It wasn’t someone from FOX or CNN or MSNBC. It wasn’t a reporter with a prestigious newspaper credential and a phone full of Washington insiders’ phone numbers.
No, it was Shams Charania that was the first to tweet out news of President Donald Trump’s positive Covid-19 diagnosis. Shams and his Twitter thumbs are quick on the draw, but not as quick as The Big Lead seemed to think.
The blog posted a story on Friday morning that seemed to imply that Charania had a scoop, that he was able to provide information before it was made public.
“Sure, Adrian Wojnarowski scooped Charania on Doc Rivers’ deal with the Philadelphia 76ers earlier in the day, but now we know that was because Shams was working on something bigger,” Ryan Phillips wrote.
That is not what happened. Shams was merely the first reporter to tweet President Trump’s diagnosis after the President tweeted out the news himself.
The Big Lead rewrote its story to indicate that Shams was fast. His tweet went up seconds after the President’s. While it is likely a good chunk of NBA fans learned about the news from Shams, he did not scoop anyone or break the story before it was officially acknowledged.
