Monday, January 24, 2022

New York Times Publishes Fawning Puff Piece About January 6 Seditionists

The New York Times' latest puff piece about Trump supporters (an on-going series now in its seventh year) focused on the seditionists who took part in a deadly attempt to overthrow the government. It wa s published on the front page yesterday.
Eric Boehlert, Press Run, January 24, 2022:
Two days after it was reported that a detailed plan to seize voting machines was passed around the White House in December 2020, as part of Trump's plan to steal the presidential election, the New York Times on Sunday published a gentle profile of MAGAs who were part of a violent insurrection on January 6.

Portraying the deadly coup attempt as a spiritual rebirth for right-wing activists, one that "has given them new purpose" and a sense of "community," the Times' front-page piece detailed how insurrection participants had returned home renewed and committed to the Trump cause — how the attack on the Capitol "became a galvanizing new beginning."

What was missing from the article was context. The Times did not reach out to a single Democrat for a quote, or any experts in the rise of authoritarianism in the U.S., or even any Republicans who don't view an insurrection as the crowning achievement of the conservative movement. As with so many loving profiles of Trump voters over the years, no dissenting voices were allowed.

The Times piece never tried to explain what the news value of the exercise was. The media's firm fixation on Trump voters isn't normal — the idea that our politics needs to concern itself with the feelings of voters who supported the presidential loser has no basis in how the press traditionally views the election season.

It's all part of the paper's steadfast commitment to normalizing Trump and the dangerous movement he leads — the paper's hallmark devotion to constantly elevating white, middle-class voters from red states and portraying them as the most important political voices in America. . . .

The Times remains so institutionally committed to publishing updates about Trump Voters, while whitewashing the danger they pose to this country, that the paper can no longer recognize the absurdities of the premises they use. It would be like publishing a fawning profile of Neo-Nazis who traveled to Charlottesville in 2017. Remember the Times' misguided profile of a Trump-supporting Nazi from Ohio? (Nazis are people too!) . . .

This all goes back to 2016. Anxious to brush off claims of liberal media bias after Trump's surprise victory, reporters fanned out to GOP bastions to eagerly record every utterance from his supporters. We witnessed a conveyor belt of stories about blue-collar voters in virtually all-white counties inside red states announcing that they really, really like Trump. . . .

When Trump lost in 2020, journalists again swooped into GOP-friendly outposts . . . as the press gave close-minded Trump supporters a platform to spread untrue claims about the election and about President Joe Biden.

It was bad enough when the Times glorified Trump voters. Now they're celebrating insurrectionists.
Some comments:
Albany Poster
Regarding "NY Times fawns over Trump's insurrection...", one is reminded of a 1938 magazine article Good Housekeeping did on Hitler showing him relaxing at his home in the Bavarian Alps. Same normalizing of a fascist leader as Sunday's front-page story in the New York Times. Then in 2025 the Times will have one of their classic 20-20 hindsight articles in which they fault everyone but themselves for the death of democracy in this country.

Eric Boehlert
I'm not even sure there will be the hindsight articles

MAP
There will be at least one because it will offer an opportunity to blame Dems for not stopping them and ask "what are they gonna do about it?"

. . . 

TCinLA
Right down there with the NYT reporting that after he was convicted and sentenced to prison for the Beer Hall Putsch, "Adolf Hitler plans to leave politics and return to his native Austria." . . .

MadMatthew56
Gee, funny how they NY Times has blocked commenting on that article.
Also this past week: A stock broker who is annoyed at spending an additional 50 cents at Chipotle warranted a New York Times profile:
It's been quite a week for the Times. One of my favourite Twitter feeds. It's frighteningly accurate.

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