The Times as well as many media outlets want a horserace campaign. They need it to be close to generate subscriptions and ratings. There is no way they can possibly portray Trump as being closer to Biden in his ability to tell the truth. So their only alternative is to paint Biden as being "inaccurate" like Trump. It's sad what the New York Times has become. There are many causes to the destruction of our democracy. It hasn't happened overnight. Trump is of course the icing on the cake but you can trace the beginning of the demise to when media outlets were tasked to make a profit over good journalism. The drama being attempted by saying Biden and the Democrats lie too is just adding to the false narrative that both sides do it. Sure, all politicians get loose with the facts but how can you compare the garden variety white lies of presidential candidates to the pathological liar currently in the White House? It's just downright irresponsible.
This faux balance fact-checking has been going on for decades. Republicans know they can easily distract the media from their own weaknesses by focusing on some trivial thing their opponent has misstated. For example the media went nuts over Gore saying that he had traveled with FEMA director Witt to view a disaster in Texas when he had actually travelled on that particular trip with an assistant. Here is the headline of an article in the Baltimore Sun:
Gore was also slammed for saying that schools were so crowded that a student in Sarasota had to stand. That was true but the media crucified him because that student was eventually given a desk. Her classroom was designed for 24 students but had 36 which proved Gore’s point but why get distracted by important problems when you can a pick a person apart for trivial misstatements?
For decades Republicans have been playing this game to distract the media from focusing on the substance of issues where they are vulnerable. The media completely ignored the substance of the issues Gore was addressing — that he had a lot of experience dealing with disasters and that many of our schools were overcrowded so the discussion became about Gore’s truthfulness, not the serious problems he wanted to address.
The same thing is happening here. Biden makes an important criticism of the Trump administration, Republicans pounce on a small factual error, the media shifts its focus to Biden getting something “wrong”, not to the horrific, life-threatening federal government unwillingness to lead on this pandemic and Biden’s plan to fix that mess.
The best response to this game I have seen came after CNN criticized Kamala Harris for saying that as California AG she had sued Exxon. She had sued other oil companies but had only investigated Exxon. Her press secretary responded;
“When parsing word choice is given the same treatment as intentional lies. . . it blurs the very lines ‘fact checkers’ are supposed to help keep drawn.”
It still boggles my mind that the media is still so willing to allow Republicans to pull their strings and distract them from serious problems. It’s not just Fox News misleading the public.
The press is desperate for a both sides narrative, but it doesn’t seem to be as effective this go around. Trump and the GOP are really just that bad.
On a happy note, the Alabama Republican primary run-off is today, and Jeff Sessions is expected to get shitkicked by Tuberville, which makes Doug Jones’ re-election a bit easier, because Trump endorsed Tuberville. And a Trump endorsement is poison with the general populace, even in Alabama.
I've been calling out the NY Times for years on Social Media for their blatantly disingenuous phony liberalism, but only recently has their laughable fair-and-balanced charade started to attract the attention of people in powerful circles. The Times is the Trojan Horse of the liberal media, a click-bait ragamuffin all dressed up in fancy clothes. In my opinion, with all their faux concern and pseudo-progressive hand-wringing, they are more destructive to the American political process than Cambridge Analytica was in 2016
Somehow we are going to need to find a way to make the point that truth has a liberal bias (or liberal views have a truth bias) without sounding absurd.
While the policy decisions that have resulted in trend of thousands of avoidable deaths came from Trump, he was supported by, among others, the establishment press in the manner discussed in this post. Which is to say the press is complicit in the deaths caused by Trump.
This beautifully captures what's wrong with The Times's feature, and The Washington Post's fact-checker. Mr. Boehlert correctly says the media need to hold Democrats to standards. But it would be nice if they tried holding republicans to standards, too. For many years, it has been clear to me that The Post's fact-checker has looked for ways to criticize Democrats as strongly as he does republicans, and the differences are obvious to any sentient human being.
I also know Mr. D'Antonio has done excellent work, and I am sure he brings the receipts in this new study. It's a reminder that one of the beauties of being The New York Times is never having to say you're sorry. Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., commented once after an encounter with Max Frankel, then the editorial page editor, that there's something about working there that makes you think you are incapable of error.
The New York Times is hell bent on kneecapping Joe Biden because they want another 4 years of Trump. For the stockholders who dictate the editorial policy at that corporate propaganda rag it's all about maximizing shareholder return.
Did you see their ghastly article about October 2016 and the Access Hollywood tape? I had to stop reading it, I was so infuriated. Why give him more “positive” press - they love pieces like that that show how he overcame such terrible odds.
I wish you’d take a look at https://www.allsides.com/media-bias/media-bias-ratings. Some of the media they cite as right and far right routinely falsify video and facts, create intentional narratives out of omission and cherry-picked facts. Not happening in their far left categories for the most part. The false equivalency is infuriating—shouldn’t they at least leave their far left column blank?
Is the NYT that afraid of right wing criticism or is it simply their sniffy Upper West Side attitude towards someone who isn't in their social circle? For all his malevolence and incompetence, I think the NYT still remembers the Donald Trump who would hobnob with them at this party or that so remains one of them. I would love to be proven wrong, but it's no different than the WH press corp or the WaPo always having in the back of their mind that invitation to a Georgetown party that marks them as "important".
The Times as well as many media outlets want a horserace campaign. They need it to be close to generate subscriptions and ratings. There is no way they can possibly portray Trump as being closer to Biden in his ability to tell the truth. So their only alternative is to paint Biden as being "inaccurate" like Trump. It's sad what the New York Times has become. There are many causes to the destruction of our democracy. It hasn't happened overnight. Trump is of course the icing on the cake but you can trace the beginning of the demise to when media outlets were tasked to make a profit over good journalism. The drama being attempted by saying Biden and the Democrats lie too is just adding to the false narrative that both sides do it. Sure, all politicians get loose with the facts but how can you compare the garden variety white lies of presidential candidates to the pathological liar currently in the White House? It's just downright irresponsible.
This faux balance fact-checking has been going on for decades. Republicans know they can easily distract the media from their own weaknesses by focusing on some trivial thing their opponent has misstated. For example the media went nuts over Gore saying that he had traveled with FEMA director Witt to view a disaster in Texas when he had actually travelled on that particular trip with an assistant. Here is the headline of an article in the Baltimore Sun:
“ Gore again must explain exaggeration”
https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-2000-10-08-0010080112-story.html
Gore was also slammed for saying that schools were so crowded that a student in Sarasota had to stand. That was true but the media crucified him because that student was eventually given a desk. Her classroom was designed for 24 students but had 36 which proved Gore’s point but why get distracted by important problems when you can a pick a person apart for trivial misstatements?
For decades Republicans have been playing this game to distract the media from focusing on the substance of issues where they are vulnerable. The media completely ignored the substance of the issues Gore was addressing — that he had a lot of experience dealing with disasters and that many of our schools were overcrowded so the discussion became about Gore’s truthfulness, not the serious problems he wanted to address.
The same thing is happening here. Biden makes an important criticism of the Trump administration, Republicans pounce on a small factual error, the media shifts its focus to Biden getting something “wrong”, not to the horrific, life-threatening federal government unwillingness to lead on this pandemic and Biden’s plan to fix that mess.
The best response to this game I have seen came after CNN criticized Kamala Harris for saying that as California AG she had sued Exxon. She had sued other oil companies but had only investigated Exxon. Her press secretary responded;
“When parsing word choice is given the same treatment as intentional lies. . . it blurs the very lines ‘fact checkers’ are supposed to help keep drawn.”
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/09/11/democrats-fact-checking-1489135
It still boggles my mind that the media is still so willing to allow Republicans to pull their strings and distract them from serious problems. It’s not just Fox News misleading the public.
The press is desperate for a both sides narrative, but it doesn’t seem to be as effective this go around. Trump and the GOP are really just that bad.
On a happy note, the Alabama Republican primary run-off is today, and Jeff Sessions is expected to get shitkicked by Tuberville, which makes Doug Jones’ re-election a bit easier, because Trump endorsed Tuberville. And a Trump endorsement is poison with the general populace, even in Alabama.
I've been calling out the NY Times for years on Social Media for their blatantly disingenuous phony liberalism, but only recently has their laughable fair-and-balanced charade started to attract the attention of people in powerful circles. The Times is the Trojan Horse of the liberal media, a click-bait ragamuffin all dressed up in fancy clothes. In my opinion, with all their faux concern and pseudo-progressive hand-wringing, they are more destructive to the American political process than Cambridge Analytica was in 2016
Somehow we are going to need to find a way to make the point that truth has a liberal bias (or liberal views have a truth bias) without sounding absurd.
While the policy decisions that have resulted in trend of thousands of avoidable deaths came from Trump, he was supported by, among others, the establishment press in the manner discussed in this post. Which is to say the press is complicit in the deaths caused by Trump.
This beautifully captures what's wrong with The Times's feature, and The Washington Post's fact-checker. Mr. Boehlert correctly says the media need to hold Democrats to standards. But it would be nice if they tried holding republicans to standards, too. For many years, it has been clear to me that The Post's fact-checker has looked for ways to criticize Democrats as strongly as he does republicans, and the differences are obvious to any sentient human being.
I also know Mr. D'Antonio has done excellent work, and I am sure he brings the receipts in this new study. It's a reminder that one of the beauties of being The New York Times is never having to say you're sorry. Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., commented once after an encounter with Max Frankel, then the editorial page editor, that there's something about working there that makes you think you are incapable of error.
The New York Times is hell bent on kneecapping Joe Biden because they want another 4 years of Trump. For the stockholders who dictate the editorial policy at that corporate propaganda rag it's all about maximizing shareholder return.
Did you see their ghastly article about October 2016 and the Access Hollywood tape? I had to stop reading it, I was so infuriated. Why give him more “positive” press - they love pieces like that that show how he overcame such terrible odds.
I wish you’d take a look at https://www.allsides.com/media-bias/media-bias-ratings. Some of the media they cite as right and far right routinely falsify video and facts, create intentional narratives out of omission and cherry-picked facts. Not happening in their far left categories for the most part. The false equivalency is infuriating—shouldn’t they at least leave their far left column blank?
Is the NYT that afraid of right wing criticism or is it simply their sniffy Upper West Side attitude towards someone who isn't in their social circle? For all his malevolence and incompetence, I think the NYT still remembers the Donald Trump who would hobnob with them at this party or that so remains one of them. I would love to be proven wrong, but it's no different than the WH press corp or the WaPo always having in the back of their mind that invitation to a Georgetown party that marks them as "important".
Totally irrelevant to the post; but do I correctly understand that the White House has taken control of coronavirus records and reporting?
Well, Trump will get his “zero new cases” soon.
Please, please, tell me it ain’t so.