Oliver Darcy, CNN senior media reporter, pounced on the latest example of bedwetting liberal hysteria in the latest edition of his “Reliable Sources” newsletter, accusing the New York Times for being…anti-Biden and insufficiently anti-Trump: “The New York Times is facing backlash over its coverage of Donald Trump and the 2024 election.”
Yes, there are apparently die-hard liberals (i.e. “a vocal set of critics and readers”) out there convinced “Donald Trump poses a grave threat to American democracy” and that the paper of record is not shrieking about it with sufficient volume. As if the Times’ reason for existing consists of pushing an aging Democratic president over the finish line in November.
Darcy wrote:
The New York Times is facing a sustained wave of backlash.
The Gray Lady has for several weeks been in the crosshairs of a vocal set of critics and readers who believe that Donald Trump poses a grave threat to American democracy and that the influential news organization isn’t adequately conveying those stakes to the public.
Darcy implied that Biden’s age and memory were not legitimate campaign concerns.
In the view of its critics, The Times has been far too distracted as of late by worries over President Joe Biden’s age, allowing it to steal attention away from the larger and far more serious danger posed by a second Trump administration. Critics have also argued that The Times covers Biden and Trump with disproportionate standards, placing false equivalence on issues surrounding the current president to those of the former president, who is facing 91 criminal counts and fantasized about being a dictator on “day one.”
Do you know another pompous politically oriented figure who wanted to be dictator for a day? A Times foreign policy columnist (see: Thomas Friedman's Power Lust: Let's Be 'China For A Day')..
The Times’ latest atrocity, according to its leftist critics? Conducting a poll with Siena College, which it tends to do during campaign years, and putting the resulting bad news for Biden on the front page.
The latest salvo in the now weeks-long stream of criticism against The Times burst into view over the weekend when the newspaper published a poll it conducted with Siena College that found a majority of Biden voters believe he is too old to be an effective president….
….
“That they even asked this question is evidence of the bias -- the agenda -- in their poll,” Jeff Jarvis, the Leonard Tow Professor of Journalism Innovation at the CUNY Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism, posted on Threads. “Who made age an ‘issue’? The credulous Times falling into the right-wing’s projection. This is not journalism. Shameful.”
“Who made age an issue?” Um, American voters did, long before the poll came out.
Jarvis’s rant continued: “NY Times, did you ask your random voters whether Trump is too insane, doddering, racist, sexist, criminal, traitorous, hateful to be effective as President?” Jarvis asked, adding, “This is not a poll. It is your agenda.”
Yeah, that hard-core MAGA rag known as the New York Times.(last seen accusing Chick-Fil-A of hating gays).
Darcy used the Times as a hook to pour out his own anti-Trump animus.
Some of the complaints against The Times and other news organizations are certainly valid. It is apparent that the U.S. media is still struggling immensely over how to cover Trump and the ongoing threats to American democracy. Years after Trump ascended to political power and started drowning the political discourse in dangerous lies and conspiracy theories, news executives remain confounded on the most effective approach to combat the deceit….
There was finally a partial pivot to a stance that mildly suggested maybe there was nothing wrong with the paper’s poll.
“People are upset today with the NYT because of…a poll?” Clara Jeffery, the editor-in-chief of the progressive Mother Jones news outlet, posted on Threads….
Former Times media reporter turned CNN analyst (and tasteless Rush Limbaugh basher and “Russian collusion”-myth supporter) Bill Carter assured Darcy the paper passed liberal muster, having “covered Trump’s many scandals at length, devoting significant coverage to fact-checking his lies, highlighting his ugly comments on a wide range of subjects, and perhaps most importantly, spotlighting his anti-democratic behavior.”
In other words, don’t fret, lefties! You and the Times are on the same side.
