A fmr White House aide who worked closely w/ #Trump returned to the stand to testify about a significant meeting between Trump & #MichaelCohen his personal lawyer that is at the center of Trump’s #criminal trial.
#Trump’s vanity & actual (despite his “enemy of the people” propaganda) affection for the #NewYorkTimes front page is front & center as the defense displayed a photo depicting then-President Trump saluting on a tarmac — though the article it accompanied is not flattering — the headline: “#Tax Plan Sows Confusion As #Border Tensions Soar.”
Nonetheless, #Westerhout testifies that Trump sent copies of it to many people, indicating he liked the photo (& probably didn’t read it)
Margaret Sullivan on how New York Times, with Joe Kahn as editor, is asserting its "independence":
"Trump has been charged with dozens of crimes and is sitting in a courtroom defending himself in a hush money/campaign finance case involving a porn star? Well, let us restate that Joe Biden is old!"
Keith Edwards' quote (below) is featured in her essay.
Don Harwood responds to New York Times editor Joseph Kahn, who says that the attack on democracy represented by Trump is not the premier campaign issue:
"Donald Trump is the first American presidential candidate to explicitly threaten the democratic system on which a free press depends. He could win. Considering the stakes for the country, that ought to be the campaign issue that dwarfs all others."
from #NewYorkTimes [gift article below]
The One-State Solution
By Edward Said
Jan. 10, 1999
This is an article by the late #EdwardSaid. He was a #Palestinian - American philosopher, academic, literary critic, and political activist. and a professor of literature at #Columbia University.
It spells out his position that only a binational state based on equality will work in #Palestine - #Israel.
If you want to understand what is profoundly wrong at the #NewYorkTimes, this article offers answers. I heard Kahn interviewed at an event last fall, and when asked what they'd do differently on election coverage based on lessons of 2016 and '20, his response was, roughly, hire more reporters with regional accents. He does not understand that independent #journalism doesn't mean giving two sides equal weight. Don't just take my word, read what he says. (your take welcome) https://www.semafor.com/article/05/05/2024/joe-kahn-the-newsroom-is-not-a-safe-space
Paul Waldman on how, when the New York Time is challenged to acknowledge the power it wields in framing thought and setting agendas, it pretends to be powerless and "objective." It wants to claim, as editor Joe Kahn did in a recent interview, that it's just reflecting what people want. But:
"It doesn't just give the people what they want. It tells them what to want."
"When the Times decides that Hillary Clinton’s emails are the most important issue in the 2016 campaign, or that the fact that a prosecutor thinks Joe Biden is old warrants multiple front-page stories, it’s a signal that this is something you have to pay attention to. And people do.
It’s particularly maddening that Kahn doesn’t acknowledge that fact…."
from #NewYorkTimes [gift article below]
University of California Workers May Strike After UCLA Raid
A union representing academic workers said it would file unfair labor charges against #UCLA, and potentially walk out over the handling of protests this week.
from #NewYorkTimes [gift article below]
How Counterprotesters at #UCLA Provoked Violence, Unchecked For Hours
The #NYT used videos filmed by journalists, witnesses and protesters to analyze hours of clashes — and a delayed police response — at a pro-#Palestinian encampment on Tuesday.
Heather Cox Richardson summarizes Eli Stokols' report that New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger is driving his paper's hostile treatment of President Biden because of petty pique that Biden refused to sit for an interview with His Highness.
As I think about this story, I think of the parallel to the current big story that the Supreme Court is even more corrupt than many of us have imagined.
The common factor here: they do it because they CAN do it. Their power to inflict harm is unchecked, obviously by their own values and consciences, but also by the system itself.
The system is designed to allow certain arrogant, overweening, self-inflated and ego-driven people (usually male people) to do it because they CAN do it.
Donald Trump himself long having been an example of this dynamic….
Our big institutions – the Supreme Court, the media – will not save us, because they cannot save us. They cannot save themselves – from crippling arrogance and the belief that they owe nothing to anyone by way of accountability and virtuous behavior that places the well-being of our democracy first and foremost in their deliberations.
As Aristotle told us long ago, far from saving anyone, hubris merely sets up its practitioners for a big fall.
For examples of how #USPol political #journalism sees its main purpose as predicting outcomes, look no further than how major media cover #SupremeCourt arguments. Better journalism would focus and highlight what was argued and the context -- explaining, not predicting, would be the primary aim. #NewYorkTimes#WashingtonPost yes that's you.