Despite everything, the New York Times still doesn’t get it. They refuse to see the link between their coverage and the election of Trump in 2016. And since 2016, despite good stories on e.g., Trump’s taxes, they are continuing the 2016 pattern, most notably with their aiding and abetting the fraudulent Barr memo with the March 24 headline, A Cloud over the Trump Presidency is lifted.
How can the “newspaper of record” fall for that blatant scam so easily. They knew the choice of Barr was a sham because of his pre-appointment memo absolving Trump, his cover-up history, including the Iran-Contra pardons, and his refusal to recuse even if the DOJ recommended it. Yet they breathlessly ran with that story and headline, not even bothering to check, e.g., Barr’s obvious lie that obstruction of justice requires an underlying crime.
Some have canceled their subscriptions, with little, if any, effect. Dean Baquet, the Times editor most responsible for the mess, believes there was little wrong with the 2016 coverage. The only way to get them to change is to expose just how damaging their coverages was and is. Firing Baquet would be a good start.
The right will scoff. After all, the Times is the liberal Pravda, isn’t it?
Yes, the Times endorses Democratic candidates and its editorials are moderately liberal. But the editorial and news sections are separate and different, and the news section played a disastrous role in 2016.
Some will say, “How can the Times have made a difference? Isn’t it read mostly by urban and coastal elites. Perhaps, but the Times helps legitimize and disseminate news well beyond its reader audience. In May 2016, the Uranium One faux Clinton Foundation scandal was wallowing in the right wing swamps until the Times ran a series in collaboration with Breitbart writer Peter Schweizer, author of the hit job, Clinton Cash. That’s right. The lefty commie NY Times teamed with a Breibart writer on a phony HRC “scandal” story. (Still being flogged by the right today.)
We can’t say for sure if Uranium One would have been a beg deal without the Times articles, but let’s just say it didn’t help. By election day, in the public mind, the Clinton Foundation was a cesspool of corruption, paying for Chelsea’s wedding and all manner of evil — all false. Meanwhile, the actually corrupt Trump Foundation was nearly invisible. The Foundation’s bribe to Pam Bondi to drop the Trump U. case was barely a footnote. Even David Farenthold’s excellent WaPo coverage was a drop in the bucket.
Others will say HRC lost because she didn’t go to Wisconsin and other campaign sins, or the Comey Memo or Russia or Stein or many other reasons. This overlooks the reality of multiple causation — Maybe one of these causes was sufficient (I’d bet on Comey), but we have no way of knowing, and without the other factors, she may have survived even with Comey. We do know there were multiple factors bringing down her campaign, and the Times was one of them.
Eric Boehlert’s excellent stories here have great insights into the Times coverage in 2016 and since. He, Joe Conason, Gene Lyons, or David Corn are excellent candidates for the job.
Or maybe even collaborative Kos book, dividing up chapters. Interested?
A proposed Table of Contents is below.
NO CLEAR LINK: HOW THE NEW YORK TIMES HELPED ELECT TRUMP
1. Introduction: The stature and influence of the New York Times
2. Remember the ‘90s? Jeff Gerth and the Times’ role in flogging Whitewater et al.
3. Times 2016 Coverage by the Numbers: Stories, May-June 2016
Clinton Foundation: 260; Trump Foundation: 62
HRC Emails: 849 Trump U.: 177
4. Undercoverage of
Trump history: e.g., Mob ties, USFL debacle, Trump Tower laborers
Trump Associations: e.g., Alex Jones (two Times mentions, May-June 2016)
Deutsche Bank — Trump’a only lender was a money laundering suspect
6. Foundation of Lies: Collaboration with White Supremacist Rag Breitbart
7. Policy v. Scandal Coverage: See Graph
8. “No Clear Link:” Credulous acceptance of rogue FBI lies on Russia -10/31 story
9. “Donald the Dove, Hillary the Hawk:” Maureen Dowd’s pathological HRC hatred
10. Epilogue: Post-election coverage
- “Cloud lifted:” Barr coverage
- Post election books by reporters covering HRC: “her fault; not ours”
- “Courtier” coverage: “Trump family: the new Kennedys,” Haberman and access journalism