When the New York Times lost its way
www.economist.com
America’s media should do more to equip readers to think for themselves

This was a really interesting read about the growing polarisation in media and the US.

Like me, Baquet seemed taken aback by the criticism that Times readers shouldn’t hear what Cotton had to say. Cotton had a lot of influence with the White House, Baquet noted, and he could well be making his argument directly to the president, Donald Trump. Readers should know about it. Cotton was also a possible future contender for the White House himself, Baquet added. And, besides, Cotton was far from alone: lots of Americans agreed with him—most of them, according to some polls. “Are we truly so precious?” Baquet asked again, with a note of wonder and frustration.

The answer, it turned out, was yes. Less than three days later, on Saturday morning, Sulzberger called me at home and, with an icy anger that still puzzles and saddens me, demanded my resignation. I got mad, too, and said he’d have to fire me. I thought better of that later. I called him back and agreed to resign, flattering myself that I was being noble.

Whether or not American democracy endures, a central question historians are sure to ask about this era is why America came to elect Donald Trump, promoting him from a symptom of the country’s institutional, political and social degradation to its agent-in-chief. There are many reasons for Trump’s ascent, but changes in the American news media played a critical role. Trump’s manipulation and every one of his political lies became more powerful because journalists had forfeited what had always been most valuable about their work: their credibility as arbiters of truth and brokers of ideas, which for more than a century, despite all of journalism’s flaws and failures, had been a bulwark of how Americans govern themselves.

Archive link: https://archive.ph/JxGro

  • mozz@mbin.grits.dev
    1·
    4 months ago

    How could you walk up SO close to the point and then manage to get 1,000% backwards

    There are many reasons for Trump’s ascent, but changes in the American news media played a critical role. Trump’s manipulation and every one of his political lies became more powerful because journalists had forfeited what had always been most valuable about their work: their credibility as arbiters of truth and brokers of ideas, which for more than a century, despite all of journalism’s flaws and failures, had been a bulwark of how Americans govern themselves.

    Dude print it on a fuckin flyer that gets stapled to the shirt of every NYT reporter and editor so they can always pick it up and read again and it’s never out of sight. Have someone stop them when they walk in the building, and then read it to them like a Miranda warning, and ask for a verbal yes or no whether they have understood, before anything can continue. Fuckin do it every day. I cannot stress enough how well this gets to the heart of the point of what is wrong with US journalism and the Times in particular.

    And then:

    The Times’s problem has metastasised from liberal bias to illiberal bias, from an inclination to favour one side of the national debate to an impulse to shut debate down altogether.

    Where was this careful avoidance of favoring one side or another as to Biden’s age and its importance in the campaign

    Or in whether Israel is justified in the war

    Or whether criticism of them is anti Semitic

    The exact problem with the Times is that they are favoring one side of the national debate, and specifically somehow unerringly the wrong side. I actually agree that they should either avoid taking sides, or, even better, favour the side that is backed up by objective reality. But neither of those is what they are doing.

    As Sulzberger told me in the past, returning to the old standards will require agonising change.

    What old standards are those, AG

    I remember the paper favouring killing Palestinians for as long as I remember. I remember it telling my parents what a good idea the Iraq War was and them believing it. I don’t remember it ever having it lost its way into some postmodernist fog where it was careful to say that maybe Palestine has a point

    SO WHAT OLD STANDARDS ARE YOU MEANING

    WHAT YEAR DO YOU MEAN, AND WHAT STORIES

    Because I kind of have a feeling I know exactly, precisely, what version of truth AG is talking about how very important it is for the paper to enforce, and publish exclusively, not committing the disservice that it would be for them to waver from that version of the truth.

    Let me say it again:

    There are many reasons for Trump’s ascent, but changes in the American news media played a critical role. Trump’s manipulation and every one of his political lies became more powerful because journalists had forfeited what had always been most valuable about their work: their credibility as arbiters of truth and brokers of ideas, which for more than a century, despite all of journalism’s flaws and failures, had been a bulwark of how Americans govern themselves.