Does Donald Trump secretly own the Boston Globe?
The question comes as the Globe’s call for newspapers to publish anti-Trump editorials was followed by some 350 newspapers around the country. Fox headlined the inevitable and forseeable this way: “Trump accuses The Boston Globe of ‘COLLUSION’ with other papers as hundreds run editorials against him.”
The story began:
President Trump on Thursday accused The Boston Globe of “COLLUSION” with other newspapers, as hundreds of outlets launched coordinated editorials hitting back at his attacks on members of the press.
“The Boston Globe, which was sold to the the Failing New York Times for 1.3 BILLION DOLLARS (plus 800 million dollars in losses & investment), or 2.1 BILLION DOLLARS, was then sold by the Times for 1 DOLLAR. Now the Globe is in COLLUSION with other papers on free press. PROVE IT!”
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As “Today in the United States we have a president who has created a mantra that members of the media who do not blatantly support the policies of the current U.S. administration are the ‘enemy of the people,’” the editorial board wrote. “This is one of the many lies that have been thrown out by this president much like an old-time charlatan threw out ‘magic’ dust or water on a hopeful crowd.”
Catch that sentence from the Globe - this one: “This is one of the many lies that have been thrown out by this president much like an old-time charlatan threw out ‘magic’ dust or water on a hopeful crowd.”
What Trump has said repeatedly is that various mainstream media outlets have lied about him. And by chance (chance?) this very week , courtesy of the New York Times, we have a front page example of what Trump is talking about. Here’s the headline: “Trump Calls Omarosa Manigault Newman ‘That Dog’ in His Latest Insult.”
The story begins, bold print for emphasis supplied:
“WASHINGTON — President Trump added his former White House aide, Omarosa Manigault Newman, on Tuesday to the growing list of African-Americans he has publicly denigrated on Twitter, calling her 'that dog' and a 'crazed, crying lowlife' after her allegations against him of mental deterioration and racism.”
Again, catch that phrase. This one: '….the growing list of African-Americans he has publicly denigrated on Twitter…'
The point of the piece - made elsewhere in the media as well - is that Trump publicly denigrates African-Americans, insulting their intelligence, on Twitter.
But buried deep in the Times story was this link to a very different Times story from July. That Times headline read this way: “The 487 People, Places and Things Donald Trump Has Insulted on Twitter: A Complete List.”
Among the people whose intelligence was denigrated, as listed by the Times itself, were:
CNN’s Jim Acosta
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Yahoo News Political Columnist Matt Bai
Ex-Trump White House aide Steve Bannon
Conservative talk radio host Glenn Beck
Ex-Clinton White House aide Paul Begala
New York Times columnist David Brooks
New York Times columnist Frank Bruni
Former Vice President Joe Biden
Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush
That is a list of a mere ten taken from that Times list. There are many, many, many more. All of them labeled with some version of this Trumpian description of Times columnist Brooks: “A clown,” “dummy,” “one of the dumbest of all pundits.”
There’s something else about that list above. Notice? Every single person on my list of ten is white. And as mentioned there are many, many more examples of Trump’s targeting like that on the longer Times list of 487. Deep in the Times story is this grudging admission:
“Mr. Trump has also deployed the “dog” insult for white people, including Arianna Huffington, a founder of HuffPost. During the 2016 presidential campaign, Mr. Trump tweeted that a onetime political rival and fellow Republican, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, “lies like a dog.”
But the point of the piece, as that opening paragraph bluntly, stated was that Trump attacks targeted a “growing list of African-Americans he has publicly denigrated on Twitter .” The point was to suggest, as the Times and others do, that Trump singles out African-Americans for attacks on their intelligence - yet as the Times itself reported with that detailed list of Trump targets, this is flatly false. Not true.
One can like Trump’s attacks, or one can hate Trump’s attacks, but per the very detailed Times list it is abundantly clear that Trump targets are all races, both genders and even a cross section of foreign leaders, from Rodrigo Duterte, the President of the Philippines, to Justin Trudeau, the Prime Minister of Canada.
While Trump has not singled out the Times story about his alleged targeting of African-Americans certainly it illustrates exactly his point: the liberal media, in this case the Times, has written up a story that is false - and also, amazingly enough, is contradicted by an earlier Times story, the very detailed list of targets of presidential insults.
On The Ingraham Angle the other night, Laura ran a list of Trump targets who, like his now fired ex-aide Omarosa Manigault Newman, have been called “dogs.” Her list revealed the other targets included names like Mitt Romney, columnist George Will, ex-Obama aide David Axelrod, Glenn Beck and HBO’s Bill Maher. Again, all are white.
The point here isn’t about race. Race just happens to be in the news with Trump tweets attacking Omarosa, CNN’s Don Lemon and basketball ace LeBron James. The point here is journalism. The reason the Boston Globe gambit played into Trump’s hands is because he repeatedly makes the case that large segments of the press are dishonest. That they make it up as they go along to serve their anti-Trump agenda.
And, amazingly, along comes the New York Times - the very same week as the Globe’s editorial push - to illustrate Trump’s point exactly.
Ya can’t make it up.
But the liberal media tries hard to do just that.
