August 18, 2019

"The Failing New York Times, in one of the most devastating portrayals of bad journalism in history, got caught by a leaker that they are shifting..."

"... from their Phony Russian Collusion Narrative (the Mueller Report & his testimony were a total disaster), to a Racism Witch Hunt. ...'Journalism'has reached a new low in the history of our Country. It is nothing more than an evil propaganda machine for the Democrat Party. The reporting is so false, biased and evil that it has now become a very sick joke...But the public is aware! #CROOKEDJOURNALISM"

Trump tweets this morning.

The Washington Times gives the context:
Conservatives were stunned by the transcript of the staff “town hall” led by executive editor Dean Baquet, a recording of which was reportedly leaked to Slate, which posted what was described as a transcript on Thursday.... The most troubling part of NYT editor Dean Baquet’s speech to his newsroom was his admission: “our readers...cheer us when we take on Donald Trump.” He added that Trump voters don’t read the Times....
I'll read the transcript for myself. Here are my notes as I read it:
Dean Baquet: ... This is a really hard story, newsrooms haven’t confronted one like this since the 1960s. It got trickier after [inaudible] … went from being a story about whether the Trump campaign had colluded with Russia and obstruction of justice to being a more head-on story about the president’s character. We built our newsroom to cover one story, and we did it truly well. Now we have to regroup, and shift resources and emphasis to take on a different story. ... It is a story that requires deep investigation into people who peddle hatred, but it is also a story that requires imaginative use of all our muscles to write about race and class in a deeper way than we have in years....
So the "story" is the template they choose to undermine Trump.
[O]ur readers and some of our staff cheer us when we take on Donald Trump, but they jeer at us when we take on Joe Biden. They sometimes want us to pretend that he was not elected president, but he was elected president. And our job is to figure out why, and how, and to hold the administration to account. If you’re independent, that’s what you do.... The same newspaper that can publish a major story on Fox News, and how some of its commentators purvey anti-immigrant conspiracies, also has to talk to people who think immigration may cost them jobs and who oppose abortion on religious grounds....
That shows interest in covering things neutrally even if it displeases their readers.
We’re covering a president who lies and says outlandish things. It should summon all of our resources and call upon all of our efforts to build a newsroom where diversity and open discussion is valued....
That sounds as though he's responding to criticism that he's not being tough enough on Trump. He seems to be trying to justify a more neutral, professional approach to an audience who wants more vigorous activism.
Staffer: Could you explain your decision not to more regularly use the word racist in reference to the president’s actions?

Baquet: ... Look, my own view is that the best way to capture a remark, like the kinds of remarks the president makes, is to use them, to lay it out in perspective. That is much more powerful than the use of a word....
I agree.
I’m not saying we would never use the word racist.... The most powerful journalism I have ever read, and that I’ve ever witnessed, was when writers actually just described what they heard and put them in some perspective. I just think that’s more powerful....

I used the word lie once during the presidential campaign, used it a couple times after that. And it was pretty clear it was a lie, and we were the first ones to use it. But I fear that if we used it 20 times, 10 times, first, it would lose its power. And secondly, I thought we would find ourselves in the uncomfortable position of deciding which comment by which politician fit the word lie. I feel the same way about the word racist....

Yeah, I hate racially tinged, racially charged, too. I think those are worse. If you’re going to do what I said, if you’re gonna put your money where your mouth is and actually just describe it, you shouldn’t use sort of half-assed words like racially charged or racially tinged either. You should either say it when the moment comes or you should describe the scene....

Staffer: I’m wondering to what extent you think that the fact of racism and white supremacy being sort of the foundation of this country should play into our reporting. Just because it feels to me like it should be a starting point, you know? Like these conversations about what is racist, what isn’t racist. I just feel like racism is in everything. It should be considered in our science reporting, in our culture reporting, in our national reporting. And so, to me, it’s less about the individual instances of racism, and sort of how we’re thinking about racism and white supremacy as the foundation of all of the systems in the country.....

Baquet: ... I didn’t agree wit... Keith Woods... the ombudsman for NPR. He wrote a piece about why he wouldn’t have used the word racist, and his argument, which is pretty provocative, boils down to this: Pretty much everything is racist. His view is that a huge percentage of American conversation is racist, so why isolate this one comment from Donald Trump?... You know, I don’t know how to answer that.... Race in the next year—and I think this is, to be frank, what I would hope you come away from this discussion with—race in the next year is going to be a huge part of the American story. And I mean, race in terms of not only African Americans and their relationship with Donald Trump, but Latinos and immigration. And I think that one of the things I would love to come out of this with is for people to feel very comfortable coming to me and saying, here’s how I would like you to consider telling that story. Because the reason you have a diverse newsroom, to be frank, is so that you can have people pull together to try to tell that story. I think that’s the closest answer I can come....
That last answer was incredibly evasive. I think it means that Keith Woods was basically right, but the NYT wants to use the charge of racism against Trump.
Cliff Levy: .... Headlines are very, very hard, as you well know. I spent a lot of time thinking about headlines.... You know, people want headlines that blitz out any nuance. They want headlines that say, “Donald Trump Is a Racist,” or “Donald Trump Is a Liar” or things that really take out all the texture and fabric of the article itself....

Staffer: I’m wondering what is the overall strategy here for getting us through this administration and the way we cover it.... It’s a very scary time....

Baquet: OK. I mean, let me go back a little bit for one second to just repeat what I said in my in my short preamble about coverage. Chapter 1 of the story of Donald Trump, not only for our newsroom but, frankly, for our readers, was: Did Donald Trump have untoward relationships with the Russians, and was there obstruction of justice? That was a really hard story, by the way, let’s not forget that. We set ourselves up to cover that story. I’m going to say it. We won two Pulitzer Prizes covering that story. And I think we covered that story better than anybody else. The day Bob Mueller walked off that witness stand, two things happened. Our readers who want Donald Trump to go away suddenly thought, “Holy shit, Bob Mueller is not going to do it.” And Donald Trump got a little emboldened politically, I think. Because, you know, for obvious reasons. And I think that the story changed. A lot of the stuff we’re talking about started to emerge like six or seven weeks ago. We’re a little tiny bit flat-footed. I mean, that’s what happens when a story looks a certain way for two years. Right? I think that we’ve got to change. I mean, the vision for coverage for the next two years is what I talked about earlier: How do we cover a guy who makes these kinds of remarks? How do we cover the world’s reaction to him? How do we do that while continuing to cover his policies? How do we cover America, that’s become so divided by Donald Trump? How do we grapple with all the stuff you all are talking about? How do we write about race in a thoughtful way, something we haven’t done in a large way in a long time? That, to me, is the vision for coverage. You all are going to have to help us shape that vision. But I think that’s what we’re going to have to do for the rest of the next two years.... This is a story that’s going to call on different muscles for us. The next few weeks, we’re gonna have to figure out what those muscles are....

Staffer: When it came to actually changing that headline, how much influence did the reader input have? I mean, OK, all you guys didn’t like it. You were unhappy. But was a change in the works, or was it the response?

Baquet: We were all—it was a fucking mess—we were all over the headline. Me. Matt. The print hub. Probably [assistant managing editor] Alison [Mitchell]. We were all over it, and then in the middle of it, [deputy managing editor] Rebecca Blumenstein sent an email—but we were already messing with it —saying, “You should know, there’s a social media firestorm over the headline.” My reaction [inaudible] was not polite. My reaction was to essentially say, “Fuck ’em, we’re already working on it.” And we were working on it, on deadline. We had already lost half of the papers, and it was too late to redraw the whole page. We would’ve lost the whole thing.... This is a hard story. This is larger than the headline. This is larger than the other stuff. This is a really hard story. This is a story that’s going to call on like all of our muscles, all of our resources, all of our creativity, all of our empathy....

221 comments:

1 – 200 of 221   Newer›   Newest»
mccullough said...

Dean comes off as more reasonable than the other reporters and editors at the meeting. The people who piped up at that meeting come off as leftwing loons.

Seeing Red said...

Slate?

Is there blood in the water?

rcocean said...

This is important because 90% of the media marches in lockstep with the NYT and WaPo. They fly off the wire, and the rest of the fly off the wire. I've been shocked at the NYT ever since 2016. They've dropped even the pretense of objectivity, but that's what they THINK their readers wish.

Incredibly, its the best newspaper in the USA in terms of intelligence and coverage of arts, business, and international news. Which is pathetic!

Qwinn said...

Yes, the problem is clearly that Donald Trump doesn't get called a racist *enough*.

God, Lefies are so fucking insufferable.

rhhardin said...

It's not evil, just whatever sells the paper to its dedicated audience.

Its dedicated audience is entertained by that narrative, so that narrative is what they get.

The right argument is about reality, not evil. Fiction is fun but it's entertainment.

Try a NYT headline "Women not Serious People." Sign of a turnaround.

rcocean said...

If you ever have a chance go back and read the NYT from the 1940s or 1950s. Or read the NY Herald Tribune. You'll be shocked at how dumbed-down today's newspapers are and how their skimpy coverage of almost everything is today. Its become like Pravda - giving us the party line from the ruling class.

James K said...

I wonder who the leaker would be. There's a mole at the NYT?

Lincolntf said...

I've had a subscription to the Wall St. Journal for 5 or so years. Gets delivered along with the (garbage) local paper here in North Carolina. Stands up well against the NYT, I even turned my in-laws from WaPo to the WSJ.

mccullough said...

The NY Times told them Hillary was going to win.

Then The NY Times told them Mueller was going to Get Trump.

That NY Times Kool-Aid needs more sugar now.

FullMoon said...

Ya know, it has come to a point where I read negative Trump story and immediately check the source. If the usual suspects, I suspect it is a lie by omission or misleading on purpose.

Then, I realize, there are millions of people who immediately believe it without reading.

Sometimes I am right. Sometimes they are right.

Now the left will call us racist while they do their best to divide the country by race.

Dem candidates have been doing it since Obama. Now it is worse than ever.


rcocean said...

It isn't that the NYT of the 40s wasn't biased or not giving us some "fake news" (See Herb Mathews Or Walter Duranty) its that there was intelligence, good writing, and a desire to present facts to the American Public.

mccullough said...

The Far-Left NY Times

rcocean said...

"wonder who the leaker would be. There's a mole at the NYT?"

All these newspaper/magazine staff meeting "Leak". Remember the meeting at Atlantic Mag over Kevin "let white people die" Williamson? The lefties are actually PROUD of what they say in these meetings. They're the leakers.

Michael K said...

James K said...
I wonder who the leaker would be. There's a mole at the NYT?


Maybe there are Democrats who can't stomach this stuff.

We have been talking about this for two days at Chicagoboyz.

Paco Wové said...

As I believe I mentioned previously, Steve Sailer had a nice write-up of the NYT's about-face a few days ago. Interesting that Trump's characterization of events is pretty much in line with Sailer's.

Seeing Red said...

Now the left will call us racist while they do their best to divide the country by race.

Dem candidates have been doing it since Obama. Now it is worse than ever.


Forcing tribes is how they got Trump. Now they’re trying to cow enough so he doesn’t get the vote.

Personally, I like indoor plumbing and democracy. White privilege things.

n.n said...

Biden gave us an accurate synopsis of the state of speech: speaking truth to facts.

FullMoon said...

.

It's not evil, just whatever sells the paper to its dedicated audience.

Its dedicated audience is entertained by that narrative, so that narrative is what they get.


Goes way beyond that. NYT and WaPo are the parents of MSM. What they report gets reported all the way down to local papers and radio and tv.

The "good people in Charlottesville " lie didn't start with small time newspaper.

rcocean said...

IF Yeb! was President, or Mittens, he would've tweeted this in response to the Leak:

"...."

Beasts of England said...

Does the DNC have to declare this in-kind contribution?

n.n said...

they do their best to divide the country by race

Diversity classes, or individuals classified in blocs of low information attributes, not limited to the color of the skin.

rhhardin said...

I dropped the WSJ when it turned into a lifestyle paper for women in the 90s.

Since then it's turned deep state Republican. The articles were always written from the left, but not the op-ed page.

Trump ought to mock their Thanksgiving and Christmas traditional Vermont Royster editorials. Put sand in those gears and some progress might be made on the right.

Jude Wanniski used to be good until he went 'round the bend on gold.

There's some common path the good ones take. Richard Epstein was good until he had to commentate on Trump, who he couldn't read at all. Damaged his brain.

Paco Wové said...

Also interesting that "covering a story" is the standard NYT euphemism for "promoting a line of propaganda".

n.n said...

or Mittens, he would've tweeted this in response to the Leak

Probably not. He would invariably "go along to get along" in order to negotiate a favorable state for preferred interests, thereby sustaining a progressive path for better or worse.

rcocean said...

NYT Boss: We all know trump is a racist. But we don't use the word too much, because we can fool more people into agreeing with us, if we slant the facts and write other stuff. Just calling him "Racist" 1000 times isn't effective propaganda. After, we all want open borders and liberal Democrats controlling everything. But, we must be subtle Comrade. Oops, i mean fellow NYT's guy.

TJM said...

I realized this over 20 years ago. What took Ann so long to catch on?

Bill, Republic of Texas said...

The most interesting item from the leak was the NYT got caught flat-footed when the collusion story collapsed.

I always thought the NYT was cynically pushing the story for profit. I guess it turns out they really are living in a heremtically sealed bubble.

Unknown said...

I love this little gem from the transcript of the Times meeting from one of its reporters:

"I just feel like racism is in everything. It should be considered in our science reporting, in our culture reporting, in our national reporting. And so, to me, it’s less about the individual instances of racism, and sort of how we’re thinking about racism and white supremacy as the foundation of all of the systems in the country."

Mao's Red Guards got nothin' on NYT staff members.

rcocean said...

WSJ OP-ed page was taken over by Burt Stephens and Globalist Inc. Bruce Bartlett wasn't much better. Both Bruce and Burt wanted the Republican party "Destroyed" in 2016, as punishment for nominating Trump. There's lots of $$ in cheap immigrant labor, and bad trade deals.

Neither Bruce nor Burt Stephens are Republican party members. They Left over Trump. The WSJ news stories were always separate from their op-ed pages and were run by the same Leftist that write for the Wapo. The only reason to read the paper was investment news, and you can get that elsewhere.

StephenFearby said...

Byron York (linked to by Real Clear Investigations) has an excellent opinion piece on this:

New York Times chief outlines coverage shift: From Trump-Russia to Trump racism

Concluding with:

'...The headline controversy, it appears, was a preview of a new 2019-2020 New York Times. If Baquet follows through, the paper will spend the next two years, which just happens to be the run-up to the 2020 presidential election, building the Trump-is-a-racist narrative. (Baquet added, almost as an afterthought, that the Times will "continu[e] to cover his policies.")

The employee town hall was not intended to be public. But the Times is a news organization, and no one could be surprised that a recording of it leaked, possibly by Times employees who want to push Baquet in an even more anti-Trump direction. In any event, it's now public. And the results will play out for the next two years.'

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/new-york-times-chief-outlines-coverage-shift-from-trump-russia-to-trump-racism

rcocean said...

Off topic: I was completely against Mueller testifying. thought it was unnecessary. But he's the one that destroyed Trump-Russia. An obvious figurehead who spent more time watching Matlock Re-runs than doing his job.

narciso said...

Bartlett was way gone before trump, stephens was verklempt when the huntress didnt aign on to topple assad, becausr that couldnt end badly.

rcocean said...

The constant drumbeat of racism is designed to get the OTHER media outlets to do the same. This will result in increasing black turnout and getting the moderate-liberal white women to turn out and vote against Trump. I'm not sure it will work, but the NYT's is giving it all they've got.

Chuck said...

I am really looking forward to your full comments, Althouse. And I'll withhold comments on what Baquet, et al had to say until after you've had your say.

But in the meantime; can anybody imagine this level of open and intelligent discourse among White House staff in response to any one of a hundred incendiary, idiotic Trump tweets? I'm not saying it doesn't happen; I think it does. But the only way we hear about it is through books like Tim Alberta's wonderful American Carnage. Not only will Althouse not blog American Carnage; she wrote that she would never read it.

chuck said...

> You'll be shocked at how dumbed-down today's newspapers are

It's the usual result when universities take over the job of training craftsmen. Journalism should be taught in trade schools, not universities.

Paco Wové said...

"I just feel like racism is in everything."

Dear friends,

Does the presence of racism animate your life?

Do your thoughts turn to racism throughout the day, aware of its malign presence and deep effects on even the trivial aspects of your daily life?

Awareness of the presence of racism is one of the foundation stones of the woke life.

Here at the NYT, we will offer help for developing this practice — simply and quickly.

narciso said...

You're soaking in it, like palmolive.

narciso said...

Yes its the wurlitzer effect, creating the hive mind.

Achilles said...

rhhardin said...
It's not evil, just whatever sells the paper to its dedicated audience.

Its dedicated audience is entertained by that narrative, so that narrative is what they get.


This is completely wrong.

The NYT, WAPO, ABC etc are owned by people who make more in a day what these entities are worth.

They could care less about what sells a paper. They have much larger goals.

What they did to Nick Sandmann is pure evil. Brett Kavanaugh wasn't painted as a rapist to sell papers. He was painted as a rapist because the person that owns the WAPO did not want him on the court.

Nazi's "pandered" to their readers too.

These news organizations are leading, not following.

buwaya said...

Baquets conference is the usual management staff-meeting approach.
He's not going to tell the troops the real deal.
Be in enough of these things and you get the picture.

The young and eager pipe up sincerely (and they are of course, by our standards, sincerely mad).

The boss panders to them.

The real decisions have been made for reasons not publicly apparent, off the stage.

rhhardin said...

Examples of racist talk are seldom racist. Racist has so many meanings so it's always a performance of the word no matter what context it comes up in.

The usual hidden doctrine is saying that this racist talk here deserves the same condemnation as that other racist talk there.

So it might be better to just call it racist and let the audience dismiss it out of hand as they're accustomed to do.

Otherwise they will not notice anything.

traditionalguy said...

This is a lead up to a new narrative disclosure that Trump and all of his Deplorables openly breath out poisonous CO2 causing the end the world in 6 years instead of 12. And it's a Science.

Creative propaganda is the best propaganda. The founding Fathers of the Soviet Union all agree .

Lincolntf said...

This weekends edition of WSJ has three Editorials by the editorial board. All three are pro-Trump/conservative in one way or another. And their Lifestyle/Review/Off-Duty/Culture features are better than the NYT's, in my considered opinion.

buwaya said...

The "leak" to Slate is probably deliberate.
The point is not to please "conservatives" but to stay on-side with their own.
As Baquet says, in his most honest statement.

These are things that are inconvenient to print in the paper so another channel is used.

madAsHell said...

What's the difference between prosecutorial discretion, and obstruction of justice??

narciso said...

Kurt Eichenwald in his firsr fraud turned a simole human resources diversity exercise into a witchhunt at texaco in 1996.

Fernandinande said...

It is a story that requires deep investigation into people who peddle hatred,

If the NYT is going to deeply investigate its own scribblers, at least they won't have to leave the building.

but it is also a story that requires imaginative use of all our muscles to write about race and class in a deeper way than we have in years.

"The NYTimes is [already] Woke"
NYT word counts for 'woke' subjects - if they keep it up they won't have any room for prepositions or spaces between the important words.

Seeing Red said...

But the only way we hear about it is through books like Tim Alberta's wonderful American Carnage. Not only will Althouse not blog American Carnage; she wrote that she would never read it.


Lolol

I’ve been living in carnage since ‘68.

It’s always ‘68 somewhere.

CJinPA said...

Depressing that there will be no effort to provide citizens with information to navigate the massive demographic changes coming, in a way that seeks to carve out some areas of unity, and instead will simply crank coverage of alleged white racism up to 11.

Michael K said...

Fun to see Chuck getting his daily Trump fix.

buwaya said...

Achilles is perfectly correct.
None of these media organizations are normal businesses, they are political instruments that serve larger interests.

traditionalguy said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
traditionalguy said...

And Trump's epidermis is shamelessly showing at Nascar RACES. And white men always win those RACES.

Seeing Red said...

I just feel like racism is in everything. It should be considered in our science reporting, in our culture reporting, in our national reporting. And so, to me, it’s less about the individual instances of racism, and sort of how we’re thinking about racism and white supremacy as the foundation of all of the systems in the country."


This is when you ask them which non-white foundation would be better and why.

What is going on in Hong Kong is a matter of white supremacy. Why should they roll over and give up that which is in the end, an inalienable right that the white man brought to their attention.

tim in vermont said...

My sister the commie, who wouldn’t move to Florida on account of all the Republicans, said to me that is has become clear to her that the newspapers are simply lying about Trump.

buwaya said...

American Carnage is propaganda.

The very title is the lie. There is no "carnage". It is people arguing over words, and especially over amour-propre.

tim in vermont said...

The important reason to own a newspaper is to do favors for the powerful, and as we have seen over the past two years, that doesn’t necessarily mean the guy who wins the election/

Michael K said...

None of these media organizations are normal businesses, they are political instruments that serve larger interests.

Rotten Boroughs 21st century style. I've been doing a bit of reading about pre-Reform England. The Parliament and the Kings made a lot of very bad decisions. Losing America, for example. Now we have similar corrupt people who think China won't devour them.

Blogger is unusually bad today.

4x so far, 5x

tim in vermont said...

“was when writers actually just described what they heard and put them in some perspective.”

Fit them into a pre-determined narrative that never changes, is only strengthened. All other stories are roundly ignored.

narciso said...

Any resistance to the orevailing zeitgeist is carnage, like that french proverb.

buwaya said...

Hong Kong is a European (British) creation, a point where European cultural influence of one sort entered China. So even if, today, there are no white people in power there, or hardly any at all resident, it is still "white".

Granted, the official ideology of the Chinese Communists is just as "white".

Those white people are insidious.

Michael K said...

The media, especially CNN is carrying the usual water for China on trade.

The biggest fallacy pushed in this interview, YET AGAIN, surrounds price impacts on Chinese imports. Tapper takes the talking points of the Wall Street multinationals, and their paid think-tanks, to push an empirically false assertion of the U.S. consumer paying for tariffs on China. Here’s the easiest refutation of that nonsense:

The Steel (25%) and Aluminum (10%) tariffs have been in place for two years.
The 25% tariff on $250 billion Chinese goods have been in place over a full year.
The current inflation rate (Consumer Price Index) is only 1.4%.


They are responding to the people that sign their paychecks.

gspencer said...

The NYT has a new 1619 Project whose sole purpose is to explain that everything but everything about America is based on slavery.

Okay, pretty stupid and pretty pathetic. But how is it that only the Atlantic Slave Trade ever existed? Not a word about the Muslim Slave Trade which lasted longer, is based on Islamic texts, killed millions by multiple factors greater than the AST, was unbelievably cruel, and still exists today.

campy said...

"Dem candidates have been doing [their best to divide the country by race] since Obama."

You misspelled "LBJ."

Hope this helps.

tim in vermont said...

"How do we help elect people friendlier to Carlos Slim, not to mention Silicon Vally billionaires?"

Seeing Red said...

W wanted a steel tariff. He was talked out of it. As usual the US is late to a fight.

This Cold War seems to be aiding Mexico.

Seeing Red said...

The biggest fallacy pushed in this interview, YET AGAIN, surrounds price impacts on Chinese imports. Tapper takes the talking points of the Wall Street multinationals, and their paid think-tanks, to push an empirically false assertion of the U.S. consumer paying for tariffs on China.

I thought higher prices are good and we would spend money on less stuff?

tim in vermont said...

The story here is that the premiere American “Newspaper” has abdicated that job. Now no-one has it. Basically they are dealing in rhetoric and the framing of arguments and elections.

rehajm said...

What are they seeing from Trump that's meets the traditional definition of racism?

He seems to be trying to justify a more neutral, professional approach to an audience who wants more vigorous activism

It's another manifestation of the attitude of those subscribers that cancelled their NYT subscriptions because the headline didn't attack Trump hard enough. 'Neutral' in this case is between the far left and the very far left...

If you assume the worst and the NYT has become exactly what it looks like they've become, they are fighting the last war lefties won and are searching for the way to get those Obama voters out to vote. No more wining over the squishy middle. Racism might do it...

Seeing Red said...

That was a really hard story, by the way, let’s not forget that. We set ourselves up to cover that story. I’m going to say it. We won two Pulitzer Prizes covering that story. And I think we covered that story better than anybody else. The day Bob Mueller walked off that witness stand, two things happened. Our readers who want Donald Trump to go away suddenly thought, “Holy shit, Bob Mueller is not going to do it.” And Donald Trump got a little emboldened politically, I think.


If you did your job, you wouldn’t have been caught with your pants down lying for 2-3 years.

Jupiter said...

"Pretty much everything is racist."

It's as if it's in our DNA.

buwaya said...

There is more than a hint of Tom Wolfe, "Mau-mauing the Flak-catchers", in this Baquet thing.

As far as that goes, not much has changed.

Birkel said...

The Wall Street Journal was the home of Glenn Simpson.
When the ever loving he'll are people going to get it?
The WSJ is a fan of big government centralization.

It is a fan of shitting on Main Street to help Wall Street.
They cheered the destruction of small town manufacturers.

The WSJ is worth fuck-all to conservatives.

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

I just feel like racism is in everything. It should be considered in our science reporting, in our culture reporting, in our national reporting.

The most baldly stated reason why they are so, so wrong.

buwaya said...

The impact on the American consumer has been largely mitigated by Chinese price reductions and devaluation.

gilbar said...

rcocean said...
Its become like Pravda - giving us the party line from the ruling class.


Well, a Famous man (who's famous for Saying* he graduated in the top half of his class), said...
WE CHOSE TRUTH OVER FACTS! And we all know the Russian word for TRUTH

*Saying he Said it, he didn't DO it

Jeff Brokaw said...

For anyone who subscribes to the NYT and does not cancel their subscription, why would you subsidize their efforts to incite a race war?

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Media will also ignore all leftwing violence and leftwing antisemitism and elevate all "white nationalist" violence.

Bill, Republic of Texas said...

I thought Althouse was writing her notes as she read the transcript. Did she just give up in disgust? Can't say I blame her. This was clearly a capitulation to the far-left staffers and readers on the NYT.

Original Mike said...

Baquet: "We built our newsroom to cover one story, and we did it truly well."

Wow. Does he really believe that? Because that would be disturbing. They missed it by a country mile. Surely he knows that?

Michael K said...

You misspelled "LBJ."

Hope this helps.


LBJ has done a lot of harm, not only to blacks, but I would not attribute this to malice but rather to stupidity. He had no concept of unforeseen consequences.

Obama, on the other hand, went about stirring up black racism to gain votes. He knew what he was doing, just as Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson know what they are doing.

More Blogger nonsense

Dave Begley said...

"call upon all of our efforts to build a newsroom where diversity and open discussion is valued"

Diversity? How about hiring some Republicans or conservatives?

The NYT has exposed itself as a partisan hack rag. Less than zero credibility with fair minded and independent people.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

"They sometimes want us to pretend that he was not elected president, but he was elected president. "

I dunno, the NY Times has done a pretty job of pretending Trump was not elected president.

Beasts of England said...

’I’m wondering to what extent you think that the fact of racism and white supremacy being sort of the foundation of this country should play into our reporting.’

Did this staffer have a similar concern from 2008 - 2016?

bagoh20 said...

Trump's tweet outperforms anything written there for both accuracy and respect for a free press, and that includes Althouse's comments too.

Drago said...

LLR Chuck shows up in the nick of time to deflect for his far left and communist allies at the New York Times.

Who didn't see that coming?

LOL

Poor Chuck. At this point there really is no further reason to continue the charade, is there?

Big Mike said...

It is a story that requires deep investigation into people who peddle hatred

And no one knows more about peddling hatred than the New York Times!

David Duffy said...

Is there a leader, someone with responsibly for an operation, public service or private business, that wants to deal with hyper-sensitive race and gender crybabies? Guys used to be able to escape being surrounded by wimps and hysterical homosexuals by going in the military or going to a traditional church. No more, the babies have infested everything.

Ken B said...

He's right about one thing: just laying it out there is more effective than labels. That transcript proves more bias and more blindness than a thousand critical blog posts could.

bagoh20 said...

Why doesn't the NYT just report that Trump isn't real, but just a bad dream for their poor needy readers. If you're just gonna lie to feed the poor things, then give them something satisfying at least. Then on weekends, you can write stories about him burning in hell, and how all his offspring are sterile. Good times!

Dave Begley said...

Trump has just branded this thing the Racism Witch Hunt.

Stable genius.

narciso said...

I noted there is a big rollout (kinda) for the story about the interrogation report crafted by feinatein aide dan jones, who has beem in xharge of regurgitating the dossier through the echo chamber, they have ted levine as brennam but not as a major character according to where he appears on the imdb

Drago said...

Dave Begley: "Trump has just branded this thing the Racism Witch Hunt.
Stable genius."

Indeed.

Far left lunatics & LLR Chuck (but I repeat myself) hardest hit.

bagoh20 said...

The admissions being expressed there and how they call their biased coverage "a story" creeps me out as an American.

Unknown said...

> Obama, on the other hand, went about stirring up black racism to gain votes

Beto is running exclusiving on race now. Irish Mexican Jesus who married into money will lead us to penance.

Drago said...

Ken B: "He's right about one thing: just laying it out there is more effective than labels. That transcript proves more bias and more blindness than a thousand critical blog posts could."

Which is why the fake conservative Reid Hoffman RolCon types like LLR Chuck have been activated to try and change the subject.

LLR Chuck's first pro-lefty attempt however was an extraordinarily pathetic one though it does probably represent the limits of his #StrongDemDefense capabilities at this tine as Trump has broken him completely.

wbfjrr2 said...

Well, David Begley, I agree with your assessment of this rag, and that it has "Less than zero credibility with fair minded and independent people."

So where does that put Althouse, who religiously reads and links to it daily, and in this piece takes her usual obtuse approach to opine that Baquet is being in some way "reasonable"?

Althouse: Fake news will written is better than real news that isn't classily enough delivered for her taste--thus the latter is to be avoided.

bagoh20 said...

Just look at that whole thing and contemplate how bad journalism is now even at the top end, and how undeserving those people are of the Constitutional protections and cultural power we grant them. It's even more disappointing to listen to people try to make excuses, downplay, and explain away what is deeply broken, and what acts daily against everything a truely liberal mind should value.

pacwest said...

The educational system is pumping out SJW warrior journalists year after year. The war is already lost. The question is whether we will be able to recover after the coming great socialist failure.

Ralph L said...

Much of the leak sounds like a parody to me (not saying it is fake).

Unknown said...

Will Ann continue to feature and promote the NYT agenda stories on her blog not that they feel free to come clean?

Mike Sylwester said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Mike Sylwester said...

Keep in mind that Russians buy Facebook ads that meddle in the USA's elections.

For example, Russian bought a Facebook ad that shows Satan arm-wrestling Jesus, with this caption:

Satan: If I win, Clinton wins!

Jesus: Not if I can help it!


According to The New York Times, such meddling by the Russians helped Donald Trump defeat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election.

Keep that in mind!

Mike Sylwester said...

We aren't supposed to say racist any more.

Instead, we are supposed to say White supremacist.

Ken B said...

Mike S
And don’t forget the Bernie unicorn coloring book.

StephenFearby said...

narciso said [without one of his useful links]

"I noted there is a big rollout (kinda) for the story about the interrogation report crafted by feinatein aide dan jones..."


Paul Sperry's (earlier this year) terrific reporting on the continuing slimy efforts by the despicable Dan Jones:

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2019/03/22/trump-russia_20_dossier-tied_firm_pitching_journalists_daily_on_collusion_139825.html

Fernandinande said...

"Pretty much everything is racist."
It's as if it's in our DNA.


Even DNA-free computers are racists: "The algorithms that detect hate speech online are biased against black people". It's almost like racism is part of the physical structure of the universe.

(link = hilarious vox.com article)

Mike Sylwester said...

The largest shareholder of The New York Times is a Russian.

His name is Carlos Slim. He was born in Mexico City, Russia.

His newspaper's reporting is protecting us from Russian meddling in our US elections.

Keep that in mind.

Temujin said...

The NY Times is lost. The entire philosophical base that the left stands on is pure barbaric collectivism. Tribalism. They will see racism in everything about the US- the founding, the past, the current, the future. Because we re all part of a tribe, and we're either clean, pure, and with color in our skin, or we're white supremacists. The only way a white person can cleanse themselves is to buy into this in toto. Flog thyself. Prostrate thyself. The 1619 Project is a start.

This paper is nothing more than a knowledge-laundering facility. Much like a money-laundering business will clean unclean money, the NY Times is in the business of making palatable and mainstream, what would otherwise be considered extreme, crazy thinking.

They are purveyors of hate, dressing it up to look sophisticated and on the side of good. They are of a class that would make both Goebbels and Orwell blush with admiration at the way they operate.

I stopped using this paper as a source of information years ago. I do not see them approaching sanity any time soon. The question I have is how do seemingly intelligent people keep giving them a pass? One must assume those who read it, agree with it.

narciso said...

it's a strategy not craziness, although with sarah jeong, as political commissar, might be steering straight into the iceberg, but the goal is to deem the American experiment illegitimate because of slavery, and hence the constitution is likewise,

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

It is fun to watch Greg Gutfeld and crew mock Rachel Maddow. + other comedy

cronus titan said...

Illuminating. They hate Trump and his supporters and believe in their bones that they are the arbiters of all that which is righteous.

THe same thing was going on in 2016 when Wikileaks released the DNC email traffic -- close coordination, including political and media strategy, between the DNC, Clinton Campaign and national media.

tim in vermont said...

Like it or not, dissecting the news coverage of the New York Times is all we have left. Fortunately they are so transparent that they leave themselves open to effective mockery.

Fernandinande said...

His name is Carlos Slim. He was born in Mexico City, Russia.

NYT yearly income ($62.4 million) is .1% of Sr. Slim's net worth ($68 billion).

Francisco D said...

The MSM/DNC has to go overboard in smearing Trump as a deplorable racist who should have been spied on by the Obama administration because he is a threat to America.

In other words, the NYT and their allies have not figured out how to spin Mueller's failure, Horowitz' upcoming report and Durham's efforts. All they have is a Chuckles-like obsession with anything Trumpish that they can distract people with.

It is quite clear that Chuckles the Clown is an eager volunteer in this effort. These people are evil and will do anything to keep themselves in power.

In Chuckles case, it is to keep himself in gin.

mockturtle said...

Rcocean asserts regarding the NYT: Incredibly, its the best newspaper in the USA in terms of intelligence and coverage of arts, business, and international news.

I would put the WSJ well ahead of the NYT.

Hagar said...

Its become like Pravda - giving us the party line from the ruling class.


The chattering class, not the ruling class - and they are beside themselves to find they are not the ruling class.

And worse yet: Trump is - all by his little ownself, and it just is not to be borne!

wildswan said...

"Ken B said...
He's right about one thing: just laying it out there is more effective than labels. That transcript proves more bias and more blindness than a thousand critical blog posts could."

Very true.

The New York Times "All the News that Pravda Used to Print."

narciso said...

this is why one has to find more samizdat sources, both in this country, and abroad, ones that google and twitter are doing their best to deplatform, or at least reduced their accessability at best,

Jersey Fled said...

At least this signals that they are throwing in the towel on Russia Collusion and probably Obstruction along with it. Maybe that's progress.

I think they over play their hand when they throw White Supremacist in with the Racist thing. Most people have eyes, and they don't see white supremacists under every rock. White people especially.

A couple of recent polls have shown Trump polling close to 50% with Hispanics and almost 30% with African Americans. The Democrats are scared.

You can bet that if this is where the NYT is going, it's coming from the DNC. Big mistake. They don't see the piano that's about to fall on their heads in the form of the IG report and Barr's investigation. It's becoming even more clear that Hillary and the DNC were funneling opposition research to the FBI through Steele in order to give it the pretense of credibility. The chickens are coming home to roost and the chicken sh*t is about to land on the Democrats.

This will swamp any fake racist/white supremacist b.s. that the can cook up.

stevew said...

"I’m wondering what is the overall strategy here for getting us through this administration and the way we cover it.... It’s a very scary time...."

Holy shit, these people are fucking nuts. Scary?

They were completely wrong on Russian collusion and the charge of PDT obstructing justice, but they won a couple of Pulitzers so it's cool, just time to pivot to "there's racism in everything".

Rob said...

The New York Times has lost its soul. Simple as that. For a hundred years its stated aspiration was objectivity. Sure, it didn't always achieve that stated goal, sometimes in very obvious ways (e.g., Howell Raines's obsessive coverage of Augusta National's not having female members), but it was at least claimed to be a guiding principle.

That changed in August 2016 when the NYT media critic wrote a column saying in effect that Trump was such an existential threat that it justified a different kind of coverage, a view that was endorsed by Executive Editor Dean Baquet a couple of months later.

In last week's staff town hall, Baquet made shockingly clear just how committed the NYT has been to its new approach to coverage of Trump. Many academics and pundits have pontificated about Trump has violated norms, but the abandonment by the NYT (and the Washington Post) of anything remotely resembling objectivity may be the norm violation with the longest-lasting deleterious effect on our polity.

And btw, the NYT isn't committed only to undermining Trump. As Byron York explains, the stated goal of its 1619 Project is "to reframe the country's history, understanding 1619 as our true founding, and placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of the story we tell ourselves about who we are." To reframe American history.

The NYT isn't shy. They're telling us exactly what they're about, in coverage of Trump and in coverage of race. For once, they're not lying. We should believe them.

rcocean said...

the stated goal of its 1619 Project is "to reframe the country's history, understanding 1619 as our true founding, and placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of the story we tell ourselves about who we are." To reframe American history.

And why is NYT they doing this? Simple. To keep up racial tensions and white guilt in order to drive up black turnout and keep moderate white women to vote Democrat. IOW, to defeat Trump. That's the end game. That's the real purpose.

chuck said...

The government of Blefuscu accused the Lilliputians of disobeying their religious doctrine, the Brundrecral, by breaking their eggs at the small end. The Lilliputians argued that the doctrine reads, “That all true believers shall break their eggs at the convenient end,” which could be interpreted as the small end.

So it goes at the NY Times.

rcocean said...

"I would put the WSJ well ahead of the NYT."

Could be. I haven't read the WSJ in years.

glenn said...

None of the stool they’ve thrown at Trump has stuck so far. But hope springs eternal. And the charge of racism is hard to defend. If not impossible. That’s why the Times is all in with it.

glenn said...

None of the stool they’ve thrown at Trump has stuck so far. But hope springs eternal. And the charge of racism is hard to defend. If not impossible. That’s why the Times is all in with it.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

mockturtle said...
Rcocean asserts regarding the NYT: Incredibly, its the best newspaper in the USA in terms of intelligence and coverage of arts, business, and international news.

I would put the WSJ well ahead of the NYT.

8/18/19, 4:01 PM

I always enjoy Terry Teachout's reviews in the WSJ. I think he's one of the best drama/music critics in America.

elkh1 said...

I love it when they accused Trump lies, as if he is the only person who ever lies, as if Obama had never lied, as if Hillary never lied, as if NYT never lied, as if the FBI never lied, as if our politicians never lied... That is why "he lies" never sticks to Trump.

Paco Wové said...

"That's the end game."

I think that's only an interim goal. SJW madness preceded Trump (indeed, in many ways it caused Trump), and its goals are far grander than just displacing a specific president. The end game is you, your property, and your posterity.

Sebastian said...

“We built our newsroom to cover one story, and we did it truly well.”

Amazing in and of itself, no? This “newspaper” monomaniacally supported the deep-state attack on Trump, and when it came to naught, when it was exposed as a blatant coup d’etat, after untold lies and false leaks and rampant insinuendo, they congratulate themselves on doing it “truly well.”

“Now we have to regroup, and shift resources and emphasis to take on a different story. ... It is a story that requires deep investigation into people who peddle hatred”

We know what their priorities are.

@Althouse: “So the "story" is the template they choose to undermine Trump.”

Exactly. But with the MSM, it’s template all the way down. The perpetual continuation of the prog culture war by other means.

@Althouse: “That shows interest in covering things neutrally even if it displeases their readers.”

Now that’s funny.

“It should summon all of our resources and call upon all of our efforts to build a newsroom where diversity and open discussion is valued”

Did any staffer object to the “template” or the racism narrative? Did anyone even suggest, in good Althousian fashion that “journalists shouldn’t do this! it’s sad!”? Or did they happen to lack that kind of diversity?

““to use them, to lay it out in perspective. That is much more powerful than the use of a word....”
I agree.”

Funny again. Though sad. How often, pray tell, did the NYT lay out in perspective” Trump’s Charlottesville remarks?

“Pretty much everything is racist. His view is that a huge percentage of American conversation is racist, so why isolate this one comment from Donald Trump?”

This who they are, this what they think. So, Althouse, no need to worry about whether a comment of yours would have you smeared as racist: pretty much everything is, and especially nice women who hang out with especially racist deplorables.

@Althouse: “That last answer was incredibly evasive. I think it means that Keith Woods was basically right, but the NYT wants to use the charge of racism against Trump.”

Umm, yeah. Duh.

“Staffer: I’m wondering what is the overall strategy here for getting us through this administration and the way we cover it.... It’s a very scary time....”

These are the “journalists” Althouse pretends to take seriously, on occasion.

“We won two Pulitzer Prizes covering that story.”

For an utter fraud. As if there was any doubt about the owners of the means of propaganda.

“A lot of the stuff we’re talking about started to emerge like six or seven weeks ago.”

Meaning, when the collusion narrative collapsed, they needed another line of attack – as Trump recognized.

“all of our empathy”

The BSiest BS of all.

buwaya said...

A more cynical view of the NYT policy is that it is an invitation to an intemperate reaction, about which a bloody shirt can be waved.

Or failing that, a frame in which any event can be placed, the background having been painted prior.

The intent is something along those lines, regardless of the details of the planned mechanism. It is certainly intended with malice.

narciso said...

oh Annette benning is playing the part of diane Feinstein, so that tells you how they'll be treating the topic of 'torture' as holy writ, but they picked adam driver, to be dan jones, kylo ren, as their hero

tastid212 said...

As the Althouse commentariat understands, NYT Editor Dean Baquet is pretty clear and direct. He and his bosses have developed a two-year strategy to motivate a far-left, HateTrump staff: “Trump=Racism.” This approved “1619 narrative” will underpin all stories in all sections of the paper for the next few years.

The Democrats used the phrase “Who’s the adult in the room?” all the time in 2017 re WH chaos. Now it applies to them, whether in the MSM newsrooms or the Democrat primaries. No one on the left can afford to call out the extremists, lest he/she will be devoured next. There are no adults left on the left.

narciso said...

are the manila papers this caustic toward Duterte, or do they know there is a real cost to such open defiance,

narciso said...

the real indian, is a fake on this issue,

https://dailycaller.com/2019/08/18/democratic-congresswoman-antifa-portland/

narciso said...

across the pond, the method is different, but the goal is the same,


https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/08/18/boris-johnson-accuses-remain-ex-ministers-led-philip-hammond/

chuck said...

A more cynical view of the NYT policy is that it is an invitation to an intemperate reaction

News these days reminds me of the runup to the Spanish American War, perhaps the first war largely brought about by the US newspapers.

FullMoon said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Skeptical Voter said...

I don't like Dean Baquet. I didn't like him when he was an executive at the Los Angeles Times, and I don't like him for his policies at the New York Times. He's got the Midas Merde touch.

That said, this little talk to his staffers is instructive. He implicitly acknowledges that the Russia Collusion meme is dead.

When the First Marine Division was surrounded and almost cut off at Chosin Reservoir in the bitter winter of 50-51, General O.P. Smith got them headed south and said, "Retreat Hell! We're just attacking in another direction."

This talk to the staff was Baquet's "Retreat Hell!" speech. Egg all over their face--two very much undeserved Pulitzers hanging on Baquet's wall---and now the NYT boys and girls are to "attack in the He's a big bad racist!" direction. I've seen examples of that effort and the NYT's influence in this morning's Los Angeles Times.

wild chicken said...

Didn't WaPo hire 50 reporters just to investigate Trump? Or was it a hundred?

Both papers are whack, and just think how they've let down all the SJW wannabe dailies here in flyover!

The Godfather said...

Did nobody at that staff meeting say: We have to report the news as accurately as we can? Did nobody say: The first headline, Unity vs. Racism, accurately captured Trump's statement, and the revised one didn't? Does NOBODY at the NYTimes care about reporting the news accurately?

I started reading the NYTimes in high school (late '50's) -- the Civics teacher required us to read their Week in Review (I think that's what it was called) -- and I continued to subscribe to the Sunday Times until the early '90's. The Times' editorial pages were boring, but there was some good stuff in the magazine (Safire on Language) and Theater pages. When I read their news coverage it was carefully accurate. What has happened to that paper since then is very sad.

narciso said...

to see the most virulent streak, you need to go to the guardian, where toure, late of MSNBC, and sid 'vicious' Blumenthal, have a perch as observers,

buwaya said...

Duterte is cordially despised by the Manila intelligentsia, but criticism is muted in public, partly because of his still enormous popularity, plus a surprisingly powerful online support structure. Either the Filipino Tao has found a social media voice, which is possible, or Dutertes financial backers (largely Chinese syndicates) have bought such a system for him.

Opinions vary.

There is a powerful element of class conflict in the attitudes towards Duterte, much as in the American case.

Unlike the American case however over there I have reasons to sympathize with both sides.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

The walls are closing in.

narciso said...

john corry, who was their tv reviewer in the 80s, charted the path of madness in the 90s in the American spectator,

narciso said...

I wondered so is their opposition papers like haaretz, which comes off as insane, but it's hard to see fervently pro Netanyahu pages, even before the deep state game mandelbraut, has set forth,

buwaya said...

Duterte interestingly is more popular for what he is than what he does.
He is the people’s genuine choice, the first real one ever probably, elected in the first truly free election.
But his Chinese sympathies violate the general, sincere patriotism of the people. They forgive him that, for now.

buwaya said...

You can look up the Manila press online.
About half of it is in English.

William said...

Imagine, if you will, a bishop addressing the priests of the diocese and telling them they have to get more involved in youth activities, that the priests should sponsor and coach a boy's gymnastic team in all of the Catholic schools. Don't be afraid of a hands on approach to ministering. Only by pursuing such a tactic will the Church be able to restore its lost trust among the parishioners.

Shouting Thomas said...

I’m FB friends with a couple of distinguished American history professors.

The NY Time’s series will be based on a thoroughly discredited text, according to these profs.

I think you’re about to see another Time’s Get Trump scheme collapse because, like all the others, the foundation of this latest scheme is rotten.

narciso said...

they seem to have based much on ta neisi coates cracked narrative, which borrows from lerone bennett from howard zinn et al, also much of jill Lepore's successor track, is redolent of this,

victoria said...

The Cheeto in charge should listen and not twitch with his fingers so much. It only hurts his credibility with the rest of the country. After the last 2 weeks, he is probably looking for something to turn people away from what a dismal human being he is and what a joke of a president he is.

He gets more vile and disgusting each day

Vicki from Pasadena

Earnest Prole said...

I’m all for it. In the nineteenth century, newspapers had names like the Daily Democrat and there was no pretense of objectivity; you knew you were purchasing the Democrat view of the world. The New York Times-Democrat should have the courage of its convictions and stop pretending to be unbiased.

Shouting Thomas said...

@Vicki

Trump is the most successful president of our lifetimes.

Get ready for his re-election.

Gahrie said...

I realized this over 20 years ago. What took Ann so long to catch on?

What makes you think she has caught on? She will continue to read the NYT and depend upon their take on the news. Each new incident happens on a blank slate and is quickly forgotten.

Yancey Ward said...

Comments are very, very hard, as you well know. I spent a lot of time thinking about comments.... You know, people want comments that blitz out any nuance. They want comments that say, “NYTimes Journalists Found To Be Race-Baiting Scumbags,” or “NYTimes Journalists Are Lying Halfwits” or things that really take out all the texture and fabric of my comment itself.

Dave Begley said...

Headline posted just 5 hours ago, "Amid the Kale and Corn, Fears of White Supremacy at the Farmers’ Market."

I laughed and laughed.

The NYT is just one big self-parody. Don't they realize the rest of the country is laughing at them.

Yeah, the KKK is running around farmers' markets.

narciso said...

it's like tourettes' with some people,


https://legalinsurrection.com/2019/08/ninth-circuit-scale-back-of-nationwide-injunction-against-trump-asylum-rule-a-blow-to-key-resistance-tactic/


Beasts of England said...

’Amid the Kale and Corn, Fears of White Supremacy at the Farmers’ Market.’

It’s the white asparagus, I guess...

Yancey Ward said...

On who leaked this staff meeting recording- I promise you this- it wasn't someone who thought the conversation made the NYTimes look bad- if that were the case, it wouldn't have been leaked to Slate. No, this was leaked by someone who thought the staffers pushing Baquet were doing God's work. The leaker is deeply proud of the staff members here. Remember that.

Paco Wové said...

The interesting thing about "Vicki"'s comment is how context-free it is. It could have been posted on any day since mid-2016, and been just as apt (or not). It's just a free-form insult, "Orange Man Bad!" in a few more words.

I guess Vicki felt she hadn't been to church recently enough, and this is the equivalent of an Ave Maria tossed out for good luck.

Shouting Thomas said...

Althouse’s methods in running this blog work in ways that seem transparent to many of her readers.

I sometimes wish she’d crusade for some cause that’s important to me, but that’s not her style. She’s trying in almost every post to set up an unbiased dialogue, not to state her opinions.

Over the long haul, to my surprise (and I think, also to Althouse’s surprise), the truth prevails.

It will be interesting to see how Althouse handles this “racism witch hunt.” I suspect that she’ll refrain from big, comprehensive opinions and focus on each little issue. Trump will win out in the long run, because the scholarship the Times is employing is a discredited mess.

Yancey Ward said...

David, I thought for sure you had to be pulling my leg with that one!

Francisco D said...

He gets more vile and disgusting each day

Vicki sweetheart,

Your empty smears become more tiresome, meaningless and irrelevant every day. I guess that is the best you can do.

Thanks for playing. You will get a participation trophy in the mail.

Yancey Ward said...

I found it interesting that Ms. Althouse stopped commenting after a certain point in taking notes. I suspect it became impossible to defend this as journalism.

Paco Wové said...

Don't tell the NYT, but basically everything we do out here in flyoveria is one big White Supremacy Festival, with casseroles.

Shouting Thomas said...

@Yancey

Althouse’s style is to let you draw your own conclusions.

Paco Wové said...

"This is a really hard story. This is a story that’s going to call on like all of our muscles, all of our resources, all of our creativity, all of our empathy"

"It's really hard to maintain a complete fiction for this long. Cut us some slack!"

n.n said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Yancey Ward said...

Sure, she does that sometimes, Thomas, but she explicitly started this post with some other method in mind and seems to have given up. Note the change in tone from the first comment until the one about the evasive answer. I suspect it was at that point that she realized Baquet wasn't looking for a neutral way at all, just a way to make it look neutral when it isn't. However, she can clarify if she wishes.

n.n said...

Progress seems to be an unavoidable process, too many times terminal, and frequently catastrophic.

narciso said...

You can bet there is a more virulent form of this cognitive plague at the journal, not to mention the capital times, I didn't particular detect in my fishwrap today but give it time,

Drago said...

Vickie is not handling the collapse of all the dem hoaxes/schemes/lies very well at all, is she?

All I can tell her to make her feel better is that she will always have LLR Chuck advancing far left narratives and talking points at Althouse blog....though small consolation that will be for her thru Trumps second term particularly if Chuck's family at long last stages an intervention and gets him committed.

Fernandinande said...

Headline posted just 5 hours ago, "Amid the Kale and Corn, Fears of White Supremacy at the Farmers’ Market."

That story was at the PuffHo or some such, a month or so ago. It turns out that two people, one couple, can terrorize a farmer's markets by not doing much of anything. National news. Over and over. Nothing happened.

PuffHo says"Proud Boys and other fascists march across the Hawthorne Bridge on Saturday."

Yancey Ward said...

Here is the thing- it doesn't take creativity or empathy to do a news story. You are reporting on an event- something that happened. You report what people said and did, or what happened to those people involved. What you don't do in a news story is read the minds of the people you are reporting on and report those thoughts as facts- there is an editorial page for opinions.

I found it laughable the way Baquet defended the paper's work on the Russian Collusion story. For two years the NYTimes was reporting stuff that turned out to not be true- there was no collusion or conspiracy- full stop. In short, all the solid evidence they "uncovered" and reported on turned out to not be evidence at all. Their opinion page was filled with pundits writing about how Trump's guilt was all but certain and that he would be indicted. Just one fucking apology for getting it all colossally wrong isn't too much to be asked for, even if it is nearly enough contrition for the error.

If I were one of the journalists who won those Pulitzers, I would have given them back in shame. How can you continue to show your face when you are that wrong.

rcocean said...

"Amid the Kale and Corn, Fears of White Supremacy at the Farmers’ Market."

Newsflash: A visiting NYC couple were traumatized at the local farmer's market as large numbers of white people started speaking in white suprmeacy code by stating their preference for "white corn" over all the other. "Throw all that other corn out", stated one large elderly white man told his wife. I only want whites for dinner. The NYC couple quickly went online and contacted the NYT. Developing....

gilbar said...

Let me get this STRAIGHT
WHITE people are ALLOWED to not only Go to farmer's market's but they are ALLOWED to sell things?
THIS IS AN OUTRAGE! NO WHITES SHOULD BE ALLOWED INTO BURLINGTON! this is RACISM, pure and simple!

Bay Area Guy said...

It was all a Russian hoax for the past 2 years, and now it's all a Racist Hoax for the next 2 years!

Fun!

Jupiter said...

White Russians!

eddie willers said...

Amid the Kale and Corn, Fears of White Supremacy at the Farmers’ Market

Honest to God I thought you were making that up.

minnesota farm guy said...

The WSJ recently installed a new editor in chief. Since then the paper's coverage and even headline writing has moved substantially toward neutral. They are not all the way there yet, but there has been noticeable improvement. The Editorial staff headed by Paul Gigot has also moved back to their more Capitalist, free markets, free people, previous self. It is a substantially more informative paper than it was a year ago.

James K said...

I promise you this- it wasn't someone who thought the conversation made the NYTimes look bad- if that were the case, it wouldn't have been leaked to Slate.

Good point, I hadn't thought about it that way. It's just too hard to fathom that there are more than a few fringe lunatics that think this made those staffers look good. How did one species get factions with their brains wired so differently?

Jeff Brokaw said...

MN farm guy - that’s interesting, I had given up on the WSJ 2 years ago because of obviously and overtly slanted news, and silly pro-open borders editorials. I can get that crap anywhere and for cheaper, including free at Yahoo News and the like.

Glad to hear they’re moving away from that. Maybe I’ll try again, because WSJ is otherwise a solid newspaper.

Known Unknown said...

None of these people are journalists.

stevew said...

Nothing identifies you as a White Supremacist like an appreciation for kale - they're the only ones that will eat that shitty weed.

Seeing Red said...

The Cheeto in charge should listen and not twitch with his fingers so much.

He wouldn’t have to twitch his fingers if they would stop. But they won’t so he won’t.

n.n said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
wildswan said...

Astoundingly, there was a "white supremacy amid the kale and corn at a farmer's market" story in the NYT. One thing the story illustrates. It's time to think about how to respond if Antifa comes and "pickets" because Antifa draws Proud Boys and then there's fights and violence. That closed the farmer's market in this story. (Though it reopened two weeks later with everyone still there except the commie and fascist storm troopers.)

n.n said...

NYT is Slated to be Planned. Let us progress past the no longer viable.

MalaiseLongue said...

Today’s haiku:

amid kale and corn
fears of white supremacy
at farmers’ market

wildswan said...

As far as "1619" goes, the Hispanics brought slavery to the US in Florida and in Puerto Rico long before 1619. And Cuba, homeland to AOC, began slavery in 1520 and did not abolish it until 1886. 600,000 slaves were dragged to Cuba - the same number as is estimated were dragged to the US.* But there are only about 7 million descendants of the 600,000 that were kidnapped into Cuba while there are 42 million descendants of the 600,000 that were kidnapped into the US. But the NYT doesn't mention Hispanics and slavery because only Jamestown and the English settlers matter to the NYT, not the Hispanics and their complex history. Which is a little strange in a project which is not supposed to be anti-Hispanic. Maybe this NYT "history" is an example of what Joe Biden meant by "truth, not facts."

*600,000 Americans were killed in the Civil War over slavery. 100,000 African-Americans were soldiers in that war and enlistment rates were still high when the war ended.

Tina Trent said...

Who needs Josef Stalin when you are Fredo Stalin?

rcocean said...

So, Vicki is the new Inga. Got it. Will start skipping all comments with "Vicki" in them. Thanks!

rcocean said...

Control F is your friend.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Vicki is just Vicki. From Pasadena.

Franki Is Inga.

Nichevo said...


rhhardin said...
It's not evil, just whatever sells the paper to its dedicated audience.

Its dedicated audience is entertained by that narrative, so that narrative is what they get.


RH Hardin, you have annoyed me for the last time on this. I'd like to have your attention.

Your hypothesis, that media distortion is to sell newspapers, or viewers or impressions or clicks or ad slots otherwise, is flawed.

News is not a profit Center for television. You keep insisting that it wasn't and now it is. That the the motivations of the publishers are all according and the writers and editors respond to the publisher, the writers responding to the editors of course. And that the publishers are chiefly concerned with maximizing revenue of their newspaper.

How can you justify this conclusion whern it has repeatedly been falsified? Though since you are a guy who prefers Theory to practice, try this.

Newspapers are a much smaller business than, say, Telecommunications. The New York Times and many other periodicals of large and small stature regularly suffer struggle to make a profit at all. Many of the intellectual Publications such as National Review are always money losers and have to be heavily subsidized. This does not support that the profit motive is the primary driver for their enthusiasm.

Is Carlos Slim owns 20% of the New York Times, and let's say that's a billion dollars of equity, and he also owns 20% of the Mexican telecommunications company and that's 125 billion dollars, which do you think is more profitable to him? Whose interests come first?

Which one of them do you think supports the other? Does the provision of cell service in Guadalajara help you write a stronger newspaper, or does control of the major thought-piece newspaper in the world help you sell phones? Or avoid regulators stopping you from selling cell phones? Or maybe even sell Chinese cell phones that the US has decided should not be sold? Whether or not they are phoning home to the data center in Shenzhen to feed the Chinese intelligence organization?

Clearly if you raise the profit of your newspaper by a million or 10 million dollars, you've done great things. If you raised it a billion dollars and you earned a billion dollars profit a year on the operation of the New York Times, I think you would be doing extremely well, too well.

Whereas a billion dollars more or less profit to a huge Telco is chump change, is turnover. They spend a billion dollars on IT. Carlos Slim probably has a billion dollars in cash in a locked room somewhere in case he needs it. I don't know if the New York Times is worth a billion dollars.

So why do you think that Carlos Slim cares more about hitting Trump or defending open Borders or doing whatever it is to US politics that he does for political reasons or idealistic reasons, or does he care more about ensuring that his other non-newspaper business ventures receive the protection and power and prestige that owning a newspaper provides?

You ignore this clear incentive to affect coverage for other than maximum subscribers. I have repeatedly brought it to your attention and you have repeatedly ignored it. You're failing your Turing test. Falsification of your assumption breaks your world because then you have to open your eyes and see the abyss before you.

JamesB.BKK said...

Question begged: "Trump voters don't read the New York Times."

Shouting Thomas said...

I’m a Trump voter, and I scan headlines and read a few things from The NY Times every day.

JamesB.BKK said...

Nichevo: Did you consider that open borders means billions in remittances to pay for cell-phone charges? Why not own the primary pressure creator on the Congress in order to ensure that flow of funds? Why not also use it to support the Reconquista (Mexico)? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reconquista_(Mexico). You might could be then less annoyed.

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