There are quite a few folks out there who do not like the tax bill that passed the House and is making it’s way through the Senate. Marta wrote about Ted Cruz mopping the floor with Bernie Sanders here. Today the NY Times Editorial board threw all journalistic objectivity out the window in their all out push to halt this bill in its tracks.
This morning, The New York Times Editorial Board is tweeting here to urge the Senate to reject a tax bill that hurts the middle class & the nation's fiscal health. #thetaxbillhurts
— NYT Opinion (@nytopinion) November 29, 2017
Such a cute hashtag isn’t it? The NY Times has been tweeting all morning. Below are just a few examples of their “advocacy.”
Here is today’s editorial: GOP senators can follow the will of their donors & vote to take money from the middle class and give it to the wealthiest people in the world. Or they can vote no, to protect the public. #thetaxbillhurtshttps://t.co/bHYJcMTMjU
— NYT Opinion (@nytopinion) November 29, 2017
Up to 13 million people could lose their health insurance and premiums will go up about 10% a year for the next decade. #thetaxbillhurtshttps://t.co/TiTaAAqI7a pic.twitter.com/ZDXm7KV2da
— NYT Opinion (@nytopinion) November 29, 2017
Now is the time to contact senators, if you haven’t done so already, about this tax cut plan. Find yours here: https://t.co/AkqImNKzhT #thetaxbillhurts pic.twitter.com/cNYsE6Rjrl
— NYT Opinion (@nytopinion) November 29, 2017
And this:
The @nytopinion Editorial Board has been tweeting about the Senate tax bill all morning. Will you be hurt by it? Tell us how using #thetaxbillhurts
— NYT Opinion (@nytopinion) November 29, 2017
I would venture to say that they aren’t done yet. However, there are some significant problems with their advocacy.
A. The NY Times is a news organization
B. The NY times is also a corporation
So therefore, by doing this, the Gray Lady has blatantly thrown all objectivity out the window and put their bias against tax reform, Republicans, and President Trump on full gloriously crappy display.
https://twitter.com/maisondechienvt/status/935923829288947714
It is bizarre. But is it really surprising? No. Then again, it is funny when you consider that the Times published an “apology” letter to their subscribers a week after last year’s Presidential Election.
The newspaper’s executive editor and publisher famously penned a post-election letter to their readers on Nov. 11 that promised to “rededicate ourselves” to good journalism — while insisting the Times “reported on both candidates fairly during the presidential campaign.”
The “fairly” line stood out because many readers felt news stories in the newspaper run by Executive Editor Dean Baquet and Publisher Arthur “Pinch” Sulzberger Jr. were decidedly favorable to Hillary Clinton and biased against Donald Trump.
Both Baquet and Sulzberger took heat for that line.
Needless to say, they couldn’t handle the heat in the kitchen, and as the NY Post points out, quietly edited that line and ONLY that line out of the apology letter in an effort to not seem “defensive.”
I’d say their “apology” and their effort to rededicate themselves to “good journalism” has been blown to smithereens.
huh. This doesn't look like journalism to me https://t.co/ER1VTAEstT
— CFPB Director, Sloth Division, Shoshana Weissmann (@senatorshoshana) November 29, 2017
Direct political activism. Also, NYT never tweeted Dems' phone numbers asking readers to phone Congress to oppose Obamacare, which dramatically drove up the cost of health insurance. https://t.co/6Oa7tnZ1M7
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) November 29, 2017
Exactly! In fact, when you read their tweets above you’ll see that the editors are still firmly in the tank for Obamacare and in fact wouldn’t want to be reminded that EVERYONE’S premiums have gone up every single year since that debacle was shoved down our throats!
So what to do about the NY Times entry into full on political advocacy? Laugh? Yes, that’s one idea. Here’s another:
A+ for transparency. Now please just file your paperwork classifying yourself as a political org with the @FEC and we will all move on. pic.twitter.com/jrPf3WiKGE
— Kelly Maher (@okmaher) November 29, 2017
Well, since they are already functioning as an unregulated PAC, they might as well make it official as it’s highly evident that they abandoned anything resembling journalism a very long time ago.
Walter Duranty would be so proud.
UPDATE:
This explanation excuse from the NY Times is epically laughable.
It is the job of editorial writers & editorial boards to advocate for policies we agree with and against proposals we don't. That's what we were doing on @nytopinion today.
— Vikas Bajaj (@vikasbajaj) November 29, 2017
Yeah. No. That wasn’t opinion nor was it editorializing. It was outright advocacy on behalf of the Democrats. Its time, past time for the New York Times to just call it a day.
“That wasn’t advocacy nor was it editorializing. It was outright advocacy . . . ”
Huh?
Fixed the grammar error. Thanks! 😉
It’s hard to name a Legacy Media outlet that practices “reporting the news” rather than “ranting about it.” In that regard, the Times is merely the most prominent example of press degeneration: sad, to be sure, but unexceptional.
Honestly I don’t have a problem with the “opinion” section doing this… I disagree with them completely, and I think it definitely shows their stripes, and the NYT cannot implode soon enough for me…. BUT, in this digital age, I see this as just one more way to express opinion… IMO, we have to be careful to not to do like the left, and attack things just because we disagree, lest that approach be given validity, for when the left uses it against us. YMMV
Hi Scott! The problem is, the editorial board took over the opinion twitter feed for one purpose only. That purpose was not to offer their opinions as to why the tax bill was bad. Instead they engaged in direct grass roots lobbying.
They posted commentary and phone numbers and directly urged their readers to call those Senators up to tell them to vote NO on the tax bill.
Again, that’s not journalism via opinion or editorializing. That is blatant grass roots lobbying and advocacy.
NY Times has been in the tank for the Democrats for decades. However, yesterday instead of hiding behind the curtain, they ripped the curtain down and shoved their bias down our throats.
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