Journalists on here: We are the guardians of democracy. We alone hold the torch of truth to shine a light on the powerful.
Same journalists: I wish I could write about how Trump is bad but Democrats aren't emailing me any talking points I like.
— Bret "Gregor Samsa" Stephens (@agraybee) September 3, 2019
This piece is a good example of why I and most of the people I know in journalism believe — by a very wide margin — that the Washington Post has surpassed the New York Times in reporting on the president of the United States. https://t.co/jBo2uLNPgo
— Jay Rosen (@jayrosen_nyu) September 2, 2019
Many years ago, when I subscribed to a dead-tree Washington Post weekly, a friend who’d grown up in the area explained that Washington DC is a company town where the monopoly industry is national politics. Which means that the Post treats every President as a CEO analogue — someone responsible for keeping the local industry running on an even keel, so that government workers and the hundreds of thousands of people whose livelihoods depend on those workers prosper.
The NYTimes considers itself as the national financial capitol; what interests them about any President is how he’s perceived by global business interests. The current Oval Office Occupant, however disastrous for individual Americans and the larger world, has *so far* been satisfactory as a novelty performer whose directors have not, to date, interfered in the ever-burgeoning prosperity of the oligarchs who support the NYTimes…
How it happened is not easy to explain. A key factor is that Dean Baquet, compared to Marty Baron, is far more concerned with how the Times coverage is — key word coming up — perceived by the White House and Republicans who support Trump. I wrote about it: https://t.co/VrTcZDUM4W
— Jay Rosen (@jayrosen_nyu) September 2, 2019
Thing is… when the profit-taking fails, the performer’s zany antics no longer disguise the smash’n’grab, there’s nothing left to loot… what becomes of the NYTimes? Or at least its most public face?
DC Press Corpse Open Thread: President As CEO vs. President As Cultural PhenomPost + Comments (130)