Alexander Burns

Politico's head of news, Alexander Burns, is frustrated with Joe Biden's pardon of his son Hunter, not due to ethical concerns but because it complicates criticism of Donald Trump's controversial appointments. Burns argues that Biden's action undermines the justice system, giving leverage to Trump's allies. This pardon, according to Burns, is seen as a self-serving move that weakens opposition…

What do Wisconsin, Arizona, and Georgia have in common? Dangerous conservative trends, according to the New York Times. The paper saw the dark cloud of McCarthyism still hanging over Wisconsin: "Much of the state remains rural and conservative -- McCarthy and Trump country." Contributing writer Robert Draper in the Sunday Magazine wrote thousands of words on…

The last two presidents have each caught the coronavirus while in office, Donald Trump in early October 2020, before vaccinations were available, and Joe Biden last week. But the contrast in the tone of the New York Times coverage of those two events couldn’t be more different. In “Biden Learns to Live With the Risks of the Coronavirus” by Michael Shear and Zolan Kanno-Youngs, there…

On the front page of Tuesday’s New York Times, national political reporter Alexander Burns warned that newly triggered abortion restrictions (i.e., "the rollback of women's rights") threatened to push young talent out of conservative red states in the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s overturn of Roe v. Wade, as those smart, talented pro-choicers head for abortion-welcoming…

As part of their weeks-long media tour promoting their book This Shall Not Pass, New York Times reporters Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns joined Monday’s CBS Mornings and, as predicted, almost the entirety of their eight-minute-plus segment was devoted to trashing the Republican Party and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) while all but ignoring attempts by the authors to…

The New York Times off-lead story Monday by national political correspondent Alexander Burns was headlined, “U.S. Surges, But Politics Hold Firm – Partisanship Immune to Signs of Recovery.” But it may as well have been titled, “What Is Wrong With You Trump Voters?” Flummoxed by Biden’s stubbornly so-so approval rating and continuing GOP strength, as shown in the 2020 elections,…

On the New York Times front page Thursday, national political correspondent Alexander Burns spun frantically for the Democrats in his news analysis under a “have your cake and eat it too” headline, “Why Choose? Democrats Seek To Fund and Reform the Police.” The text box skipped the desperation and division of the current Democratic Party on crime and police issues and skipped…

After Friday morning’s news that President Trump and the First Lady had tested positive for COVID-19, The New York Times could hardly suppress an undercurrent of gloating, bolstered by commentary from Democratic activists. Reporter Alexander Burns made the off-lead story slot on Saturday morning: “Now There’s No Spinning Away Pandemic’s Toll.” He wrote: "For Mr. Biden and…

On the first night of the Republican National Convention, the New York Times immediately tried to poison the well for the Republicans launch of the 2020 campaign, under the headline “Nominating Trump, Republicans Rewrite His Record.” Meanwhile, the paper helped Biden rewrite his own legislative history regarding the 1994 crime bill.

The Republican National Convention launched last night, and the New York Times launched its contemptuous coverage with Trump-hostile White House correspondent Peter Baker setting the table on Monday’s front page: “As Woes Grow, President Aims To Shift Story.” Baker told a whopper about the now famous McCloskey couple of St. Louis, supposedly “brandishing guns at peaceful Black Lives…