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Joe's avatar

Another point of light: local media. More people in Michigan probably subscribe to the Detroit Free Press than the NYT, and they interrupted their coverage of the Tigers' playoff run today to report on Trump forgetting where he was and insulting Detroit while speaking in Detroit. https://www.freep.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/10/10/donald-trump-detroit-economic-club-michigan/75614308007/

The Charlotte Observer condemned Trump's lies about FEMA last week and coverage in local NC papers has been brutal to him since Helene. I remember the same happening in Milwaukee when he insulted that city right before holding the RNC there. I'm guessing these local outlets reach way more swing voters than the New York Times (outside of Long Island, anyway).

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Charles Bastille's avatar

This article is like a roll call of journalistic mendacity. It's gotten a little better since Jack Smith's most recent legal drops and Trump's nonsensical speeches, but it's still very bad.

One thing I noticed back in February when the NY Times was even deeper in their sanewashing muck than they are now is that a lot of times, they buried the lede.

For example, in an article for this headline:

"The Church of Trump: How He’s Infusing Christianity Into His Movement"

The lede paragraph was:

"Long known for his improvised and volatile stage performances, former President Donald J. Trump now tends to finish his rallies on a solemn note."

Wow. The art of normalizing a scoundrel in full view. But the real lede should have been this, which was a few paragraphs down:

"He has been married three times, has been repeatedly accused of sexual assault, has been convicted of business fraud and has never showed much interest in church services. Last week, days before Easter, he posted on his social media platform an infomercial-style video hawking a $60 Bible that comes with copies of some of the nation’s founding documents and the lyrics to Lee Greenwood’s song “God Bless the U.S.A.”

The man he should be compared to is Jim Jones, so the headline should have been:

"The Makings of a Cult: How Trump Has Manipulated the Media to Form a Dangerous Political Cult"

I've applied to be the head of the NY Times headline writing crew. I'll let y'all know how it goes.

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