across numerous site… — PolitiTweet.org

Judd Legum @JuddLegum

11. This story is just beginning CRT is likely to play a central role in key races around the country in 2022 The Metric Media network will continue to be deployed to weaponize the issue Sign up for my newsletter, Popular Information, for updates --> https://t.co/TfpCItdVSo — PolitiTweet.org

Judd Legum @JuddLegum

10. The top article on CRT Central right now is an article from Old Dominion News, another fake news site in the network, that basically reads as a press release for Prior and his org https://t.co/B8bE7z3EXZ https://t.co/N0dFOIj3Kw — PolitiTweet.org

Judd Legum @JuddLegum

9. Prior is now heads Fight for Schools, a PAC dedicated to recalling school board members it claims supports CRT He's also a co-chair of the "American Schools Coalition" which operates CRT Central, which aggregates CRT articles from Metric Media network https://t.co/B8bE7z3EXZ — PolitiTweet.org

Judd Legum @JuddLegum

8. Prior does, however, have a history with the Metric Media network. An investigation in the NYT last year found that Metric Media sites operate on a "pay-to-play" system. Among the people purchasing articles on behalf of clients? Ian Prior. https://t.co/B8bE7z3EXZ — PolitiTweet.org

Judd Legum @JuddLegum

@CJR 7. But not all the articles are automated. Which brings us back to @lansing's tweet. Why is he crediting @iandprior with the article in West Nova News? Prior is not the author of the piece and is not quoted. https://t.co/B8bE7z3EXZ https://t.co/zax7P94VnD — PolitiTweet.org

Judd Legum @JuddLegum

@CJR 6. Many of these articles are automated. Thousands of articles refer to a petition from the Zinn Education Project in which teachers allegedly pledge to teach CRT. (The petition objects to state bills that ban a variety of topics in the classroom) https://t.co/B8bE7z3EXZ https://t.co/PCUjLr9n5B — PolitiTweet.org

Judd Legum @JuddLegum

@CJR 5. A https://t.co/Gl6evXRDcZ investigation found that, in 2021, this network published THOUSANDS of articles about CRT in Virginia and TENS OF THOUSANDS of articles about CRT across the country https://t.co/B8bE7z3EXZ https://t.co/F9FRfbyDo0 — PolitiTweet.org

Judd Legum @JuddLegum

4. The 1300 sites contain no advertising and don't charge subscription fees. @CJR reported the network gets money from “the dark-money ATM of the conservative movement" and "a Catholic political advocacy group" that ran millions of ads against Biden. https://t.co/B8bE7z3EXZ — PolitiTweet.org

Judd Legum @JuddLegum

3. West Nova News is part of a massive network of 1300 "news" sites linked to conservative businessman Brian Timpone Timpone has a long history of leveraging "low-cost automated story generation" He's been accused of faking bylines & quotes & plagiarism https://t.co/B8bE7z3EXZ — PolitiTweet.org

Judd Legum @JuddLegum

2. The Rosetta Stone of this effort is this tweet by @lansing, the president of @WinRed, the main GOP online fundraising vehicle Lansing credits an article in "West Nova News" as "starting it all" and helping deliver a win for Glenn Youngkin https://t.co/B8bE7z3EXZ https://t.co/SZaIlSEJpB — PolitiTweet.org

Judd Legum @JuddLegum

1. Right-wing operatives have deployed a MASSIVE network of fake local news sites to weaponize Critical Race Theory in political campaigns Follow along if interested https://t.co/B8bE7z3EXZ — PolitiTweet.org

Judd Legum @JuddLegum

@emilybell @TowCenter @acookiecrumbles Tow Center’s work on this has been AMAZING. — PolitiTweet.org

Judd Legum @JuddLegum

Musk also has over $500 million in debts (as of 2020) and uses his stock as collateral. It's a great way to get lots of cash and avoid paying taxes. — PolitiTweet.org

Judd Legum @JuddLegum

I suppose it's just a matter of why anything is worth money. Things are worth what people are willing to pay. I wouldn't pay $100,000 for a watch that does a worse job keeping time than my phone but many people happily shell out that and more. — PolitiTweet.org

Judd Legum @JuddLegum

I think I understand what NFTs are now but I have no idea why anyone would want one. — PolitiTweet.org

Judd Legum @JuddLegum

This is honestly not a big deal and I'm sure if the tables were turned Republicans would be very chill about it — PolitiTweet.org

Judd Legum @JuddLegum

The problem with attacking CRT in the K-12 curriculum is that it isn't in the K-12 curriculum so you end up having to target something else. Increasingly, that's Social Emotional Learning, which has proven benefits for students https://t.co/tFYkklE4qw — PolitiTweet.org

Judd Legum @JuddLegum

@AlexParkerDC @mattyglesias @beyerstein I agree. But the mislabeling is a deliberate tactic to shut down considered debate. — PolitiTweet.org

Judd Legum @JuddLegum

@beyerstein @mattyglesias Here is an explanation about how CRT-panic is being used to attack SEL, which has very tangible benefits for all students and nothing to do with CRT https://t.co/tFYkklE4qw — PolitiTweet.org

Judd Legum @JuddLegum

@AlexParkerDC @mattyglesias @beyerstein Because the term is being used as a political cudgel to obscure reality, not reflect it It's being used to demonize things that have real tangible benefits for students More here: https://t.co/tFYkklE4qw — PolitiTweet.org

Judd Legum @JuddLegum

@mattyglesias @beyerstein Yes! This is the genius of the anti-CRT campaign. There are, of course, genuinely bad things happening in schools. There always are. There are a lot of schools. I happen to believe that DiAngelo-style diversity training is pretty bad. Also, not CRT. — PolitiTweet.org

Judd Legum @JuddLegum

The architect behind anti-CRT hysteria publicly admitted he was intentionally redefining the term to encompass anything he believed would be politically useful. More here: https://t.co/n3GPDrWY4b — PolitiTweet.org

Judd Legum @JuddLegum

One key to arguing that the Critical Race Theory discussion is on the level is pretending these tweets never happened https://t.co/afd3sHIWFe — PolitiTweet.org

Judd Legum @JuddLegum

"Sinema's raking in cash from MLMs... The Arizona senator is one of just a few lawmakers that multilevel marketing businesses —often derided as pyramid schemes — are giving to." https://t.co/wyvccj9Y5g — PolitiTweet.org