I’d be lying if I said I didn’t spend last week wondering how to undo any damage to the #TwitterFiles caused by my interview with MSNBC’s Mehdi Hasan. Short of jumping in a DeLorean and time-flying back to cancel, few ideas presented themselves. I knew from the start the Twitter project would be a high-wire act, and I don’t get to blame anyone else for slipping.

Sadly, the aftermath of the segment took on a life of its own. I’ll have to weigh in at some point for obvious reasons, but in the meantime: remind me never to upset Lee Fang:

Lee Fang

Mehdi Hasan Plagiarized Pro-Spanking Column

Last week, I published a detailed response to MSNBC pundit Mehdi Hasan’s recent accusation that journalist Matt Taibbi lied under oath while speaking to Congress. I explained the process by which a prominent disinformation NGO worked closely with an arm of the Department of Homeland Security to lobby Twitter on content moderation policies. In the piece…

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9 hours ago · 316 likes · 28 comments · Lee Fang

Editor’s Note. In response to requests for clarification, here goes…

Post-segment, Hasan took the incredibly serious step of accusing me of lying to congress. Talk about “press as police”: that’s a felony charge, and Hasan has been insisting to everyone who’ll listen that I’m guilty of it. Hasan’s claim is based on the idea that I was “suggesting a nonprofit was an intel agency to try & prove government collusion/censorship.”

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