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Trump as Mother Hen

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EPR-radar  Sep 12, 2016 • 10:53:34am

For me the crux of this issue is in this paragraph from Spayd’s article:

I can’t help wondering about the ideological motives of those crying false balance, given that they are using the argument mostly in support of liberal causes and candidates. CNN’s Brian Stelter focused his show, “Reliable Sources,” on this subject last weekend. He asked a guest, Jacob Weisberg of Slate magazine, to frame the idea of false balance. Weisberg used an analogy, saying journalists are accustomed to covering candidates who may be apples and oranges, but at least are still both fruits. In Trump, he said, we have not fruit but rancid meat. That sounds like a partisan’s explanation passed off as a factual judgment.

That bolded part is objectively false. The easiest way to see that is to note that right wing never-Trumpers make the same conclusion as I do based on non-partisan issues we both find compelling.

E.g., It is objectively true that:

1) Trump is a habitual liar, routinely going far beyond the normal levels of spinning a partisan point of view.

2) Trump panders to the worst elements in US politics, including racists and bigots.

3) Trump’s evident personality flaws disqualify him from the presidency. Democrats and Republicans can agree that a thin-skinned buffoon should not have control of the nuclear launch codes.

etc. etc. There is nothing partisan about any of this, so Spayd is fundamentally mis-characterizing the issue at hand.

2
EPR-radar  Sep 13, 2016 • 7:06:22pm

The comments on the linked article at the NYT are well worth reading. A quote below from an earlier Liz Spayd column is most instructive.

I went around asking several journalists in the newsroom about these claims that The Times sways to the left. Mostly I was met with a roll of the eyes. All sides hate us, they said. We’re tough on everyone. That’s nothing new here.

That response may be tempting, but unless the strategy is to become The New Republic gone daily, this perception by many readers strikes me as poison. A paper whose journalism appeals to only half the country has a dangerously severed public mission. And a news organization trying to survive off revenue from readers shouldn’t erase American conservatives from its list of prospects.

Spayd is simply being delusional here. It is impossible for there to be journalism that appeals to both the left and the right in the US because the US right rejects reality and the US left (mostly) does not reject reality.


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