As you know I find MSM coverage of Q an interesting artifact in and of itself, worthy of study. Thanks for providing the links there.
One thing I notice right off the top: they are easily divided into the ones based on Roseanne and the others.
OTHERS
- http://nymag.com/selectall/2017/12/qanon-4chan-the-storm-conspiracy-explained.html
- https://harpers.org/archive/2018/06/the-wizard-of-q/
- https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/06/opinion/qanon-trump-conspiracy-theory.html
- https://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/the-conspiracy-theory-that-says-trump-is-a-genius/
- (reprint of above?) https://www.realclearpolitics.com/2018/04/06/the_conspiracy_theory_that_says_trump_is_a_genius_439119.html
- http://metro.co.uk/2018/04/09/people-claiming-trump-secret-genius-pretending-collude-russians-7452136/
- https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2018/04/09/the-crisis-in-journalism-thats-helping-trump/?utm_term=.b303dbe749fd
- http://www.newsweek.com/how-storm-biggest-fake-news-story-796725
ROSEANNE BASED
- https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/conspiracy-theory-donald-trump-genius-hilary-clinton-roseanne-barr-barack-obama-george-soros-america-a8293806.html
- https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2018/03/31/the-conspiracy-theory-behind-a-curious-roseanne-barr-tweet-explained/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.0a5319532879
- https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2018/04/09/the-crisis-in-journalism-thats-helping-trump/?utm_term=.b303dbe749fd
- https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/31/politics/roseanne-barr-conspiracy-tweets/index.html
- https://thinkprogress.org/rosanne-barr-promotes-pro-trump-conspiracy-theory-d52a65887183/
- http://www.newsweek.com/roseanne-barr-tweets-about-right-wing-qanon-conspiracy-theory-867983
- https://www.buzzfeed.com/juliareinstein/roseanne-qanon-explainer?utm_term=.kkxvYjNeP#.nqg3P8mw7
- https://medium.com/@willsommer/roseanne-barr-is-tweeting-about-qanon-a-new-pizzagate-style-conspiracy-theory-234526f52e54
- http://thehill.com/homenews/media/381123-roseanne-barr-faces-social-media-backlash-over-trump-conspiracy-theory-tweet
- https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/roseanne-president-trump-has-freed-children-pimps-all-world-1098812
UNCLEAR
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSAxcQ5VL5c
Roseanne provided the catalyst and theme for more than 1/2 of the MSM stories on Q. This gives the MSM some plausible deniability: they aren't writing about a Conspiracy Theory, per se, they are writing about a conspiracy theory that a celebrity believes in that made her lose her mind and say "Planet of the Apes".
"Look, if you want to believe the stuff that the that racist dingbat Roseanne believes, help yourself ... "
In other words it provides an excellent dismissive frame for the story and inherently de-legitimatizes the topic.
My theory is that mostly that fails though. People are curious, they go look it up for themselves. It's not 1965, and we don't all believe what Walter Cronkite is telling us. The MSM still think they can control the narrative, though.
I would not discount that the Two pronged media coverage could just relate to the smaller media outlets just following the lead of the giant media outlets mainly the Washington Post article about Rosanne and the NY Times article that Q is a conspiracy, but it will be interesting to see if the coverage diverts from those two main themes going forward.