Trick or treat! Okay, forget about the treat. The New York Times has only a trick for the Texas Tribune in the form of the termination of their partnership.
Is this just a coincidence that the Halloween announcement which appeared in the Texas Tribune is happening just before the election in which it appears that the campaign of Democrat gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis appears to have imploded, destroying what many suspect was the not so subtle effort by the Texas Tribune to turn that state blue? We shall look into that effort but first the Halloween trick just handed to the Texas Tribune:
This was supposed to be a proud and grateful acknowledgement of the anniversary of our content partnership with The New York Times, which began four years ago today. Well, we interrupt this blog post to bring you some late-breaking news.
Yesterday afternoon we learned from our pals at the Times that our work together will come to an end, sadly but not entirely unexpectedly, at the conclusion of the calendar year — a casualty of the challenging economic times that continue to bedevil the media industry. You may have read or heard recently about cutbacks at the paper: the elimination of newsroom jobs, the shuttering of mobile apps, the imperiling of whole sections. Even the Times’ budget, larger than those of its peers, has not been able to withstand the impact of precipitous, disruptive changes to nearly every aspect of the newspaper business. In that environment, anything on the periphery, not central to its core mission or functions, was vulnerable. The Trib partnership, while innovative, ambitious and, relatively speaking, cheaply produced, was objectively an expendable line item.
They were expendable...once the Times realized the Texas Tribune failed in its efforts to turn Texas blue.
Here is Bryan Preston of the PJ Tatler chronicling some of the efforts by the Texas Tribune to weight the news in favor of the Democrats:
The Texas Tribune is a non-profit news gathering organization that bills itself as non-partisan. It has come under serious and sustained criticism recently for getting a sweetheart deal to cover a fundraiser and speech by Democrat gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis. The news content it generates is syndicated all over Texas, for free, to local news outlets, which calls into question its non-profit status — it’s not supposed to be in competition with for-profit news organizations.
When it comes to hidden camera video that makes Democrats and their allies look bad, the Tribune consistently handles such videos in a backhanded way.
Take a look at how it covered this 2010 video, of then Rep. Ciro Rodriguez (D) having a meltdown in front of his constituents a few months before the 2010 election. The Tribune took several hours before it even covered the video. By the time the Tribune covered the clip, it had already been posted on blogs and news sites and discussed on talk radio for hours. The Tribune buried the breaking, newsworthy video under a body of content and several updates, and couched the video as something conservatives were spreading around. The Trib downplayed Rodriguez’s actions in the video itself, actions which were the heart of the story. The Trib’s headline gives their game away.
The Texas Tribune concludes the Halloween announcement with what sounds like a shout out for another partnering source to pay the bills:
We’ll miss working with the Times, but other partners are out there, and there’s plenty of important work to be done under the Tribune’s own robust brand. Enjoy the last two months of Trib/Times pages, and stay tuned for more breaking news.
Over here! We need a partner to help turn Texas blue in a not very subtle way. Hello George Soros! Hello Tom Steyer!
