Hmm: Twitter Flags Detroit News's Endorsement of John James's Senate Campaign Without Explanation

As I do every day when I log on to the computer, I checked my Twitter lists this morning first thing to see what was hot and happening.

It wasn’t long before I saw the Detroit News’s tweet announcing they had endorsed Republican John James’s Senate campaign over incumbent Democrat Gary Peters:

Our choice for U.S. Senate is ⁦@JohnJamesMI⁩. Read our full endorsement here —> (🔓) https://t.co/2bKpljkUWJ via @detroitnews

— Detroit News Opinion (@DetNewsOpinion) October 22, 2020

I wanted to retweet the news because I thought it was a pretty big deal, especially considering only one Republican has won a U.S. Senate seat in Michigan since 1979. Plus, though James has run a strong campaign, posting solid fundraising numbers, staying on the attack, and keeping things within striking distance of Peters, any extra push helps.

But when I went to retweet the editorial, this happened:

So @Twitter has flagged the headline for the @detroitnews endorsing @JohnJamesMI as "not telling the full story"? Seriously? 🙄 #MISEN pic.twitter.com/ygxj3TRRgf

— Sister Toldjah 😁 (@sistertoldjah) October 22, 2020

Unlike what happened with the New York Post last week, it still gave me the option to post a quote retweet in this instance. But I found the abnormal impediment to being able to post a simple RT more than a little tedious and unnecessary. Why label an endorsement from a major American newspaper as having a headline that didn’t “tell the full story”?

Perhaps I wouldn’t be so suspicious of Twitter’s adding a layer of red tape to retweeting the endorsement had they not broken their own rules over the weekend on the issue of posting manipulated media by allowing a fake news attack against James by the Peters campaign to stand without warnings or any flagging of the tweets they posted.

Plus, Twitter is still flagging stories by the New York Post as not telling “the full story”, either:

6am and Twitter already has red-flagged our story – a detailed statement by Hunter Biden’s ex business partner Bobulinski who says Joe Biden was the “Big Guy” helping solicit millions from China. Tony is a patriot who knows the truth and has documents to prove it. pic.twitter.com/kSUapARws0

— Miranda Devine (@mirandadevine) October 22, 2020

This is all in addition to Twitter’s throttling of a Republican fundraising website, in contrast to how they treated a similar site on the Democratic side:

No apology from Twitter for throttling online donations for Republicans for a full day 13 days before Election Day.

And as @samigilkes noted, ActBlue also published blog content… and somehow escaped the prompt. https://t.co/vdnrVxgr5g

— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) October 22, 2020

In any event, I was told that at some point later in the morning, though they posted no explanation for their initial flagging of the endorsement, Twitter had stopped issuing the warning on the paper’s endorsement tweet of James, something that may or may not have occurred due to complaints.

As to the endorsement itself, it was James’s second in two years from the paper – the first one coming in 2018 when he ran a surprisingly close campaign against Sen. Debbie Stabenow. This one had to be a bit of a sting for Peters, however, as the paper endorsed him in 2014.

Of James, here’s what the Detroit News editorial board wrote:

“This is the right moment for John James,” the editorial board wrote. “He is waging his campaign at a time when America is trying to work through its long history of racial animus. As an African American, a conservative, and a Republican, James would add an important perspective to policy-making aimed at vanquishing racial inequity.”

[…]

“Peters is one of 73 white males in the Senate. It’s a demographic that’s well represented,” the endorsement read. “Clearly, the Senate would benefit from more Black voices as it addresses this national crisis, as would the Republican Party. The GOP can’t survive as a whites-only institution. Nor can the racial divide close if only one party represents the interests of Black Americans.”

James, of course, was happy with to hear of the endorsement at this critical time in the campaign with just two short weeks to go:

It is an honor to have the endorsement of @detroitnews. Michigan stands to gain increased influence in the Senate, representation for underrepresented Americans & a leader on COVID recovery and economic growth. We have the choice between a war fighter or a gaslighter. #LetsFlyMI https://t.co/rfaJJuu8Ok

— John James (@JohnJamesMI) October 22, 2020

Keep this race on your “one to watch” list on election night.