New York Times writer Sheryl Gay Stolberg on Thursday highlighted glowing supporters of Jimmy Carter as she promoted a new Broadway play about the life of the former president. Stolberg parroted that "acolytes of Mr. Carter hope that 'Camp David'...will be a powerful reminder of the signature triumph of the Carter presidency and perhaps revive the decades-long effort to rehabilitate him."
The play focuses around Carter's 1978 efforts to negociate a peace treaty between Israel and Egypt. Stolberg allowed the type of self-aggrandizing comments that – if spoken by a Republican – would prompt the Times to make accusations of mental instability or a messianic complex. She related, "Mr. Carter told the playwright [Lawrence Wright] and the producer that he felt 'God wanted him to play a role' in Middle East peace."
Stolberg included fawning quotes from suppoprters, including these two:
“I believe that he is the least understood living former president, and I do not want either him to pass away, or me to pass away, without people having the full picture,” said Stuart E. Eizenstat, Mr. Carter’s former domestic policy adviser, who is writing a book about the administration.
...
The playwright concluded that Mr. Carter’s upbringing in racially segregated Plains — he was a rarity as a white boy with mostly black playmates — fostered his “immediate kinship” with the dark-skinned Egyptian leader. “He talked of how he loved Anwar Sadat,” Mr. Wright said, “not the usual language of heads of state.
The only real hint of criticism came when Stolberg reminded people of "Carter's more recent history." She noted, "He has met with Hamas leaders, criticized Israeli policies in the West Bank and Gaza, and infuriated many Jews with his 2006 book, 'Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid.'”
