Thank you for this. And thank you for mentioning that insipid Sorkin piece in the NYT, which is perhaps the most insanely stupid thing I have read all year. It really needs to be more widely panned. The author and whoever chose to publish it should be publicly humiliated.
I about lost my shit when I read it. I believe I dropped my phone on the bed and told my husband that we’re doomed. Perhaps an overreaction, but it was an emotional day altogether.
Re the “same five dinner parties problem”: In a similar vein to bathrooms posting "Please wash your hand" reminder, media outlets (AND big-time Substackers!) should run frequent reminders of Cass Sunsteins "Law of Group Polarization":
"In a striking empirical regularity, deliberation tends to move groups, and the individuals who compose them, toward a more extreme point in the direction indicated by their own predeliberation judgments..."
THANK YOU FOR THIS. I am a flaming Democratic Party supporter, closer by far to AOC and Bernie Sanders. A democratic socialist if one must use that term, a deeply misunderstood label in the USA for sure. It heartens me that our views about the New York Times political coverage this year are very similar, given our different political perspectives, if you will.
I finally had to unsubscribe over the Biden continual negative bleating for months, intensifying the last few weeks, when they completely ignored Trump! Oh and then finally the one editorial! TOO LITTLE TOO LATE!
And it’s not about any entitlement to have my views be expressed exactly by others in print. It’s just… wow. I read widely around the political spectrum, not that there’s much of formal Republican conservatism remaining, but for sure former Republicans that I find to be appointment reading when their articles, along with everyone else that I made a point to read, so it was never about my entitlement to my views being coddled.
I find good points in everything often, and sometimes the occasional game changer that changes my view. I am a believer in the power of government to be transformative, as Biden has leaned into muscularly, and for sure he has been such an amazing progressive surprise. That doesn’t mean glorification or deification, it means actually recognizing the sitting president’s accomplishments and reporting on those! And acknowledging and more importantly reporting about the former president’s danger to democracy itself! Not big asks either things, and yet!
As a Disabled person, my life literally depends upon government policies and programs. As a pragmatic person, I believe in the art of the possible, not only the perfect or the ideal. Compromise, incrementalism, realism, and also stopping and asking if we are doing the right things and answering the right questions. I am a trained historian, and having the shocking and dangerous and completely ahistorical and authoritarian enabling Supreme Court rulings handed down all June barely being glanced at, all the while bleating that Biden was old, yeah. It was deeply irresponsible.
At least as far as the immunity decision David French did a great job but I am not reading the bulk of the paper on weekdays enough to say more than that.
Thank You! The NYT has been such a vocal purveyor of distorted coverage when it comes to Trump, that I often wonder “whose pocket they’re in”. And find it hard to even read anymore.
After seeing the coverage of the mass slaughter in Gaza which would amount to a genocide, by all the so called "setters of standards", I beleive colonialism, barbarism, racism are all alive and well in the so called "western civilization" and New York times has been amongst the chief rags peddling this. If these are the standards, then this organisation deserves to die.
We should all be extremely concerned that the News Media now creates coverage of issues that is solely based on the results of a poll. Nate Cohn's polls for the NYT are meant to be, as they are for many other News Media outlets, fillers of space and time (for broadcast) that feed the 24/7 news monster that the News Media allowed to be created to boost revenue and collect views/clicks.
The are many concerns that through time citizens come to believe the results of these untrustworthy efforts to glean information from those being polled that only this or that poll can discover. Indeed, relying on these nonsense outreaches can ultimately damage a citizens ability to think for themselves choosing instead to just follow the herd as a deeper dwell into an issue would just take too much time.
And, adding to the ridiculous reality of "polls" is the fact that "pollsters" know damn well of the endless biases held dear by those being polled and the inevitable trend toward "NO" by those whose opinion is being sought.
Polls cannot be allowed to steer either the News Media or its followers in any direction dreamed up by pollsters to fill time and space. Polls are for pols--not individuals with a mind of their own!
Don't forget legalizing the evil weed and instituting requiring paid annual leave.
Oh - and protecting children from entering the job market until they are of age in places like Arkansas - funny how the NYT editors have a blind spot when it comes to protecting the children.
Yes. The answer is yes. The NYT treats trans people as if the jury is still out on whether they truly exist. It's a predictable but no less sickening pattern of behavior. The paper puts the lives of transgender people in literal danger.
Even if you just look at holding the presidency, how is it 12 of 16 years instead of 12 of 24? Or 4 of 8? The Tories just went down because in the parliamentary system there's no question who's responsible. In our system, the GOPs can always run against the disfunction they're responsible for.
On July 4 the NYT published an op-ed entitled “Why I Won’t Vote” encouraging everyone not to…well, vote. From a conservative Catholic editor who’s a contributing opinion editor for the Times.
Rebecca, thank you for your excellent response! This piece makes me feel very glad that I canceled my NY Times subscription. I also tend to lean more Bernie and AOC. Policies that Democratic administrations put forward may not always be entirely thought out, but they are mostly attempting to create a better quality of living for all the people in our country.
I would agree with your post if I hadn't watched the NYT ignore Trump's Mafia ties in 2016, to obsess over "her emailz" and the Clinton Foundation.
Meanwhile Trump's foundation was found to be a scam.
Pro publica broke the Clarence Thomas corruption story. And the Times ignored the story about George Santos until after the election.
It's time to stop calling them the paper of record.
They make their money on recipes and games.
A million times this.
Thank you for this. And thank you for mentioning that insipid Sorkin piece in the NYT, which is perhaps the most insanely stupid thing I have read all year. It really needs to be more widely panned. The author and whoever chose to publish it should be publicly humiliated.
> It really needs to be more widely panned.
Better yet, it needs to never be read by anyone.
I about lost my shit when I read it. I believe I dropped my phone on the bed and told my husband that we’re doomed. Perhaps an overreaction, but it was an emotional day altogether.
Re the “same five dinner parties problem”: In a similar vein to bathrooms posting "Please wash your hand" reminder, media outlets (AND big-time Substackers!) should run frequent reminders of Cass Sunsteins "Law of Group Polarization":
https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/law_and_economics/542/
"In a striking empirical regularity, deliberation tends to move groups, and the individuals who compose them, toward a more extreme point in the direction indicated by their own predeliberation judgments..."
Like-minded groups - can't trust 'em!
I love Cass Sunstein's work and after talking to others who love his work I love it even more. This kind of group polarization I do like :)
THANK YOU FOR THIS. I am a flaming Democratic Party supporter, closer by far to AOC and Bernie Sanders. A democratic socialist if one must use that term, a deeply misunderstood label in the USA for sure. It heartens me that our views about the New York Times political coverage this year are very similar, given our different political perspectives, if you will.
I finally had to unsubscribe over the Biden continual negative bleating for months, intensifying the last few weeks, when they completely ignored Trump! Oh and then finally the one editorial! TOO LITTLE TOO LATE!
And it’s not about any entitlement to have my views be expressed exactly by others in print. It’s just… wow. I read widely around the political spectrum, not that there’s much of formal Republican conservatism remaining, but for sure former Republicans that I find to be appointment reading when their articles, along with everyone else that I made a point to read, so it was never about my entitlement to my views being coddled.
I find good points in everything often, and sometimes the occasional game changer that changes my view. I am a believer in the power of government to be transformative, as Biden has leaned into muscularly, and for sure he has been such an amazing progressive surprise. That doesn’t mean glorification or deification, it means actually recognizing the sitting president’s accomplishments and reporting on those! And acknowledging and more importantly reporting about the former president’s danger to democracy itself! Not big asks either things, and yet!
As a Disabled person, my life literally depends upon government policies and programs. As a pragmatic person, I believe in the art of the possible, not only the perfect or the ideal. Compromise, incrementalism, realism, and also stopping and asking if we are doing the right things and answering the right questions. I am a trained historian, and having the shocking and dangerous and completely ahistorical and authoritarian enabling Supreme Court rulings handed down all June barely being glanced at, all the while bleating that Biden was old, yeah. It was deeply irresponsible.
Thank you.
At least as far as the immunity decision David French did a great job but I am not reading the bulk of the paper on weekdays enough to say more than that.
What a perfect response to a ridiculous editorial policy.
Thank You! The NYT has been such a vocal purveyor of distorted coverage when it comes to Trump, that I often wonder “whose pocket they’re in”. And find it hard to even read anymore.
They did it with Bernie as well. Anything outside of the swamp is unacceptable to the swamp animals it seems to me. New York times is a swamp animal.
Allow me: NYT when you lost me a couple of weeks ago? I was the canary in the fucking coal mine.
Thanks. I am waiting for the Times to do 8 front page stories a day on trump's dementia, criminality, incompetence, corruption, etc.
The NYT has become nothing but a political gossip column that creates “polls” to suit its right-wing agenda.
After seeing the coverage of the mass slaughter in Gaza which would amount to a genocide, by all the so called "setters of standards", I beleive colonialism, barbarism, racism are all alive and well in the so called "western civilization" and New York times has been amongst the chief rags peddling this. If these are the standards, then this organisation deserves to die.
We should all be extremely concerned that the News Media now creates coverage of issues that is solely based on the results of a poll. Nate Cohn's polls for the NYT are meant to be, as they are for many other News Media outlets, fillers of space and time (for broadcast) that feed the 24/7 news monster that the News Media allowed to be created to boost revenue and collect views/clicks.
The are many concerns that through time citizens come to believe the results of these untrustworthy efforts to glean information from those being polled that only this or that poll can discover. Indeed, relying on these nonsense outreaches can ultimately damage a citizens ability to think for themselves choosing instead to just follow the herd as a deeper dwell into an issue would just take too much time.
And, adding to the ridiculous reality of "polls" is the fact that "pollsters" know damn well of the endless biases held dear by those being polled and the inevitable trend toward "NO" by those whose opinion is being sought.
Polls cannot be allowed to steer either the News Media or its followers in any direction dreamed up by pollsters to fill time and space. Polls are for pols--not individuals with a mind of their own!
Don't forget legalizing the evil weed and instituting requiring paid annual leave.
Oh - and protecting children from entering the job market until they are of age in places like Arkansas - funny how the NYT editors have a blind spot when it comes to protecting the children.
I was looking for you to take issue with the suggestion that the Democrats throw transgender people under the bus for questionable political gain.
Since when does the NYT think it’s fashionable to hang a minority group out to dry?
Yes. The answer is yes. The NYT treats trans people as if the jury is still out on whether they truly exist. It's a predictable but no less sickening pattern of behavior. The paper puts the lives of transgender people in literal danger.
Even if you just look at holding the presidency, how is it 12 of 16 years instead of 12 of 24? Or 4 of 8? The Tories just went down because in the parliamentary system there's no question who's responsible. In our system, the GOPs can always run against the disfunction they're responsible for.
On July 4 the NYT published an op-ed entitled “Why I Won’t Vote” encouraging everyone not to…well, vote. From a conservative Catholic editor who’s a contributing opinion editor for the Times.
Rebecca, thank you for your excellent response! This piece makes me feel very glad that I canceled my NY Times subscription. I also tend to lean more Bernie and AOC. Policies that Democratic administrations put forward may not always be entirely thought out, but they are mostly attempting to create a better quality of living for all the people in our country.