It’s been a moment for soul-searching, and to some extent repentance, at the New York Times. In much-discussed remarks to his own media columnist James Rutenberg, executive editor Dean Baquet offered a mea culpa for having missed the Donald Trump surprise, though he spoke less for the paper than for journalists in general. “We’ve got to do a much better job of being on the road, out in the country, talking to different kinds of people than we talk to — especially if you happen to be a New York-based news organization — and remind ourselves that New York is not the real world,” Baquet said.
Public editor Liz Spayd cut closer to the bone, as she marveled at an election-night flip from an 84% Clinton-to-win assessment by the paper’s elaborate data operation, to a 95% likelihood for Trump just a few hours later.
“As The Times begins a period of self-reflection, I hope its editors will think hard about the half of America the paper too seldom covers,” wrote Spayd.
She continued: “The red state America campaign coverage that rang the loudest in news coverage grew out of Trump rallies, and it often amplified the voices of the most hateful. One especially compelling video produced with footage collected over months on the campaign trail, captured the ugly vitriol like few others. That’s important coverage. But it and pieces like it drowned out the kind of agenda-free, deep narratives that could have taken Times readers deeper into the lives and values of the people who just elected the next president.”
Having left the Times on July 25, after almost 12 years as an editor and correspondent, I missed the main heat of the presidential campaign; so I can’t add a word to those self-assessments of the recent political coverage. But these recent mornings-after leave me with some hard-earned thoughts about the Times’ drift from its moorings in the nation at-large.
For starters, it’s important to accept that the New York Times has always — or at least for many decades — been a far more editor-driven, and self-conscious, publication than many of those with which it competes. Historically, the Los Angeles Times, where I worked twice, for instance, was a reporter-driven, bottom-up newspaper. Most editors wanted to know, every day, before the first morning meeting: “What are you hearing? What have you got?”
It was a shock on arriving at the New York Times in 2004, as the paper’s movie editor, to realize that its editorial dynamic was essentially the reverse. By and large, talented reporters scrambled to match stories with what internally was often called “the narrative.” We were occasionally asked to map a narrative for our various beats a year in advance, square the plan with editors, then generate stories that fit the pre-designated line.
Reality usually had a way of intervening. But I knew one senior reporter who would play solitaire on his computer in the mornings, waiting for his editors to come through with marching orders. Once, in the Los Angeles bureau, I listened to a visiting National staff reporter tell a contact, more or less: “My editor needs someone to say such-and-such, could you say that?”
The bigger shock came on being told, at least twice, by Times editors who were describing the paper’s daily Page One meeting: “We set the agenda for the country in that room.”
Having lived at one time or another in small-town Pennsylvania, some lower-rung Detroit suburbs, San Francisco, Oakland, Tulsa and, now, Santa Monica, I could only think, well, “Wow.” This is a very large country. I couldn’t even find a copy of the Times on a stop in college town Durham, N.C. To believe the national agenda was being set in a conference room in a headquarters on Manhattan’s Times Square required a very special mind-set indeed.
Inside the Times building, then and now, a great deal of the conversation is about the Times. In any institution, shop-talk is inevitable. But the navel-gazing seemed more intense at the Times, where too many journalists spent too much time decoding the paper’s ways, and too little figuring out the world at large. I listened to one longtime editor explain over lunch, for instance, that everybody on the paper has an invisible rank that might or might not coincide with his or her apparent place in the hierarchy. “You might think I’m a captain,” he said, based on his position at the time in a slightly backwater department. But, he continued, “I’m actually a colonel, because of my experiences and influence here.”
Fine. But what about the rest of the universe, that great wide world we were supposed to cover as journalists? As the years went by, it seemed to become more and more distant. One marker passed in the last decade, when the Wall Street Journal made a strategic move on the Times by strengthening its own New York City presence. The Times, by then firmly established as a national paper, went through a spasm of New York-centric thinking, mostly aimed at keeping the local print advertising base intact. Movie stories from far-away Los Angeles became harder to land; theater reviews and elite arts coverage from New York flooded the culture pages.
In theory, the great digital transition should have made it easier for those of us in the bureaus to penetrate the Times’ psyche. But somehow, it didn’t work that way. As quickly as the editorial staff was trimmed in years of successive buyouts and layoffs, it re-grew, largely with a new wave of digital workers, high and low. Many of them were based inside the new Eighth Ave. headquarters; and most seemed to spend much of the time talking about that perennially favorite subject, the New York Times, or buzzing in a digital hive on dozens of Slack channels. It took ever longer to get stories posted or published. More, the paper seemed to lose interest in much that was happening on the ground even in Los Angeles — New York’s palm tree-lined sister city — never mind those half-forgotten spots in Pennsylvania or Oklahoma.
By last summer, a Los Angeles bureau that was built to house 13 had dwindled to four or five inhabitants. Visits by upper editors were rare or nonexistent. Los Angeles stories, especially about the entertainment business, were increasingly written by visiting New York staff members or freelance writers assigned by editors back in Manhattan. The drift was palpable — presumably not just here, but in that heavily populated heartland. And finally, as Spayd said, the paper seemed to lose touch with “the lives and the values of the people who just elected the next president.”
So how are they going to do more of this real reporting if they keep cutting the newsroom?
the NY Times will go back to hectoring and lecturing Israel to allow the creation of a hostile Islamic state along its largest border. Sure hope the NY Times isn’t as wrong about that one as it was about Clinton-Trump!
I have been consistently disappointed in how the mainstream media’s election coverage played the dunce card on most Americans. For many of us, from musicians to doctors to cosmology thinkers to news lovers, we were played as racists and fascists and mean-spirited dullards. Why would I ever buy the NYT?
exactly.
Couldn’t have said it any better. The news media is so screwed up they couldn’t see the true story if it hit them right in the face.
You voted for a bigot.
What are people supposed to think?
That you are against outright bigotry and racism?
You’re not or you wouldn’t have voted for him.
So wear your bigotry support proud since that’s what you did.
The Agent – you have demonstrated the exact skills of a NYT editor and their marching to the tune reporters (at least those that are still left).
No, he spoke the truth based on observation. He reported what is.
I did not vote for a bigot.
Your assertion and presumption that your view of the world is reality, and my assessment of it is fantasy, insults me and my quite rational thinking process.
Calling me something I know I am not, trying to shame me into following your decisions, is only going to alienate me more from you and your opinions — someone who calls me a bigot a priori, and then expects me to hear their arguments why I should listen to them does not understand how the world works, because having been labeled a bigot by them, proves to me that they are too stupid to listen to.
How can you justify voting for Trump if you are not a bigot? What “magic” about him so captured your imagination that it blinded you to his racist, anti-Semetic, misogynistic deeds, all documented and on the record! Please just answer THAT, without qualification.
It’s amazing how Trump suddenly became all those things only after he ran for President as a Republican. Before that he was a beloved Democrat donor.
“What do you hear on the street?” must be coupled with coverage of more than just local, however lucrative, city streets. Bottom up journalism may mean, less revenue, so a decision must be made:
Bottom line, or believable “line”? The decision made, sells out, or buys back, the soul of journalism and its life blood, relevance.
The First Amendment is only the runway for truth. You want to land a story that’s meaningful, the first thing you have to do, is FIND out what that truth is, and WHERE.
Otherwise, the only distance you fly, is all the way to the scene of the crash.
Does the MSM really think they can fix the mess they’ve made of themselves?
This is a great read.
The New York Times having an agenda and being out of touch. Who would have thought?
Dear New York Times, please don’t change. We’re never going to trust you anyway, so just stick with your “core” audience.
LOL. Exactly. They knew exactly what they were doing. And so does everyone else with a brain and ability to think themselves. Remember when the Panama Papers came out & they were the only ones who weren’t in on the secret lol!
P.S. For the record, I don’t get what goes wrong with some people to think being corrupt and pushing propaganda is in anyway okay. That’s not what American is about! I mean, did these people not attend the same American history classes all throughout elementary & high school as me? Classes in which you are taught how lucky you are to be living in a democracy and how horrible societies that engage in antidemocratic behavior (such as propaganda!) become as totalitarian regimes? Way to respect your country and its values…
As Guilliani said 2 Wedsnesdays ago, “there are big surprises coming on Friday”, well just wait for a few more. Such as Guilliani being investigated for blackmailing Coney at the FBI (former R = continuing agenda, open to bribery or blackmail to “rig the election”. He was so proud that he couldn’t even keep his mouth shut, had to brag, and wants to be AG ?? Knows more about the Justice Dept. than anyone ???
Next, let us not forget the Russians bragging today about their constant contact with the Trump campaign.
Lastly, Trump will be forced on the witness stand by Spring as his Trump U. fraud trial progresses.
Karma is a Lady and Trump WILL pay for a lifetime of fraud, graft, lying, in addition to mysogyny, racism, and the plethora of venom he spewed throughout the campaign; including deluding that this country is returning to the dawn of the industrial age rather than embracing the dawn of the technological age, he encourages rage and division rather than encouraging retraining for wind, solar and other green energy technologies who need qualified builders. He appeals to the lowest elements of the human soul, to be bitter that brawn is and will increasing replaced by learning new skills.
For all you who are happy about the results of this election, I hope that you all reap the whirlwind.
You might reconsider the ‘just thinking’ alias. Your thoughts simply parrot the NYT and those like them. There’s a big old country in between the coasts where the agenda most definitely is not determined by the NYT editorial staff.
Thank you for posting this!!! We gotta make him pay and get him outta office!!! I am with you. I have money, (at least for the time being…UNTIL he gets inaugurated) and resources and can join any movement you are a part of. PLEASE let me know and I will be there to help get rid of him.
A great way to help is to use some of that money to support candidates in the 2018 midterm elections who will fight against Trump and his bigotry. Your voice matters and your dollars will help.
Complete bitter loser nonsense. There has been no proof of Russian influence in the Trump campaign and WikiLeaks. There is plenty of evidence of the millions of dollars from Mideast countries laundered through the Clinton foundation as well as corruption of the Departments of Justice and State. Lastly, learn to spell Giuliani since he most likely will be a Trump cabinet officer.
Hahahahaha ( deep breath ) hahahahahahaha. Big congrats to the NYT in a successful lemming brain washing. Lemme know how the weather is in Canada – be sure to start your own Occupy Toronto and BLM protest.
Suck it up. To quote Obama, the campaigns over and you lost. Elections have consequences. The people spoke in 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014 and 2016. He had every opportunity to listen and every subsequent election was a rebuke. Hillary said she wanted to continue his policies. A clear majority 70% said the country was headed in the wrong direction and it resulted in a victory for more centric policies. Nobody gives a damn whether you like it or not. That’s the way the system works. Go somewhere else if you think it’s better. The New York Times is being hoisted on its own petard. It will continue its slide
towards irrelevance to a large number of people due to failure in its core purpose, practicing good journalism.
If you value democracy, freedom and having rights, then you can kiss it all good bye when Trump becomes the president. He’s made it very clear…IN HIS OWN WORDS and ACTIONS, straight from the horse’s mouth (NOT just from media opinions or second-hand quotes or interpretations), that he does not care about you or anyone or anything. He has no soul and no conscience.
Great, so when are you moving then, with the rest of your hollywood, liberal cronies?
What you mean Jennifer Self….is IF we care about YOUR freedom and YOUR rights and democracy if it gets the results YOU and others like you want. We had democracy, we voted and he won. You exercised your right to vote or sit home and he won. You now have the right to mumble and grumble but who does that help? Bottom line is this, if you do not hope for him to succeed, then you wish for America to fail.
Yet I recall Rush Limbaugh proudly repeating over and over his wish for BHO to fail. I gather THAT sits well with you?
“I mean, did these people not attend the same American history classes all throughout elementary & high school as me? Classes in which you are taught how lucky you are to be living in a democracy”
Yeah, but that’s also propaganda. Propaganda comes from all viewpoints, and if it’s good propaganda, you don’t even realize that’s what it is.
If being taught that we’re fortunate to live in a democracy is just “good propaganda,” then you won’t mind living in a Trump autocracy.
No I really do mind that. But you’ll notice he got people to vote for him through his own rhetoric propaganda.
“Propaganda works best when those who are being manipulated are confident that they are acting on their own free will.” Joseph Goebbeis
“I mean, did these people not attend the same American history classes all throughout elementary & high school as me?”
No, they did not, especially the younger ones. They have been raised on a steady diet of hatred of America and its values. They’ve adopted globalist, fantasy ideals as their guide rather than the Constitution. They are ignorant of any real history and devoid of any real context of America’s placement in it. Their view point, and what they have been taught, is that America is the cause of the world’s problems. Never mind that we brought the world back from the brink twice, fought a Cold War, have the most free society of any nation on the planet, fought for that freedom for others around the globe, and a myriad of other things most nations only dream about. Certainly, not without faults. But to exalt the faults and not recognize the good is disingenuous, dangerous and destructive. As we are seeing post-election.
Great Scott – Thank you!
I don’t think the news got it wrong as much as they flat out lied and didn’t tell people the truth. I mean, it’s impossible that they all were predicting Hillary by a landslide. Anyone could see that wasn’t gonna happen.
Dear New York Times,
I cannot stress how my trust in you has been shattered. Perhaps it was too easily given, too blind…and that requires some soul searching on my end. But when I recovered from the staggering blow you identified as Trump’s triumph…My anger bent towards you.
It should be focused on Hillary and the Democrats who put their thumb on the scale to insure this uninspiring candidate won the primaries.
bottom line: the NY Times wanted Hillary to win, so they portrayed Trump supporters as mainly bitter uneducated and unsophisticated. The paper created an environment where many educated Trump supporters were afraid to admit they would vote for Trump.
When folks lose trust in you, it may never be able to be earned back.
Yeah, that’s it Times, you just weren’t out there enough. Yeah Right Uh Huh
Because the media live in their own echo chamber, unwilling to believe that there are people who think/believe differently than they do.
Hey … I am a retired technology executive, a mother of one sucessful child and one unsalvageable drug addict that has broken our hearts. The wife of a national corporate executive born in the north, i was born in the south. With no money for college I clawed my way to a Vice Presidency of a Tech Start Up, opened 17 offices across the U.S. This firm later sold for millions. I am also a white, a christian and have a southern accent, and could not afford college. I consider my demographic to be the most likely to be steroptyped and judged unfairly. My brother, a 35 year Washington attorney, works for the Trump campaign. I voted for Trump. I’d be glad to drive up there at my own expense and sit in a conference room with your editors, Nate Cohn and Paul Krugman. Just have a chat, let you pick my brain, poke around my knowledge of the issues, the drug addiction problem in America for example how it impacts blacks, whites and mexicans in Charlotte the banking capital. How I think Trump will help. I can be there as soon as you want.
I completely agree that your voice needs to be heard by the media “decision makers” who literally try to determine the culture of this country! I can relate on so many levels and as a college educated woman, it is impossible to voice your conservative opinion around academics and youth they have influenced… It’s job suicide, so all you can do is vote quietly and
pray (I know, that is considered ridiculous today!) that others are also on their knees.
Thanks, they’ll get back to you. When they say they need to hear more from the Heartland, they certainly don’t mean actually allowing one of the Morlocks into their sanctum. They’ll send a Brown alum digerati out to West Virginia for a little “Gorillas in the Mist” reporting, thank you very much.
As a moderate Democrat, I hope someone from the NYT sees this. These conversations need to be had and understood.
You mention drug addiction on two occasions and it’s obviously a cause very close to you. I’m genuinely curious what you’d like to see done to help people struggle with addiction. What actions would you like to see President-elect Trump take? How do you think he will help?
I also have family members who also struggle with addiction, so I’m asking these questions from a place of sincerity. This was one of the reasons I voted for Hilary Clinton, specifically her $10 billion plan to improve prevention and treatment. Also, I’d be curious to know what your stance on the repeal of Obamacare is. Not only does ACA cover addiction treatment, but in the future, it plans to try and prevent addiction with early intervention measures, like the medical community does with any other disease.
Thank you for offering a genuine dialogue, I hope you take me up on mine.
swing state voter: Thanks for your interest in my view. You are still a believer in politics and medicine and the people who practice those crafts. Hillary’s 10 billion would be a drop in the bucket for what is needed. And most of that money would go to Doctors, hospitals and support staff. As a family we have been through multiple rehabs both public and private, spend countless hours with programs very similar to the ones you cite with such earnestness. None of it works, I know .. I see it not just with my son but with so so so many others. Drug addicts have constitutional rights that trump the rights of their community and families – as long as they are not posing an immediate threat to themselves or others, police and pysch wards let them go. For 16 years I have watched health providers get rich while emergency rooms pile up with addicts and mental health cases. Police are overwhelmed and tired. 10 billion would be gone in New York State alone in 6 months. I have lost faith in the political system. For 16 years things have gotten steadily worse under Republicans and Democrats. Trump was a vote for change any change … a screaming howl at the dying of the light from someone who in imprisoned by the bars of my Son’s addiction in a country that does not care. There are millions of families just like mine .. read the bipolar forums. I thank God everyday, he doesn’t have children and we can afford to have him live separate from us, so many people are not as lucky, raising their grandchildren and beaten and robbed by their bipolar children. 16 years have worn me out to desperate hope. Does that answer your question.
My prayers are with you; you’re not handling this alone, although I’m sure it feels that way. Thank you for the courage to speak up.
Katherine – too well put. I’ve been living in a similar hell with a sibling and two children for 30 years – lots of detox, rehab, trips to the ER, wrecked cars, wrecked lives and close encounters with death. ObamaCare can cover everything to the moon except the premiums and deductibles for those of us who make too much to qualify for Medicaid but too little to live a normal life beyond paying for insurance. To hear Clinton proudly proclaim she would keep Obama’s plan for bankruptcy was beyond the pale. She, like the NYT, was out of touch with what is taking place far below her lofty $500 MM perch.
I love you, K. You are for real!
Your comment is a reminder of the value that comments can bring to articles. I say this because Business Insider this week followed NPR’s lead of ending reader comments. (The New York Times allows comments on about 10% of its articles.) The fooled media should be figuring out ways to nurture these exchanges with readers, not extinguish.
You are a warrior Katherine. I hope the NYT takes you up on the offer. All the best to you and yor family. Go Trump!
I have been feeling this way for a while about the old gray lady. She totally failed when we really needed her. If she had called a crises in the swing states people would have responded. Its shocking. To hear how the agenda is pushed. She is going out to pasture with Hillary.
I am a woman, a mother of one sucessful adult and one heartbreakingly unchangeable adult drug addict. I am the wife of a corporate executive born in the north while I was born in the south. He is my second husband, I had my children with a greek imigrant. Too poor to afford college, I still managed to claw my way to the Vice Presidency of a Tech Firm which later sold for millions. As an non degreed, white, christian southern woman who traveled America and opened 17 offices in the biggest urban cities, I felt the stereoptyping and outright hatred at my southern accent. It is OK to judge and dismiss southern, white women in this country. I just let it roll off my shoulders, blaming Andy Griffith and the movie Deliverance as instigating factors. I have a famous nephew who as a Gay man broke iTunes records. I also have a brother who is a 35 year attorney in Washington who works for Trump. i voted for Trump. I would love to drive up there from NC and sit in a room with Paul Krugman, with Nate Cohn with a few editors and just talk. About the drug problem in America, about the hate, about the love … about the South and the North. What it is like to have a mental health system break your heart, to have a city full of all colors and accents learning to live and grow. I’ll bring the Starbucks. It could be a good hour.
Hi…I was hoping to be able to talk to someone who voted for Trump…realizing it won’t be effective to insult you or your support of him. What I just want is to UNDERSTAND WHY!! I am absolutely horrified what it’s going to mean to have that man in the white house for the next 4 years. You sound like you are an intelligent person with some real insights. So if you could just enlighten me, I will listen….Thank you
One thing I cannot understand is how or why everyone believes everything is failing…and if it is, why it’s the fault of Obama and/or the Clintons…and why on earth anyone would believe for a moment that Donald Trump is the solution or would care about you or me or anyone or anything on this panet
Jennifer: There are bubbles in this country … bubbles where people exist without feelings for the people in the other bubbles. I was a judge’s scribe at a very elite dressage horse show this past weekend .. these people have money for everything plus a 75,000 and up horse. In the same venue there were mexicans cleaning up after the people and the horses …. both segments were voting for Trump. I know I asked them. Everyone has their self interest at heart. Ask yourself why Trump is in their self interest. Job creation, wealth creation that comes from the top down and bottom up they see that in him. Obama is worried about Transgender bathrooms in the middle of Trump’s populist push, plays an enormous amount of golf, goes to Nantucket and Hawaii with other rich white elitist all while Trump was empathizing with working rural America. I am sorry but Obama has not aligned himself with the pain of the country. So many many empty cloth factories, battery factories, tool factories … dot the south. So many main streets shuttered. Racism, islamophobia — women problems .. no one cares about these things when their kids needs braces and they are on 30 hours a week so the corporation doesn’t have to give them healthcare.
those replies were from me ChattyL . i wasn’t logged in sorry Jennifer.. Best wishes for your anxiety .. i suggest ..step away from the TV and go out in nature.
And yes sadly Jennifer — everything is falling apart . My 35 year old son is an addict of 16 years … He was once headed to greatness and then someone gave 2 LSD stamps as a joke on his pizza at college as a freshman. now he is free to terrorize his family .. because of his constitutional rights he cannot be kept safe and we cannot be kept safe from him. Pysch wards, jails, can’t keep him for more than a few hours … they let him out completely crazy to endanger our communitry … they are millions like him across the country. Our country is screwed up from top to bottom … courts, medicine, rap music glorifying drugs, doctors handing out seroquill like candy. Troops are killing themselves left and right when they come home. I am sorry – but Obamacare has not helped at all, I could break your heart with the stories I could tell of the pysch wards and emergency rooms in this nation. I wish I come go on TV and tell the truth about the cops, the judges, the courts – the doctors, the lawyers who have used my son and millions like him to make money in a never ending cycle that I live with every single day of my life. I fear to speak out .. will they follow me and give me traffic tickets, have my tax returns audited, put me in jail and gang rape me. I am scared to death of the police and attornies.
I voted for CHANGE AGAINST REPUBLICANS AND DEMOCRATS. HILLARY IS OBAMA. I AM GIVING UP HOPE on this corrupted country. TRUMP IS A HAIL MARY IN A LONG SCREAMING RAGE AGAINST THE POWERS THAT BE THAT HAVE MADE MY LIFE A NEVER ENDING NIGHTMARE.
To be fair, every major newspaper got it completely wrong. To me it felt like they were only writing for one half of the population. Much like Hillary was only targeting people who already planned to vote for her.
That is the trouble with Mainstream Media. America is going down the road of the Weimar Republic in 1920s Germany. Trump is a Nazi. Why should the NYT trim its sails? It needs to get after Trump and not let up.
That’s satire, right?
Wow!
I would suspect that NY Times editors would tell reporters not only what to cover, but have the article be bent to the editor’s agenda. Then I would blow that notion off and say to myself, “You’re just being a paranoid conspiracy believer”.
Now you’ve spilt the beans and I find out that my suspicions were true.
Trump exposed more than just the two political parties.
“We set the agenda for the country in that room.”
I noticed a long time ago that things I read in The New York Times were subsequently parroted by Wisconsin Public Radio, that mouthpiece of the Elites.
“We set the agenda for the country in that room.”
What an unbelievably arrogant, out-of-touch statement. Their job is to REPORT what’s going on. This statement is exactly why an increasing number of people – including Trump – distrust the mainstream media.
My first exposure to the ” Deadline” and I am outta breath..I sqinted to read the New York Times former reporter’s inside,through that RED coverage to see at kleast someone saw/felt/understood the ” little town folks” who have absolutely NO INTEREST in the ” Times” reporting..Quite factually THE ONLY WAY I EVER KNOW WHAT THE TIMES SAYS IS WHEN THE TV COMMENTATOR ( not reporter) drops in what the Times printed that day…..I am a 74 year old retired radio reporter/DJ/ owner and I seriously could care less WHAT the imes says, or ” reports”…Gimmie FOX NEWS….ff/11/11/2016
Great insight, but let’s not be too hard on those editors in Manhattan for making pragmatic decisions about the paper’s content. New Yorkers love to read about themselves more than anything or anyone else, and ultimately the NYT needs people to read their paper if they are to remain in business. As for setting the national agenda… good luck with that with Mr. Trump in the White House. The national polls predict tough times ahead for the NYT.
Everyone in the entire world likes to read about themselves in the newspaper.
How is it that the big brains in the NYT don’t realize this? I thought they were intelligent, and surely they can figure something simple like that out? Avoid narcissism? How hard is that, it’s been part of the Western canon for millennia.
Interesting piece! A native New Yorker, I used to read the Times but not much anymore. The paper is clearly run by ideologues who are parodies of themselves — they take themselves waaaayyyyy too seriously. During this election, the Times appointed itself the propaganda arm of the Clinton camp and reading it felt toxic. Its pronouncements against Trump were grating and I found myself either abandoning stories or muttering “Shut the f*** up and just report, a**holes”. The Times should consider firing Dean Basquet, which would be a reasonable move towards restoring journalistic standard of impartiality; then it should change the paradigm to bottom-up reporting. Its editorial board is a joke and ought to be purged.
If you read the comment section on most New York and LA Times articles you would not be surprised by the election outcome.
‘By and large, talented reporters scrambled to match stories with what internally was often called “the narrative.”’
By and large, that’s just really sh*tty reporting. You aren’t news at that point, you’re running a campaign.