NYT vs. Guardian

A cult leader held a gathering with followers yesterday in Waco, Texas. Here’s an account from The New York Times. And here’s an account from The Guardian. Which one gives a better sense of what happened?

I’ll offer just one detail. From the Times:

From the stage, Mr. Trump notably did not attack the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg, in the kind of caustic terms that he had used on social media in recent days. This past week, he had called Mr. Bragg, who is Black, an “animal” and accused him of racism for pursuing a case based on hush-money payments to the porn star Stormy Daniels shortly before the 2016 election. . . .

He did attack one of Mr. Bragg’s senior counsels by name, noting that he came to the office from the Justice Department and describing the move, without evidence, as part of a national conspiracy. “They couldn’t get it done in Washington, so they said, ‘Let’s use local offices,’” Mr. Trump said.

What the Times doesn’t report, and what The Guardian does report, is that Trump** called New York prosecutors “absolute human scum.” Here’s the video. “Human scum” is what he called Bragg last week on his faux-Twitter. Kinda caustic if you ask me.

I left a comment on the Times article, noting that it’s a remarkably demure account of yesterday’s cult gathering. Letting the details go unreported increases the danger that Trump** and his followers pose to our democracy.

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4:00 p.m.: I have to add one more contrast. The Times:

The rally featured one new twist: the playing of “Justice for All,” a song featuring the J6 Prison Choir, which is made up of men who were imprisoned for their part in the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.

The song, which topped some iTunes download charts, is part of a broader attempt by Mr. Trump and his allies to reframe the riot and the effort to overturn the election as patriotic. The track features the men singing “The Star-Spangled Banner” while Mr. Trump recites the Pledge of Allegiance.

And The Guardian:

He opened the rally by playing a song, “Justice for All”, that features a choir of men imprisoned for their role in the January 6 insurrection singing the national anthem intercut with Trump reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.

Trump stood solemnly on a podium with hand on heart and footage from the Capitol riot was shown on big screens and US flags billowed in the wind. “That song tells you a lot because it’s number one in every single category,” he told a crowd of thousands. “Number two was Taylor Swift, number three was Miley Cyrus.”

Footage from January 6, shown as something to celebrate, another detail the Times omits.

The Times hasn’t published my comment, perhaps because the paper prohibits “namecalling” and I referred to Trump** and his followers as fascists.

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7:30 p.m.: I tried another comment, minus “fascists” and “absolute human scum,” and it got through.

[Two impeachments, two asterisks. And an untold number of crimes.]