The premise of most of the journalists that cover Trump is that he is a "politician" in the accepted sense of that word. He has never been a politician, he is a con man and nobody has had the guts to cover him as such. It would be offensive to his supporters, it was not their job to editoralize, it was their job to "report" the news, etc.
They all got played. They became stenographers. They willingly or unknowingly (not buying that) decided to go along to get along.
That old Upton Sinclair quote...."It is hard to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on him not understanding it."
In order to do the "right" thing you first have to care enough. Most of the people in positions of power in media care about profit. I don't know how we fight that.
Which demands the Sinclair Lewis quote, "When fascism comes to the United States it will be wrapped in the American flag....."
It is going to be a tough road for the foreseeable future.
Thank you, Mary, for articulating what I also see as the problem. Journalists covering the sexual predator and felon did so mostly in a "both-sides" construct rather than as the abnormal, hair-on-fire threat to Democracy he and his sycophants really are. Where were the journalists standing up every day and speaking out to protect Democracy as a foundational principle to their reporting? I know many did, but many did not.
"Oh, but we need to present the other side." WHAT other side? There is nothing morally equal to the hatred, racism, selfishness, fear and constant lying that is foundational to the right.
The media also gave voice to many of the constant rightwing lies about the results of the 2020 election, about what happened on January 6th, 2021, about what's happening at the border, about the economy, and on and on. Many in the media did this, it seems to me, to show their utter hatred of Joe Biden--much in the same way Republicans did everything in their power to thwart the efforts of Barack Obama during his two terms. For Republicans, lying is foundational to everything they believe in.
But, of course, they don't want to hear that because it's true.
What we will see in the years ahead for Republicans is that every single thing they do, speak about, or stand for—regardless of their personal moral convictions, or whether it reflects common decency, or whether it's good for the country—must be to appease Donald Trump. That's it! No more independent thinkers on the right, they all must bend the knee and kiss the right of the 34-count felon.
It is a profoundly sad day for America. And for the world who is watching our decline from a once robust Democracy that the world could emulate.
The press beat the crap out of Joe Biden because he asked for it. He governed privately while refusing to speak publicly, whether to promote his agenda or respond to Trump's slurs and lies. Biden appointed someone just like himself - Merrick Garland, to the AG position, guaranteeing a late and slow start to the prosecution of Trump for betraying the people. Biden pledged to stick by his "great friend," Netanyahu, even as Amnesty International determined that Israel was engaging in a genocide. I have zero sympathy for Biden. He screwed the country and hadn't the decency to even pardon Leonard Peltier on his way out the door.
I share in your disappointment with AG Garland and understand your feelings re Netenyahu who probably would be tried for war crimes in a just world order. However, methinks you are not historIcally informed in your critique of President Biden. I suspect you may view his legacy differently thru the lens and experiences of the next 4 years. Imagine all the competing interests and power structures Biden was dealing with.
I canceled my WaPo after subscribing to it for many years. This post, and you in particular, give me hope. That’s something I haven’t had in months. Thank you for your integrity and bravery during this slippery era. Shame on those weak oligarchs for discarding any semblance of protecting democracy while they hold platforms that could have supported it.
Thank you Margaret. I'll be focusing on MLK's legacy today, and turning my TV on to HGTV-- in the hopes that it collectively has higher ratings than the DirtyOldRapist's party. We are also flying our American flag upside down to symbolize a nation in distress. May our country make it through these dark hours.
In 1985, when I was 25 yrs old, I had moved to DC for my first real job after I graduated from college. Every morning I took the metro from my Capitol Hill apt at $450 a month to DuPont Circle. The memory that will stay with me forever are the rows of people sitting and standing while they silently read the Washington Post. The demographics of the readers were across the board varied in age, race and religion. Everyone was a reader of the current events. You could afford to be well informed when the Post only costed 35 cents at their street vendor box. That’s how the subway commuters started their day with a newspaper that left their fingertips with blurred ink marks and they wore it with a badge of honor.
Pretty much everything I read is a story. For all my life, news stories have been called news stories. Scientists tell stories all the time--they provide explanations for observations, and those explanations are their best informed guess. There's a big difference between scientific stories, which have specific standards, and other kinds of stories. The same goes for news stories.
I’m thinking of the billionaires, who could be using their vast wealth and power for the betterment of society. Imagine if all the tech bros had decided to push democracy, instead of darkness and fear. But they’ve chosen selfishness and greed, because they don’t want to pay more in taxes (like the rest of us peasants)- as if they’d actually miss that money. They have so much, yet they’re afraid of having less. No amount of money is ever enough for them.
The last gilded age didn’t end well. Those who don’t learn the lessons of history…
It is even worse: they believe that the smartest(they themselves) should rule. if you want get rally worried, look up the thinking and statements of Peter Thiel , who engineered Vance's rise, and Curtis Yarvin, who Vance follows.
They are rich enough, what they are working for is to rule the United States in the absence of Democracy.
I'll have the TV turned to the Food Network or something completely different than the silliness in DC and spend some time thinking about how to make the Dream that most of us still share with Dr. King come true.
Your column was excellent today but I don't think that the Felon President has so much turned people away from the media as he has exposed much of it as the same sort of self-important blowhards he is. BHAGs are a 40 year old concepts that came from the Quality Improvement Process era and I suppose it makes sense that corporate thinking in the Mump era reflect a move back in time. A BHAG for the rest of us will be the overwhelming rejection of the new administration and a firm flip of the House and Senate in '26.
If I want storytelling I will read a book. I want facts. I want the truth. I’m worried about my job. I had to rationalize his election in 2016. The checks and balances of the government are there for such occasions. Where are those checks today ? Journalism that isn’t afraid to tell the truth. 47 hasn’t can’t and won’t do that. We need journalists real journalists. We will do what we can to help.
Forbes' chart shows he was worth $113 billion in 2020. There is a class war in America, and the bottom 90% are losing. America's top billionaires increased their riches between 2 times (Bezos) and 10 times (Musk). Now that they are preparing tax policy that will increase their riches, where is the fourth estate? When is enough enough?
Well done, Margaret, though I disagree with Beutler. Herr Donald will go nuts if he doesn't feel potent and it's all about his feelings. Or needs, really. His being fed. Somebody bring the bottle. He's arrested in mostly prepubescent stages in different aspects of his personality, but mainly he's in infancy. Little Donny will throw a tantrum if he doesn't get what he wants instantly all the time and he could do amazing damage. It's trite now to call him a toddler but it's accurate and he's an especially nasty one.
To begin with, juxtaposing “riveting“ and “storytelling“ is crappy writing. As for the goal of reaching 200 million, they will need 200 million and one; I’m done. Whither integrity?
Margaret Sullivan: editor at the NYT? that is one of the two newspapers i dumped and will never return to (the other being the WaPo.)
now that these two formerly venerated newspapers have thoroughly trashed their brand and destroyed their credibility, i'm really curious which newspaper is America's "paper of record"? i currently am spending my hard-earned dollars on subscriptions for ProPublica and the BostonGlobe -- both to support their good reporting. but i get most of my news from an eclectic group of international newspapers because, at this point, i trust no one.
Allow me to suggest The Guardian as the new paper of record. So far, they've shown far less fearful coverage of this new era than mainstream US outlets.
I have followed your words, and bought your books since before you were the Public Editor, a time I feel was THE BEST for The New York Times. I am overjoyed that you are here now. Thank you for all you do.
Reading your up-close-and-personal account in your book was both frightening and mesmerising. Your best was definitely good enough for many of us, just not the publisher…
The premise of most of the journalists that cover Trump is that he is a "politician" in the accepted sense of that word. He has never been a politician, he is a con man and nobody has had the guts to cover him as such. It would be offensive to his supporters, it was not their job to editoralize, it was their job to "report" the news, etc.
They all got played. They became stenographers. They willingly or unknowingly (not buying that) decided to go along to get along.
That old Upton Sinclair quote...."It is hard to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on him not understanding it."
In order to do the "right" thing you first have to care enough. Most of the people in positions of power in media care about profit. I don't know how we fight that.
Which demands the Sinclair Lewis quote, "When fascism comes to the United States it will be wrapped in the American flag....."
It is going to be a tough road for the foreseeable future.
Thank you, Mary, for articulating what I also see as the problem. Journalists covering the sexual predator and felon did so mostly in a "both-sides" construct rather than as the abnormal, hair-on-fire threat to Democracy he and his sycophants really are. Where were the journalists standing up every day and speaking out to protect Democracy as a foundational principle to their reporting? I know many did, but many did not.
"Oh, but we need to present the other side." WHAT other side? There is nothing morally equal to the hatred, racism, selfishness, fear and constant lying that is foundational to the right.
The media also gave voice to many of the constant rightwing lies about the results of the 2020 election, about what happened on January 6th, 2021, about what's happening at the border, about the economy, and on and on. Many in the media did this, it seems to me, to show their utter hatred of Joe Biden--much in the same way Republicans did everything in their power to thwart the efforts of Barack Obama during his two terms. For Republicans, lying is foundational to everything they believe in.
But, of course, they don't want to hear that because it's true.
What we will see in the years ahead for Republicans is that every single thing they do, speak about, or stand for—regardless of their personal moral convictions, or whether it reflects common decency, or whether it's good for the country—must be to appease Donald Trump. That's it! No more independent thinkers on the right, they all must bend the knee and kiss the right of the 34-count felon.
It is a profoundly sad day for America. And for the world who is watching our decline from a once robust Democracy that the world could emulate.
The press beat the crap out of Joe Biden because he asked for it. He governed privately while refusing to speak publicly, whether to promote his agenda or respond to Trump's slurs and lies. Biden appointed someone just like himself - Merrick Garland, to the AG position, guaranteeing a late and slow start to the prosecution of Trump for betraying the people. Biden pledged to stick by his "great friend," Netanyahu, even as Amnesty International determined that Israel was engaging in a genocide. I have zero sympathy for Biden. He screwed the country and hadn't the decency to even pardon Leonard Peltier on his way out the door.
I share in your disappointment with AG Garland and understand your feelings re Netenyahu who probably would be tried for war crimes in a just world order. However, methinks you are not historIcally informed in your critique of President Biden. I suspect you may view his legacy differently thru the lens and experiences of the next 4 years. Imagine all the competing interests and power structures Biden was dealing with.
If the Washington Post needs to save money, they might shorten their top-of-front-page statement to just "Storytelling." Save some ink.
I canceled my WaPo after subscribing to it for many years. This post, and you in particular, give me hope. That’s something I haven’t had in months. Thank you for your integrity and bravery during this slippery era. Shame on those weak oligarchs for discarding any semblance of protecting democracy while they hold platforms that could have supported it.
So kind of you to say. Thanks.
Thank you Margaret. I'll be focusing on MLK's legacy today, and turning my TV on to HGTV-- in the hopes that it collectively has higher ratings than the DirtyOldRapist's party. We are also flying our American flag upside down to symbolize a nation in distress. May our country make it through these dark hours.
In 1985, when I was 25 yrs old, I had moved to DC for my first real job after I graduated from college. Every morning I took the metro from my Capitol Hill apt at $450 a month to DuPont Circle. The memory that will stay with me forever are the rows of people sitting and standing while they silently read the Washington Post. The demographics of the readers were across the board varied in age, race and religion. Everyone was a reader of the current events. You could afford to be well informed when the Post only costed 35 cents at their street vendor box. That’s how the subway commuters started their day with a newspaper that left their fingertips with blurred ink marks and they wore it with a badge of honor.
“Storytelling” sounds like fiction writing to me.
Story-telling is not fact-telling.
Pretty much everything I read is a story. For all my life, news stories have been called news stories. Scientists tell stories all the time--they provide explanations for observations, and those explanations are their best informed guess. There's a big difference between scientific stories, which have specific standards, and other kinds of stories. The same goes for news stories.
Thank you.
I’m thinking of the billionaires, who could be using their vast wealth and power for the betterment of society. Imagine if all the tech bros had decided to push democracy, instead of darkness and fear. But they’ve chosen selfishness and greed, because they don’t want to pay more in taxes (like the rest of us peasants)- as if they’d actually miss that money. They have so much, yet they’re afraid of having less. No amount of money is ever enough for them.
The last gilded age didn’t end well. Those who don’t learn the lessons of history…
Never enough.
The billionaires are hoarders by another name.
It is even worse: they believe that the smartest(they themselves) should rule. if you want get rally worried, look up the thinking and statements of Peter Thiel , who engineered Vance's rise, and Curtis Yarvin, who Vance follows.
They are rich enough, what they are working for is to rule the United States in the absence of Democracy.
I'll have the TV turned to the Food Network or something completely different than the silliness in DC and spend some time thinking about how to make the Dream that most of us still share with Dr. King come true.
Your column was excellent today but I don't think that the Felon President has so much turned people away from the media as he has exposed much of it as the same sort of self-important blowhards he is. BHAGs are a 40 year old concepts that came from the Quality Improvement Process era and I suppose it makes sense that corporate thinking in the Mump era reflect a move back in time. A BHAG for the rest of us will be the overwhelming rejection of the new administration and a firm flip of the House and Senate in '26.
If I want storytelling I will read a book. I want facts. I want the truth. I’m worried about my job. I had to rationalize his election in 2016. The checks and balances of the government are there for such occasions. Where are those checks today ? Journalism that isn’t afraid to tell the truth. 47 hasn’t can’t and won’t do that. We need journalists real journalists. We will do what we can to help.
Margaret, thank you. Forbes reported that Jeff Bezos is worth $239 billion.
https://www.forbes.com/profile/jeff-bezos/?list=rtb/
Forbes' chart shows he was worth $113 billion in 2020. There is a class war in America, and the bottom 90% are losing. America's top billionaires increased their riches between 2 times (Bezos) and 10 times (Musk). Now that they are preparing tax policy that will increase their riches, where is the fourth estate? When is enough enough?
Well done, Margaret, though I disagree with Beutler. Herr Donald will go nuts if he doesn't feel potent and it's all about his feelings. Or needs, really. His being fed. Somebody bring the bottle. He's arrested in mostly prepubescent stages in different aspects of his personality, but mainly he's in infancy. Little Donny will throw a tantrum if he doesn't get what he wants instantly all the time and he could do amazing damage. It's trite now to call him a toddler but it's accurate and he's an especially nasty one.
To begin with, juxtaposing “riveting“ and “storytelling“ is crappy writing. As for the goal of reaching 200 million, they will need 200 million and one; I’m done. Whither integrity?
Margaret Sullivan: editor at the NYT? that is one of the two newspapers i dumped and will never return to (the other being the WaPo.)
now that these two formerly venerated newspapers have thoroughly trashed their brand and destroyed their credibility, i'm really curious which newspaper is America's "paper of record"? i currently am spending my hard-earned dollars on subscriptions for ProPublica and the BostonGlobe -- both to support their good reporting. but i get most of my news from an eclectic group of international newspapers because, at this point, i trust no one.
Allow me to suggest The Guardian as the new paper of record. So far, they've shown far less fearful coverage of this new era than mainstream US outlets.
Although the recent strike at The Guardian and ownership’s use of AI during the strike puts that pub on a watchlist too…
I love The Contrarian on Substack.
Except they're not contrarian. They're endorsers
Thanks for giving me a good way to start the day Margaret. I unsubscribed from Wappo this morning after ditching the New York Times months ago.
I have followed your words, and bought your books since before you were the Public Editor, a time I feel was THE BEST for The New York Times. I am overjoyed that you are here now. Thank you for all you do.
Very much appreciated; I did my best in that fraught role.
Reading your up-close-and-personal account in your book was both frightening and mesmerising. Your best was definitely good enough for many of us, just not the publisher…