{"id":1453815,"date":"2022-04-26T08:16:10","date_gmt":"2022-04-26T12:16:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1453815"},"modified":"2022-04-26T08:16:18","modified_gmt":"2022-04-26T12:16:18","slug":"the-medias-tinx-takedown-relied-on-shoddy-and-dishonest-excuses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-medias-tinx-takedown-relied-on-shoddy-and-dishonest-excuses\/","title":{"rendered":"The Media\u2019s Tinx Takedown Relied On Shoddy And Dishonest Excuses"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fthe-medias-tinx-takedown-relied-on-shoddy-and-dishonest-excuses%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1453815&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/DACF3FFB-1DCA-4710-9DD5-C1FDC3C5B3FA.jpeg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p>Over on Substack, journalist Sophie Ross just <a href=\"https:\/\/sophieross.substack.com\/p\/we-need-to-talk-about-tinxs-old-tweets?s=r\">penned<\/a> the perfect headline. \u201cWe Need to Talk About Tinx\u2019s Old Tweets,\u201d she titled a brief post about influencer Christina Najjar, the woman behind @itsmetinx (and \u201cIt\u2019s Me, Tinx\u201d on Sirius XM).<\/p>\n<p>The headline is perfect because it so concisely captures the shoddy logic that fuels cancel culture. No, we actually don\u2019t have to talk about Tinx\u2019s old tweets. We really, really don\u2019t. <\/p>\n<p>Why? First, none of the tweets in question are all that offensive. They involve a 21-year-old calling a few celebrities fat and ugly 10 years ago. Even worse, some of the more recent tweets Ross included in her roundup are merely conservative, like criticizing Hillary Clinton, Silicon Valley, and the \u201cliberal echo chamber.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Najjar, according to Ross, also liked and retweeted posts in 2020 from Eric Trump, Elon Musk, Clay Travis, and Eric Weinstein, along with some tweets that directed harsh language at journalist Ken Klippenstein. I know people often blur the line between what is and what is not offensive to suit their politics at any given point in time so, please, review the posts yourself.<\/p>\n<p>They basically amount to happy hour talk and mainstream conservatism. <\/p>\n<p>For better or worse, tweets about celebrities she posted as a 21-year-old don\u2019t necessarily reflect one bit on Najjar\u2019s character as a grown woman in 2022. If she seems like a different person now, that\u2019s probably because she changed, and she probably changed because she\u2019s a human being who grows with age. <\/p>\n<p>While we\u2019re on the subject, it\u2019s also somewhat amusing that our media is only debating the morality of Tinx\u2019s TikTok account in light of old tweets and not, say, because TikTok is addictive and unhealthy and <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/02\/04\/beijing-based-bytedance-knows-tiktok-is-a-cultural-weapon\/\">likely<\/a> under the control of an adversarial government that obfuscated critical information in the early days of a pandemic. <\/p>\n<p>Tinx, like Libs of TikTok, wields some cultural power. Influencers and anonymous accounts may seem silly, but they\u2019re fair game for journalists when they deserve to be held accountable. This is not one of those times. (Nor was the weird occasion on which Taylor Lorenz creepily wrote about Libs of TikTok.) <\/p>\n<p>If Najjar had been caught racking up followers with body positivity content while secretly or recently calling people fat or ugly, that would warrant some questions. Instead, she\u2019s being questioned for sending mean tweets at rich people as a 21-year-old leaning right. <\/p>\n<p>The many corporate media outlets that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecut.com\/2022\/04\/tiktok-tinx-tweets-apology.html\">amplified<\/a> Ross\u2019s story zeroed in on the alleged hypocrisy of Najjar, TikTok\u2019s \u201cbig sister,\u201d criticizing people\u2019s appearances. After Tinx apologized, E! News <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eonline.com\/news\/1328395\/tiktoks-tinx-says-shes-ashamed-and-embarrassed-after-controversial-tweets-resurface\">wrote<\/a>, \u201cThe TikTok star, who has been dubbed the \u2018older sister\u2019 on the platform by fans due to her posts\u00a0centered around positivity and self-love, concluded: \u2018If you\u2019ve been following me for a little bit, you know they are not representative of who I am. I am very sorry. I am a work in progress.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n<p>This is the crux of the problem. Of course tweets she sent as a 21-year-old aren\u2019t \u201crepresentative\u201d of who she is as a woman in her 30s. This entire controversy is silly precisely because it\u2019s predicated on the argument that they are \u201crepresentative.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s also predicated on the argument that Najjar\u2019s right-leaning views are objectionable or somehow out of alignment with her affable persona. What actually seems to have happened is that a lot of center-left women discovered someone they really like holds views they don\u2019t like. That might not have been shocking in years past, but when people have been conditioned by the media to see dissent from liberal dogma as bigotry and extremism, it makes more sense that Tinx\u2019s followers feel disoriented. <\/p>\n<p>Importantly, the apology Najjar posted makes no mention of her politics. If those tweets sincerely represent her views, she was right not to grovel or feign regret.<\/p>\n<p>And if Najjar was more careful about vocalizing her views after getting famous, that decision wouldn\u2019t have been dishonest or even unreasonable in this unforgiving climate. She might not have wanted to alienate sensitive fans or subject herself to the kinds of unserious, damaging questions and accusations she\u2019s fielding now.<\/p>\n<p>As Ross wrapped up her expose on Tinx, much of which seemed to originate on Reddit, she wrote, \u201cI do believe people grow, and are worthy of forgiveness and redemption. I promise I\u2019m not writing her off or attempting to \u2018cancel\u2019 someone for things they said in their youth, or problematic political beliefs of the past. Again, people can change. I just think, alongside her loyal fans, I\u2019m simply interested in seeing her acknowledge them.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>I actually think it\u2019s great Ross felt compelled to clarify she didn\u2019t want to \u201ccancel\u201d Najjar. It\u2019s a sign our incentives are shifting. People don\u2019t want to be seen participating in \u201ccancel culture.\u201d But Ross\u2019s post remains a sad symptom of a deeply unhealthy society. An influencer\u2019s conservative politics are not newsworthy and neither are mean tweets she posted as a 21-year-old, whether a journalist is \u201cinterested\u201d in an acknowledgment or not. <\/p>\n<p>This is why Ross\u2019s headline \u2014 which explicitly said we \u201cneed\u201d to talk about Tinx\u2019s tweets \u2014 is so perfect. Plenty of major outlets followed her lead, granting the story newsworthiness in a cynical bid for clicks and a reflexive need to produce formulaic apology porn.<\/p>\n<p>The latter is most concerning. We\u2019ve become so accustomed to this rhythm of habitual struggle sessions that we hardly even pause to consider whether something is actually \u2014 to borrow a phrase \u2014 \u201cneeded.\u201d Is it newsworthy? Is it fair? Is it doing your readers a service? Or are we just going through the motions?<\/p>\n<p>In this case, the answer seems clear.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<p>\n  Emily Jashinsky is culture editor at The Federalist. She previously covered politics as a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner. Prior to joining the Examiner, Emily was the spokeswoman for Young America\u2019s Foundation. She\u2019s interviewed leading politicians and entertainers and appeared regularly as a guest on major television news programs, including \u201cFox News Sunday,\u201d \u201cMedia Buzz,\u201d and \u201cThe McLaughlin Group.\u201d Her work has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, Real Clear Politics, and more. Emily also serves as director of the National Journalism Center and a visiting fellow at Independent Women&#8217;s Forum. Originally from Wisconsin, she is a graduate of George Washington University.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Over on Substack, journalist Sophie Ross just penned the perfect headline. \u201cWe Need to Talk About Tinx\u2019s Old Tweets,\u201d she titled a brief post about influencer Christina Najjar, the woman<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":554,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1453815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1453815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/554"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1453815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1453815\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1453815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1453815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1453815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}