The Federalist senior editor and 2015 Noel Sheppard Media Blogger of the Year Award recipient Mollie Hemingway was at it again on Friday with a masterful takedown of the media for their double standard in mocking Mitt Romney’s warning about Russia in 2012 but expressing alarm in 2016 at Donald Trump’s infatuation with the oppressive country and their president in Vladimir Putin.
Hemingway’s exquisite piece began with the lede of a front-page story in Friday’s New York Times concerning comments Trump made in an interview on Kremlin-funded Russia Today:
WASHINGTON — Donald J. Trump’s campaign on Thursday reaffirmed its extraordinary embrace of Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin, signaling a preference for the leadership of an authoritarian adversary over that of America’s own president, despite a cascade of criticism from Democrats and expressions of discomfort among Republicans.
She admitted that the paper “has always struggled with even-handed coverage of Republican candidates” but for this situation, she hit not only reporters Jonathan Martin and Amy Chozick for failing at hiding to keep disdain and disgust at Trump’s Russia praise in check, but other journalists for noticing their language.
“What’s weird about it is how different the media, including the New York Times, are about Trump’s posture to Russia relative to the the [sic] views of the previous Republican candidate for president, Mitt Romney,” Hemingway opined before providing the context of Romney’s much-maligned statement four years ago came as a result of President Obama’s “flexibility” comment to then-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
Along with journalists like CNN’s Wolf Blitzer who rushed to shield the President from Romney’s shot across the bow, Hemingway provided a comparison between the lede of the Trump story to a news story and editorial from 2012 attacking Romney for cautioning about provocations by Russia. First, here's the lede of the so-called straight news piece:
WASHINGTON — Mitt Romney’s recent declaration that Russia is America’s top geopolitical adversary drew raised eyebrows and worse from many Democrats, some Republicans and the Russians themselves, all of whom suggested that Mr. Romney was misguidedly stuck in a cold war mind-set.
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And then here’s the editorial:
Two decades after the end of the cold war, Mitt Romney still considers Russia to be America’s “No. 1 geopolitical foe.” His comments display either a shocking lack of knowledge about international affairs or just craven politics. Either way, they are reckless and unworthy of a major presidential contender.
In between the two excerpts, Heminway pointed out that if Russia were indeed a threat “as the New York Times is asserting in opening paragraphs of their Trump story, why in the world would Romney’s comments about them being such a major geopolitical foe have raised eyebrows or worse? That’s weird.”
The 2015 Noel Sheppard Media Blogger of the Year Award winner noticed Hillary Clinton’s level of alarm at Trump’s Russia stances and so she wondered if the far-left newspaper will find Clinton’s thoughts to be “reckless and unworthy of a major presidential contender” and “display a shocking lack of knowledge about international affairs, or just craven politics.”
Upon taking note of the Clinton Foundation’s connection to Russia, Heminway concluded:
Some see the country as a menacing threat that seeks world domination and some see it as a potentially valuable partner in the fight against global Islamism. Some see it as both.
But whatever one’s views on Russia, they shouldn’t change diametrically depending on whether a Republican or Democrat is talking about them.
And if the New York Times is going to flip out over Trump’s lack of concern about Russia, perhaps they could at least do so after a heartfelt apology for their unseemly and indefensible role in unfairly tearing down Mitt Romney in 2012.
