Margaret Sullivan, a former public editor of The New York Times, writes about “an ugly case of ‘false balance’” in that newspaper. It’s in a story about Kamala Harris’s and Donald Trump’s plans to increase afforable housing:
The story takes seriously Trump’s plan for the mass deportation of immigrants as part of his supposed “affordable housing” agenda.
Here’s some both-sidesing for you, as the paper of record describes Harris’s tax cuts to spur construction and grants to first-time home buyers, and Trump’s deportation scheme....
Stories like this run rampant in the Times, and far beyond. It matters more in the Times because — even in this supposed “post-media era” — the country’s biggest newspaper still sets the tone and wields tremendous influence. And, of course, the Times has tremendous resources, a huge newsroom and the ability to hire the best in the business. Undeniably, it does a lot of excellent work.
But its politics coverage often seems broken and clueless — or even blatantly pro-Trump.
comments: 6
One of my favorite accounts on Twitter is New York Times Pitchbot. Can't recall if you know it.
https://x.com/DougJBalloon
It's scarily on target.
Yes, I sometimes look at it on Threads. I stopped quoting from Margaret Sullivan right before she mentioned it.
There was even a real Times headline not long ago about why Trump’s legal problems are a problem for Kamala Harris.
I've long disagreed with the simplistic idea that "the media" or big media or mainstream media wants Trump to be reelected, as people like economist Dean Baker have repeatedly said. But every time something like this happens, it I think of Occam's Razor and another bit of doubt piles up.
I think at least some outlets are willing to hype him for for ratings. Les Moonves admitted it.
The Times Editorial Board said Trump is unfit. But their news coverage again and again presents him as a normal candidate. The differing Times coverage of questions of age and mental acuity with Biden and Trump is especially infuriating. Even the characterization of Harris’s “shifting positions” is less than honest. “Shifting”? Or “changed” (years ago)? And is someone not permitted to change a position? I don’t get it.
Scott Adams, the Dilbert cartoonist, had a book before 2016 analyzing Trump's evil genius for normalizing his behaviour. I wish I had kept my volume. One of Trump's tricks was to keep coming up with new controversies so that none of the old ones could get media traction.
(It's me, Sean Crawford; your computer says my URL is invalid)
I often have to remind myself of disgraceful Trump words and deeds that have just evaporated. For instance, when he complained over the weekend about how badly Kamala Harris treated Mike Pence in their debate, I had to re-realize: Trump sat by as his followers chanted about hanging Pence.
It’s the Google protocols that are responsible for declaring your URL invalid, not my blog account. I can’t sign in with a Google account to leave a comment if I have cross-site tracking turned off. And if I try to use just my name and a URL, the h of http, which for some reason gets automatically capitalized on my phone, makes the URL void.
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