Same Day MSNBC Welcomes New Reporter He Tries To Get $11 Million Border Wall Fundraiser Shutdown
One of the more dispiriting aspects of the border wall debate is the framing of the issue not as those who believe a wall is necessary for border security vs. those who believe isn’t, but instead a fight between bigots who want a barrier to protect them from malevolent, snarling brown people to the forces of light, trying to keep the dark veil of zombie-like fascism from settling upon and suffocating our beloved United States of America.
This kind of fatuousness usually manifests itself most acutely in the form of the brothers Krassenstein or the kind of Twitter users who have an overused caps lock key, at least three blue wave and two red rose emojis by their Twitter name and absolutely no access to a thesaurus.
The Washington Post, for as much intractable eye-rolling as their “Democracy Dies in Darkness” schtick tends to induce, hasn’t quite been relegated to this status. Neither, in fact, has MSNBC — even though Joy Reid is a staple of their weekend broadcasting schedule.
I mention this because, on Thursday, Tony Romm was announced as an MSNBC contributor. He’s also been ensconced at The Post for some time. And he thinks that a GoFundMe campaign to help finance the wall is against the site’s terms of service because they prohibit “intolerance of any kind.”
So, first, here’s Romm being announced as MSNBC’s latest flapping head:
A warm welcome to @washingtonpost technology policy reporter @TonyRomm, our newest @NBCNews and @MSNBC contributor! pic.twitter.com/Nf7sFjn8H0
— MSNBC Public Relations (@MSNBCPR) December 20, 2018
On the same day, Romm decided to tweet about an effort to raise money for the border wall via GoFundMe, a campaign started by a man named Brian Kolfage.
“Like a majority of those American citizens who voted to elect President Donald J Trump, we voted for him to Make America Great Again. President Trump’s main campaign promise was to BUILD THE WALL. And as he’s followed through on just about every promise so far, this wall project needs to be completed still,” Kolfage wrote on GoFundMe.
“As a veteran who has given so much, 3 limbs, I feel deeply invested to this nation to ensure future generations have everything we have today. Too many Americans have been murdered by illegal aliens and too many illegals are taking advantage of the United States taxpayers with no means of ever contributing to our society.”
He noted that “Democrats are going to stall this project by every means possible and play political games to ensure President Trump doesn’t get his victor. They’d rather see President Trump fail, than see America succeed. However, if we can fund a large portion of this wall, it will jumpstart things and will be less money Trump has to secure from our politicians.”
Romm decided it was time to celebrate by calling Kolfage an incorrigible bigot.
“So there’s an effort on GoFundMe to raise cash money for a border wall. Has more than $5M in donations (seeking $1B) and claims to have contacts in the Trump admin (have asked for more). But it got me thinking: is that, like, allowed on the site? (1/3),” Romm wrote. (As of this writing, it’s now up to $10 million, for whatever that’s worth.)
“GoFundMe terms prohibit attempts to raise cash money rooted in “intolerance of any kind relating to race, ethnicity, national origin, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, sex, gender or gender identity, or serious disabilities or diseases,” among other limits (2/3)”
So there’s an effort on GoFundMe to raise cash money for a border wall. Has more than $5M in donations (seeking $1B) and claims to have contacts in the Trump admin (have asked for more). But it got me thinking: is that, like, allowed on the site? (1/3)
— Tony Romm (@TonyRomm) December 20, 2018
GoFundMe terms prohibit attempts to raise cash money rooted in “intolerance of any kind relating to race, ethnicity, national origin, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, sex, gender or gender identity, or serious disabilities or diseases,” among other limits (2/3)
— Tony Romm (@TonyRomm) December 20, 2018
As it turns out, it was like, allowed on the site.
So I asked GoFundMe if this wall fundraiser violates that. Spox: “This campaign does not violate our terms of service. The funds are safely held by our payment processor and we will work with the organizer to transfer funds” or return them if target isn’t met (3/3)
— Tony Romm (@TonyRomm) December 20, 2018
However, why would one even question this in the first place? A border wall is quite obviously an attempt to enforce our immigration laws (remember those?) by placing a physical border in the area where an inordinate amount of immigration crime is committed. There is no “intolerance of any kind relating to race, ethnicity, national origin, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, sex, gender or gender identity, or serious disabilities or diseases.” The only intolerance involves those who break our laws.
But if you thought this was uncalled for, Romm wanted you to know that you doth protest too much.
the state of our discourse is such that this thread — which merely explores the funding campaign in the context of the site’s ToS — is a political lightning rod. somehow the most boring legalese has turned into a rallying cry for a certain set of users to go on the attack https://t.co/Mo6Cfppm2F
— Tony Romm (@TonyRomm) December 20, 2018
I wonder why this would be a lightning rod. Perhaps because you openly accused anyone who supports a border wall of being a prima facie bigot. That’s not exactly “boring legalese.” Boring legalese would be contemplating whether or not private funds could be transferred to the government to help build the wall. Boring legalese is not, nor will ever be, calling people racists.
When The Washington Post said that “Democracy Dies in Darkness,” I believe what they meant was the darkness of government opacity, not of the human heart. Helpfully, Mr. Romm is around to bequeath a double meaning to the paper’s ham-fisted motto. And now Romm can export that darkness directly to your cable dial. If it all gets too much for him and he has to cut back on his duties at The Washington Post, may I recommend the Krassenstein brothers? They seem right about the level The Post is pitching itself at right now.
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