Today’s Trump trial testimony reminds us of how mainstream media – including the New York Times, Washington Post and Politico – were badly played by Trump in 2016. An example: The National Enquirer’s Trump-inspired hoax linking Ted Cruz’s dad to the JFK assassination.🧵1/7

The Enquirer’s David Pecker testified that the tabloid faked a photo of Ted Cruz’s dad with Lee Harvey Oswald to help Trump’s campaign in 2016. He said the tabloid “mashed” 2 photos together. “That’s how that story was prepared — created, I would say.” 2/7
nbcnews.com/politics/donal…

Look at how the New York Times wrote it up in May 2016:
“Donald Trump Accuses Ted Cruz’s Father of Associating With Kennedy Assassin”
Cruz’s denial was left out of the headline, and wasn’t mentioned until *the 7th paragraph* of the story! 3/7 archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.co…

The Washington Post didn’t do much better. Its headline:
“Donald Trump associates Ted Cruz’s father with JFK’s assassin”
No denial in the headline, and the denial didn’t appear in the text until the 3rd sentence of the 3rd paragraph. 4/7 washingtonpost.com/news/post-poli…

Politico also wrote a headline that gave Trump what he wanted, with no Cruz denial included:
“Trump accuses Cruz's father of helping JFK's assassin”
Politico put Trump’s accusation in the lead and Cruz’s denial in the second paragraph. Not good enough. 5/7 politico.com/blogs/2016-gop…

NYT and WaPo hinted in their leads that they knew Trump was lying. NYT said Trump “has repeatedly dabbled in conspiracy theories.” WaPo said Trump was “never one to shy away from discussing unsubstantiated tabloid fodder.”
Not good enough. You gave him his headline. 6/7

Most of us knew it was bullshit that Cruz’s dad was linked to the JFK assassination. But a lot of people believe lies, especially if they’re played as straight news in headlines. The mainstream media did some follow-up debunking stories. Not good enough. At all. 7/7