November 2, 2019

6 NYT reporters try to catch up with Trump in "How Trump Reshaped the Presidency in Over 11,000 Tweets."

Here. Lots of counting things — like the percentage of tweets containing personal insults — and lots of graphs. Lots of effort at analysis — slanted toward disparaging Trump (predictably shrinking from acknowledging his greatness as a genius of social media):
Early on, top aides wanted to restrain the president’s Twitter habit, even considering asking the company to impose a 15-minute delay on Mr. Trump’s messages. But 11,390 presidential tweets later, many administration officials and lawmakers embrace his Twitter obsession, flocking to his social media chief with suggestions. Policy meetings are hijacked when Mr. Trump gets an idea for a tweet, drawing in cabinet members and others for wordsmithing. And as a president often at war with his own bureaucracy, he deploys Twitter to break through logjams, overrule or humiliate recalcitrant advisers and pre-empt his staff.

“He needs to tweet like we need to eat,” Kellyanne Conway, his White House counselor, said in an interview.
If I were — like these reporters — into counting things, I would count the number of times this article uses the word "attack." As they look at Trump's tweeting, what they see is relentless attacking — like he's always agitated and angry. But I read Trump's tweets every day — his is one of the 310 Twitter accounts I follow — and I see lots of humor and good fun... in tweets that are also, of course, eligible for classification as an "attack."
The president has tweeted more attacks so far this year than in the previous two years combined. In total, he has attacked at least 630 people and things in 5,889 tweets since taking office.
Yes, he fluidly uses Twitter to defend himself. He's under constant attack and the media transmit and amplify the attacks. The NYT should have counted how many of 5,889 attack tweets were in defense after he'd been attacked. Trump calls himself a "counterpuncher." How true is that? The NYT doesn't say.

To its credit, the NYT does tell us that his campaign aides say that Trump is using Twitter stand up to what Trump has called "the unholy alliance of corrupt Democrat politicians, deep-state bureaucrats and the fake-news media" and that they think "his unvarnished writing, poor punctuation and increasing profanity on Twitter signals authenticity — a contrast to the polished, vetted, often anodyne social media style of most candidates." And the NYT gives the last word to Kellyanne Conway:
“It’s the democratization of information,” she said. Everyone receives Mr. Trump’s tweets at once — the stay-at-home mom, the plumber working on the sink, the billionaire executive, the White House correspondent.

“They all hear ‘ping,’” she said, “at the same time.”
ADDED: There's a second NYT article — "In Trump’s Twitter Feed: Conspiracy-Mongers, Racists and Spies" — which is about tweets Trump might be seeing because they tag him:
The president is also awash in an often toxic torrent that sluices into his Twitter account — roughly 1,000 tweets per minute, many intended for his eyes. Tweets that tag his handle, @realDonaldTrump, can be found with hashtags like #HitlerDidNothingWrong, #IslamIsSatanism and #WhiteGenocide. While filters can block offensive material, the president clearly sees some of it, because he dips into the frothing currents and serves up noxious bits to the rest of the world.
Anyone can tag him. It's absurd to try to hang this stuff on him. Really unfair. What is the actual process by which Trump looks at things as potentially retweetable? How about if I look for the ugliest hashtags in tweets that tag the NYT and its reporters?

69 comments:

tim in vermont said...

I gotta set my phone to ping when Trump tweets.

The Bergall said...

Living rent free in their respective minds. They need another profession, this kind of reporting isn't healthy................

Dave Begley said...

The NYT is just jealous that he has more readers than they do and his tweets are better and more effective.

Sore losers.

tim in vermont said...

Hillary says he is violating records laws when he sometimes deletes a tweet.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Is the corrupt left and the corrupt corporate press worth insulting.

They say no!

AZ Bob said...

That is a fair analysis, Ann. The NY Times could use someone like you sitting in an editor's desk.

elkh1 said...

A one man machine to unmask and attack the Axis of Democrats, Deep State, and the Fake Media.

The Axis is losing.

mockturtle said...

But so far, no one has called him 'Tweety-Pie'. How come?

iowan2 said...

Conway's response seems brilliant. All manner of persons, receive exactly the same consideration when the President of the United States speaks. The President is equal to all.

Darrell said...

NYT--We want you to hear only negative things about Trump 24/7/365, like you do when you read our pages. Same with any Republican. Democrats get full-time positive coverage. How dare he bypass our time-honored traditions?

Bob Boyd said...

Tweets? I'd rather listen to Trump demonstrate his mastery of 11,000 actual bird calls than hear one day of President Hillary's cackle and screech.

Darrell said...

Obama had something like seven staffers running his social media accounts. He rarely Tweeted himself because people said he could operate the (modified) Blackberry that gov't employees must use.

Temujin said...

Journalism!

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

The reason Althouse is such an unconvincing advocate for Trump is two-fold. First, she isn’t sympathetic to either his personality or policies. Althouse would have much preferred an anodyne GOPe candidate, like Ryan or Walker. Second, she doesn’t seriously engage with either his personality or his policies. Actual supporters of Trump and/or his policies, like Tucker Carlson and Ann Coulter, have provided detailed critiques of his personality, his policies or the lack of implementation of said policies. Althouse white washes Trump’s failings, largely by omission, which provides no credible basis for her nominal support.

Matt said...

Well, that is a pretty unique way of approaching their 'Here is today's reason Trump is the worst person to ever live' narrative.

Kudos.

Big Mike said...

@Althouse, I don't know about you, but I feel that Trump does a much better job with his tweets these days as opposed to when he was President-elect and in his early days of the presidency. I think he picks his targets better, and slips the knife in better. Some people grow in office, and Trump is one of them.

Bob Boyd said...

This is like a bunch of incels bitterly detailing all the things a pickup artist says to women that the incels do not approve of.

Bill Harshaw said...

Seems to me that's a key difference between us: when you watch the president or read his tweets, you see humor, I see anger and meanness, reminding me of all the bullies I've ever seen. You can trust a humorous man, I distrust an angry one.

tim in vermont said...

https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1183751836957851648

NY Times stories are like mayflies. For a moment, they sure are pretty

tim in vermont said...

ARM, the “serious engager.” LOL

tim in vermont said...

"I distrust an angry one.”

I distrust people who will repeat lies to overturn elections, then express fake concern that the target is mad about it.

tim in vermont said...

"Althouse white washes Trump’s failings, largely by omission, which provides no credible basis for her nominal support.”

Trump’s “failings” are exhaustively covered in all of the major news media 24X7. Your problem, ARM, is that you don’t think there should be any room for debate, like totalitarians everywhere, anybody who disagrees with you must be mentally deranged.

You have this opinion that the industrial Midwest and extractive industries are doomed and that there is no point even discussing it and therefore its wrong to give voice to the victims of your widely shared, but not exactly empirically provable belief. You keep linking stories about a doomed economy and the reports just keep coming of record low unemployment anyway. You assert that this is all due to Obama, without any proof.

I would love to hear you explain where it says in the Constitution than the opinion of an underling is the final word on US foreign policy and that to go against such an underling is impeachable and cause for removal.

You have the self awareness of a sponge, ARM. If you can’t even acknowledge arguments from the other side, why do you think that anybody should believe you have honestly assessed them and dismissed them with good reason?

Michael K said...

Althouse white washes Trump’s failings, largely by omission, which provides no credible basis for her nominal support.

Yeah, she whitewashes the economy, the unemployment rate, 28 million Hispanics employed, black unemployment lowest in history.

ISIS leaders dead, China in retreat. Yup. All that bad stuff.

Bay Area Guy said...

Because the NYT and WaPo are so bad, Trump needs a direct unfiltered channel to the American public, and his tweets to 65 Million folks seems to do the task.

Nobody needs the NYT to interpret the tweets for us, we can read them directly.

Yes, some of his tweets are unwise and counterproductive. So What? On the whole, they have done the job.

Guildofcannonballs said...

Islam is satanism is actually a good "get out of Hell free" card.

tim in vermont said...

"Yeah, she whitewashes the economy, the unemployment rate, 28 million Hispanics employed, black unemployment lowest in history.”

#FakeNews! ARM keeps telling you that Doc!

bagoh20 said...

All the "experts" hate his tweeting, which is further proof of the genius of it. Every President from now will attempt to employ it, but never so effectively. Presidential tweeting will die eventually after his predecessors fail at it, or it is made obsolete by the direct mind melding technology I'm working on. Ground floor opportunities are available.

Guildofcannonballs said...

God has for not one millisecond hated the sinner: only the sins.

What works for the best and the least of us and everyone in between is faith in God almighty.

Roy Lofquist said...

Management is telling people what to do. Leadership is getting people to do what you want them to do. Step one: tell them.

Guildofcannonballs said...

I hereby prohibit the use of the locution New York City. Forthwith it shall always be known, sans Trump, to be New York Shitty.

narciso said...

I call them 'blank pages'


https://www.amgreatness.com/2019/11/01/government-doesnt-deny-editing-flynns-statement-before-charging-him/

Guildofcannonballs said...

All art and artists in New York Shitty are beholden to slave profiteers from the old days.

May Hell rot in their souls?

Yancey Ward said...

"The reason Althouse is such an unconvincing advocate for Trump is two-fold. First, she isn’t sympathetic to either his personality or policies."

The above was written without a smidgen of irony by the poster who regularly updates us with links to David French, Jonah Golderg, and other neo-con NeverTrump Republicans.

Yancey Ward said...

Complaints of this type about his tweets from Trump's enemies is known as concern trolling. In other words, I would only take seriously critiques from people who otherwise support Trump. There are such people in these threads regularly- I mostly disagree with them, though I would have agreed, let's say, 2-3 years ago. Today, I can't really argue against the success Trump has had with his social media footprint and methods. The proof is in the eating, and that proof is hard to deny at this point.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

forget the Times--

8kun (formerly 8chan) comes online in about 8 hours,
announcing plans to prevent deplatforming and attacks

https://reclaimthenet.org/8kun-8chan-o

Churchy LaFemme: said...

I once read a collection of Cicero's works with a modern introduction which said something to the effect that to the modern reader Cicero will seem very defensive and somewhat obsessed with replaying his actions of the Cataline Conspiracy. In part this is because he was under constant daily attack for his actions, criticism that has largely not survived and which is not included with his writings.

Same thing with Trump's twitter.

traditionalguy said...

Suppose Trump was a Commenter under an assumed name on the Althouse Blog, just to work off his need to communicate and communicate and communicate. Who would know?

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

Sub 2% GDP growth is not impressive given the vast hole Trump blew in the budget to pump the economy through his tax cut. Most strikingly, business, the main beneficiaries of the tax cut, are now investing less than a year ago.

The tax cut, which was more Ryan than Trump but Trump is stuck with consequences, has been a complete failure. And this is the only real change Trump has made to the economy.

Temujin said...

tradidionalguy: "Suppose Trump was a Commenter under an assumed name on the Althouse Blog, just to work off his need to communicate and communicate and communicate. Who would know?"

That is hilarious. But I...er...he would never do anything like that. It would be something only a lying, lazy dog loser would do.

narciso said...

Indeed or you can look at Sallusts portrayal of him, the latter being a Caesar partisan, Catiline was a rabble rouser, an inciter against established order, saylor takes up his brief up to a point,

narciso said...

Cicero came from the land of the volsces, that rival tribe, that gaius martius had bested back in the late 4th century bc,

narciso said...

martius, who was dubbed coriolianus, was exiled from the city, upon his assumption as consul, by political rivals, he chose poorly and joined the volsces, to try to take back rome, somewhat like Alcibiades with the Persians,

narciso said...

what I was referring to,


https://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/coriolanus/context/

Rance Fasoldt said...

I have three Twitter accounts, one of which is dedicated to Trump. The dedicated account is great for finding out what is going on in the world that the President thinks is worth tweeting about. Most tweets are upbeat, informative and never mentioned in the media. I like a clear channel from the most important person on the Earth to me, personally.

narciso said...

a more modern setting,


https://carolineglick.com/al-baghdadi-and-trumps-syrian-chessboard/

Ann Althouse said...

I am not attempting to “advocate” for Trump, so I take it as a positive that I don’t seem like one.

Might want to think about what someone is trying to do before accusing them of failing.

What do you think I am trying to do?

narciso said...

someone looking upon this period as it was say in the 5th century Athens, would be confused, because pericles partisans like Thucydides set the template, for the eventual deluge, one can move farther ahead to tacitus and Suetonius in the roman era, they were partisans of the senate, and painted the augustan line in deeper colors than even they were possible,

Beasts of England said...

’The tax cut, which was more Ryan than Trump but Trump is stuck with consequences, has been a complete failure.’

The record low unemployment and record high markets disagree with your emotional assessment.

narciso said...

or if you used Michael wolff's template, where everyone is in the shadows, and bannon serves as a premature Procopius, where achievements are unheralded, and shortcomings magnified,

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

Beasts of England said...
The record low unemployment and record high markets disagree with your emotional assessment.


Your assumption, that this would not have happened with a continuation of the existing polices, is wrong.

readering said...

It's not unfair to criticize the President for retweeting garbage. He shouldn't do it.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

Ann Althouse said...
I am not attempting to “advocate” for Trump,


By being an unsparing non-critic you are definitely advocating for Trump. Whataboutism is a form of argumentation, just not an effective one.

Amadeus 48 said...

Heh. ARM gives us the old double down on failure treatment. ARM, we had 8 years of the Obama prescription. We got the slowest post recession recovery in history. Trump came in, slashed the regulatory strangle, flattened the tax rates, and away we go.
It would have happened anyway—NOT.

Bruce Hayden said...

“Your assumption, that this would not have happened with a continuation of the existing polices, is wrong.”

Delusional.

A lot of reasons why the Dems are butt hurt about the success of Trump’s economic policies. One, of course, is that it helps in his re-election. But the big thing about the Republican’s Tax Reform is that it capped their SALT deductions. The rest of the country was no longer helping pay for their mansions in their socialist paradises like NYC, SFO, LAX, etc. The amazing thing to me is that the Dems are willing to raise taxes on many tens of millions of taxpayers just to get their unlimited SALT deduction back. And Sanders and Fauxhauntis think that they can impose a wealth tax on billionaires. Good luck with that, if the mega rich in this country aren’t willing to pay their fair share of federal taxes already, because they choose to live in ultra high tax states and cities, and expect the rest of us to pay those taxes for them.

narciso said...

it is striking how he is targeting the upper earners in blue states, eh,

tim in vermont said...

Pretzel logic from ARM

"Sub 2% GDP growth is not impressive given the vast hole Trump blew in the budget to pump the economy through his tax cut."

"Your assumption, that this would not have happened with a continuation of the existing polices, is wrong.”

Your recession will come someday, I am sure of that ARM. Meanwhile, it’s poor form to wish for one to punish voters who won’t vote the way you want them to.

I love the “If you’re not with us, your against us” jab. Remember everybody, the possibility that ARM is wrong on anything is zero, so whenever he makes a pronouncement, you should just drop your beliefs and adopt his. Asking him to support his arguments is futile, he is so far above us that he considers it an insult.

What I have noticed over the years is that the person so certain that he won’t examine his premises when questioned is most often the most likely to be wrong.

tim in vermont said...

ARM wants the tax cuts back for the wealthy in the blue states, Bruce. It’s better for everybody rather than wasting these tax cuts on the benighted and low productivity meth heads in flyover country. We will just spend it on drugs and beer.

Drago said...

You think ARM is angry now, just wait until even more Americans get jobs and wage increases!!!

LOLOLOL

Keep slinging that NYC lefty economic hash ARM. I'll bet there are at least 3 people in Jersey who will buy it!

Drago said...

ARM: "Your assumption, that this would not have happened with a continuation of the existing polices, is wrong."

Remember ARM, obama himself said that it would take a magic wand to obtain improvements to the Obama economy.

And then, whaddya know! Trump found the "magic wand" and used it!!

Now, all that is left for ARM to do is tell all those millions of Americans who reentered the work force after years of having given up hope and reentered the work force and found jobs and even gained historically massive wage gains along with all those other Americans with all that extra cash in their pockets how wrong they all are for believing in Trump!

Go get 'em ARM! Your Venezuela-speak is bound to work on them! Don't delay another second!

And make sure you remind them that they will need to give up their health insurance and their doctors and also that their taxes will necessarily have to go thru the roof to pay for Free Everything for illegals and gender reassignment surgery for inmates!

My favorite Bidenism thus far?

Biden telling voters that under his plan, which is supposedly an improvement on the supposedly perfect obamacare act, you will be able to:

1) Keep your plan if you like it
2) Keep your doctors if you like them
3) Save thousands every year!!!

LOLOLOLOL

Biden probably forgot that he and obama and the dems and ARM already tried to sell that one and it delivered the House and Senate right back into republican hands!

Birkel said...

Did anybody notice the revisions UP of the previous two months' unemployment numbers?
Remember all those revisions DOWN during the Obama years?

Anybody notice that with Baby Boomers retiring, there are currently not people employed now - in America - than ever before?

Would somebody please tell ARM?

Beasts of England said...

’Your assumption, that this would not have happened with a continuation of the existing polices, is wrong.’

It wasn’t happening before tax cuts, significant deregulation, repatriations of funds, and having a businessman in the White House. In case you’re unaware, Obama’s shitty economy was only prevented from double-dipping into a prolonged recession (or even depression) by an $800B stimulus, ZIRP/NIRP, and a few trillion dollars in quantitative easing.

You suck at logic and economics, ARM. Stay in your lane.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

What we were promised:

"I think it [GDP growth] could go to 4, 5, and maybe even 6%. We are back. We are really going to start to rock. We need this as our final push and you're going to see some numbers that are really great.

What we got:

Sub 2% growth.

I understand that you guys are fine with this kind of BS but a large fraction of voters find it insulting, reasonably in my view.

Beasts of England said...

’I understand that you guys are fine with this...’

I’m more than fine with the best job growth in decades; the most American workers ever employed; rapidly increasing wages; significantly higher take home pay; energy independence and low fuel costs; the first uptick for the labor participation rate in twenty years - well, you get the picture...

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

Here is a graph of employment numbers. If Trump had had any positive impact on employment the slope of the line would have become steeper after his election, instead it is slightly shallower. To be fair to Trump, as you approach full employment you would expect the slope to get shallower, but to imply that Trump has done something unique that was not already baked into the equation is nutty.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

Here is the fixed link.

Birkel said...

ARM will studiously avoid the upward revisions.

Drago said...

ARM thinks he can convince that record number of Americans that are employed and with rising wages that things are terrible!!

Go for it big boy! Not even your moron marxist dem candidates are dumb enough to think they can get away with that! And that tells you everything you need to know about ARM's latest LLR C****-like propaganda.

Number of questions on the economy during the last couple of dem debates?

Approximately ZERO

LOL

Beasts of England said...

’...but to imply that Trump has done something unique that was not already baked into the equation is nutty.’

Do you have any academic or professional expertise in economics? Do you have the faintest idea of the underlying policies that I presented at 4:58 and how they were used to prop up Obama’s economy? Do you understand that the absence/reversal of those policies are an economic headwind for Trump? Do you understand the difference between the solid organic growth resulting from Trump’s policies versus the external inorganic forces used to aid his predecessor?

All rhetorical questions, of course. You’re an economic dilettante, incapable of understanding or examining the dynamics in question.

Rusty said...

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...
"Here is a graph of employment numbers. If Trump had had any positive impact on employment the slope of the line would have become steeper after his election, instead it is slightly shallower. To be fair to Trump, as you approach full employment you would expect the slope to get shallower, but to imply that Trump has done something unique that was not already baked into the equation is nutty."

Yes. The Graph. Now look at the record unemployment under Obama. See if you can find an income graph and overlay it with the unemployment graph. Now take the welfare graph and overlay that with the other two.