Patterico's Pontifications

12/12/2016

After Election Upset, New York Times Commits To ‘Honest Reporting Without Fear Or Favor, Reflecting All Political Perspectives’

Filed under: General — Dana @ 7:31 pm



[guest post by Dana]

Five days after the election, when the biting reality of Trump’s victory was still shattering lives, Arthur Sulzberger Jr., publisher of the New York Times, and executive editor Dean Baquet wrote a conciliatory note to readers. In part, it was meant to reassure readers fed up with the continual advocacy for Hillary Clinton outside of the op-ed pages, and let them know that the publisher and editor knew of the frustration, and promised to do better in the future. But given that their slight nod of acknowledgment was delivered with such smugness, I suspect already irked readers were not reassured as much as they were hoping for a way to slap that self-congratulatory arrogance right off the Gray Lady’s face. A portion of their joint note:

As we reflect on the momentous result, and the months of reporting and polling that preceded it, we aim to rededicate ourselves to the fundamental mission of Times journalism. That is to report America and the world honestly, without fear or favor, striving always to understand and reflect all political perspectives and life experiences in the stories that we bring to you. It is also to hold power to account, impartially and unflinchingly. You can rely on The New York Times to bring the same fairness, the same level of scrutiny, the same independence to our coverage of the new president and his team.

Following the pledge from Sulzberger and Baquet, public editor Liz Spayd went to her inbox, “listened” to reader criticism and examined the paper’s lopsided coverage of the election:

THERE is a group of 10 friends in Charlotte, N.C., all women, all in their 50s, all white. They’re college educated with successful careers, and they have a message for The New York Times: Come visit us.

They voted for Donald Trump and don’t consider themselves homophobic, racist or anti-Muslim. But now, they say, thanks to The Times and its fixation on Trump’s most extreme supporters, most people think they are.

[From] my conversations with readers, and from the emails that have come into my office, I can tell you there is a searing level of dissatisfaction out there with many aspects of the coverage.

Readers complain heatedly and repeatedly about the forecasting odometer from The Upshot that was anchored on the home page and predicted that Hillary Clinton had an 80 percent chance or better of winning. They complain that The Times’s attempt to tap the sentiments of Trump supporters was lacking. And they complain about the liberal tint The Times applies to its coverage, without awareness that it does.

Few could deny that if Trump’s more moderate supporters are feeling bruised right now, the blame lies partly with their candidate and his penchant for inflammatory rhetoric. But the media is at fault too, for turning his remarks into a grim caricature that it applied to those who backed him. What struck me is how many liberal voters I spoke with felt so, too. They were Clinton backers, but, they want a news source that fairly covers people across the spectrum.

Spayd was recently a guest on Tucker Carlson’s show. Carlson wasted no time in addressing the blatant advocacy of the NYT with regard to election coverage, both prior and post. While Carlson described it as “advocacy” journalism, Spayd offered a bit of context in her description, which reinforced Carlson’s assessment:

…an unrecognized point of view that The Times has that comes from being in New York, being in a certain circle, and seeing the world a certain way, not being in touch with people who don’t live like them, and don’t live in cities and who are the ones who elected Donald Trump to the presidency. They’re (NYT writers) are out of touch with them.

Spayd’s willingness to look at the issue more fully and honestly went miles beyond the feeble efforts of Sulzberger and Baquet.

Unfortunately, in spite of Spayd’s efforts, The New York Times is continuing to do business as usual. Why else hire a reporter to cover the White House who was outed by Wikileaks as having sent stories to Hillary Clinton staffers on several occasions so that they could review them, and approve them before publication?

“We’re thrilled that Glenn Thrush is joining The Times,” Elisabeth Bumiller, The New York Times’ Washington bureau chief, told The Huffington Post. “He’s a premier political journalist, a master of breaking news and long-form story telling and a stellar addition to our White House team.”

In light of the paper’s um, renewed commitment to report on America and the world honestly, without fear or favor, striving always to …reflect all political perspectives, consider this endorsement from Clinton’s former spokesman Brian Fallon:

If journalism is last line of defense in fight to hold Trump accountable, I’ll take my chances [with] combo of [Maggie Haberman] & [Glenn Thrush] at NYT.

Heh.

–Dana

11 Responses to “After Election Upset, New York Times Commits To ‘Honest Reporting Without Fear Or Favor, Reflecting All Political Perspectives’”

  1. Some things never change. They can’t change, because if they did, they would no longer be recognizable.

    Dana (d17a61)

  2. Tucker has really been cutting like scythe lately.

    narciso (d1f714)

  3. …an unrecognized point of view that The Times has that comes from being in New York, being in a certain circle, and seeing the world a certain way, not being in touch with people who don’t live like them, and don’t live in cities and who are the ones who elected Donald Trump to the presidency. They’re (NYT writers) are out of touch with them.

    Would it be fair to say that’s some of those New York Values one of the GOP candidates raised as an issue against one of the other candidates? As I recall, there was even an historical record of the accused candidate admitting that being from New York gave him a certain different perspective on the issues of the day from the rest of the country. I wish I could remember which candidate it was that was maligned as a Northeastern liberal RINO sort, out of touch with what real conservatives believed about the proper role of government and the relationship between Man and State. Maybe if I think about it, it will come to me.

    Jerryskids (3308c1)

  4. Yeah, Thrush, a reporter’s reporter. Sad to say.

    You’re right, narciso, Carlson has been tearing it up. MeAgain Kelly and 0’Reilly ought to vacate their slots, Carlson could do three hours and still be interesting at this point.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  5. the new york times isn’t respectable and just having it there makes me not wanna go to starbucks and get their overpriced nasty fascist lattes cause having the new york times there makes the whole thing feel dirty

    cause a pikachu has to make choices

    what’s a pikachu got if he don’t got his choices

    yeah that’s right

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  6. Little late to the party.

    Journalistic Fraud: How The New York Times Distorts the News and Why It Can No Longer Be Trusted (2003) by Bob Kohn
    https://www.amazon.com/Journalistic-Fraud-Distorts-Longer-Trusted/dp/B000685KVK

    Liberty & Truth require constant vigilance. GLZ.

    Gary L. Zerman (ab669e)

  7. i removed the news app from my iphone

    i clicked it on accident and they tried to do new york times all up my butt

    this is so offensive

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  8. I compare the NY Times to a court reporter. In an adversarial system in which two sides each play hard, fast, and close to the edge; it is expected that certain fouls will be committed, and objections raised.

    It is NOT the job of the reporter to interrupt the debate, rule upon claims and counter claims, and certainly NOT to selectively edit the record in fear of and in favors for the state.

    The voting public, unlike a jury, seldom gets to sit and hear the adversaries’ advocate, debate and sometimes prevaricate in the moment and instead relies upon the daily transcript and record taken by the court reporter. Once it becomes clear the reporter is ALSO an advocate the suspicion of prevarications is unavoidable.

    pouncer (806511)

  9. there’s this episode of ST:TNG describing the Democrat, New York Times, public, relationship.

    The crew is hypnotized by a virtual reality game played through a headset. Wil Wheaton and Ashley Judd are the only two left unaffected because they were on a holodeck date off the grid.

    Judd is eventually coerced into playing the game and becomes hypnotized, leaving Wheaton alone to run the gauntlet of zombified crew to reactivate Lt Data who saves the day with a handheld strobelight that breaks the spell.

    The strange thing both Ashley Judd and Wil Wheaton have been subsumed by the NYT DNC Clinton mind control in real life.

    When you google Wil Wheaton and Ashley Judd the first link is to Wil Wheaton .net’s FAQ how kissing Judd onscreen “ruined her for men”. THe second link is to a website called “The Mary Sue” which specializes in talking feminists into that their normal everyday encounters with white men are sexual harrasment

    papertiger (c8116c)

  10. 5, you think Carlson planted/encouraged the Hannity alt-right tweets (as seen At https://pjmedia.com/blog/nevertrumpers-borrow-lefts-favorite-smear-to-attack-sean-hannity/) I clear out his time slot/salary?

    urbanleftbehind (0cb9b7)

  11. Yeah, they pledge this, and then they gin up the Russian hackers story.

    Gabriel Hanna (14083c)


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