Thursday, October 03, 2024

Is It Your Job To Inform Readers

An increasingly invoked defense of the New York Times (and other outlets) is that its critics think if only it covered Trump/Republicans the way liberals wanted them to, that Democrats would win elections. This is followed by the assertion that they don't have that power and nothing they do actually matters. 

The former is, of course, a deliberate misreading of all criticism, and the latter is hilarious, especially when accompanied by alternate day tributes to the vital role of the free press in democracy.

Anyhoo, just checking in (from 2022):.
An insidious radio ad campaign has reportedly taken hold in some of the most high-profile media markets of this midterm cycle, accusing Joe Biden’s administration of fomenting “antiwhite bigotry.” “When did racism against white people become okay?” asks a narrator, according to a recording obtained by Politico, before falsely accusing the White House of putting “white people last in line for COVID relief funds” and offering disaster aid “to nonwhite citizens first.”
New York times, a bit later in 2022:
Critics Say Musk Has Revealed Himself as a Conservative. It’s Not So Simple.
Elon Musk has tweeted about political topics regularly since taking over Twitter, often belittling some liberal causes. But what he stands for remains largely unclear.
WSJ Today:
The Tesla CEO quietly gave tens of millions of dollars to groups with ties to Trump aide Stephen Miller and supporters of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s presidential bid, according to people familiar with the matter.

The financial contributions, which haven’t previously been reported, show how Musk, who seemed to undergo a rapid political transformation this year, was a major force in funding Republican initiatives and candidates well before starting a super political-action committee in support of former President Donald Trump.

 Musk's views were obvious to anyone who paid attention to Musk, instead of "Musk" the media PR creation, but it's against the noble ethics of journalism to ever listen to people who know what they are talking about.