Glenn Thrush, Self-Confessed Hack, Commits Hackery

It’s the weekend, no one is looking, so let’s just admit it: President Trump manages every so often to commit true Godzilla-like facepalm moments. I end up comforting myself with the mantra: “Hillary didn’t win and I didn’t vote for him” fairly often. But seriously, the more I watch how he is treated by the press, the more I feel the need to defend him.

So now it’s time for a little rant.

Consider, for example, this little missive from self-admitted hack Glenn Thrush:

As an aside, why do I say “self-admitted hack”? For those of you who don’t recall, Thrush was captured asking for John Podesta’s approval of a “news” story about Hillary Clinton in one of Podesta’s emails, saying:

No worries
Because I have become a hack I will send u the whole section that pertains to u
Please don't share or tell anyone I did this
Tell me if I fucked up anything


When he was caught, Thrush’s defense was that he does that with everyone:

My goal in emailing Podesta: TO GET HIM TO CONFIRM STUFF I HAD FROM LESSER SOURCES. It worked. Nobody controls my stories but me. Troll on!

— Glenn Thrush (@GlennThrush) October 17, 2016

This doesn’t explain why he begged Podesta not to tell anyone he’d done it.

In any case, after some assiduous googling, I can’t find anything from Thrush (or really, anyone) complaining that Obama was being seen “in palace with royal family that beheads, imposes religious law and denies basic rights to women.”

Then there’s this tweet:

Now, the author of the tweet has as his bio “Legal Counsel for NIAC. Former Obamacratic Candidate for US Congress, Proud Iranian-American Muslim, views are my own #TrayvonMartin #BlackLivesMatter,” so I don’t expect him to be particularly impartial. But let’s compare these pictures:

Obama absolutely definitely not bowing to Saudi king. (AP Photo/John Stillwell, Pool, File)

versus:

Saudi King Salman presents President Donald Trump with The Collar of Abdulaziz Al Saud Medal at the Royal Court Palace, Saturday, May 20, 2017, in Riyadh. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Now, look very carefully at the two pictures: what’s the really significant difference? Maybe that gold thing in the Trump picture? Yes, indeed, in the Obama picture, he’s bowing to the king. (No, don’t even bother to tell me about the camera angle. I was born in the early morning, but it wasn’t this morning.) Hell, he’s practically kissing the king’s hand.

In the other, Trump is bending down to let the King put the award around his neck. No, that’s not bowing.

Look, I realize that “press biased against Trump” is about as newsworthy as “sun rises in East today,” but I really think that people have to put as much pressure as possible on them and call out the nonsense. Every time.