Once upon a time, I savored the New York Times. The “Paper of Record” once prided itself on journalistic integrity, accuracy, thoroughness and editorial independence. It once was a paper that truly earned its moniker of “All The News That’s Fit To Print.” A paper that was never ashamed of intelligence, and was proudly progressive in its outlook, even while giving space to columnists who had differing views. The paper that published Section 4 every Sunday: The News of the Week in Review. If you read only that section every week, you would be incredibly well informed.
No longer. It’s not a revelation to anyone here that journalism has been in a state of massive decline in recent decades, and the Times is no exception. Section 4 no longer exists; it is now “Sunday Review”, a collection of nearly worthless fluff pieces. It’s reporting has been diminished by the likes of Judith Miller, and her infamous pieces based on fiction to support George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq.
But today I willed myself to check in on the Gray Lady, out of curiosity about the coverage of the incredible political events of this weekend. I was hoping to see a front page picture like this one from Seattle, yesterday:
Bernie Sanders packs the University of Washington Hec Edmunson Pavilion to capacity, 15,000+
Sadly but not surprisingly, there was no photo like this on the front page. So, I went to the Times Politics page, where it was “All The Trump Unfit To Print, And Then Some”, plus the inevitability of Hillary Clinton.
Below is a listing of all of the headlines on the Times Politics page right now that have anything to do with the 2016 elections, in the order they appear. (Note: this page is fluid, so if you click on the link above, the list will most likely be different.)
Tally of mentions in these titles:
Trump: 11
Clinton: 4
Sanders: 3
But note that the tally is misleading. The articles that mention Bernie at all only mention him in passing, as an inevitable loser. NONE of them — zero — focus on him or his campaign. That ones that mention Clinton are entirely about her.
Donald Trump Courts Wary Jewish Voters
Older Voters May Be Hillary Clinton’s Answer to Bernie Sanders’s Youth Appeal (This piece is almost exclusively about Clinton, and only mentions Bernie in passing to mention he has absolutely no hope of winning.)
Donald Trump Is Finally Uniting Top Republican Donors — Against Him
Donald Trump Is a Punch Line for Obama, Who Is Getting More Jokes Ready
Donald Trump Is a Punch Line for Obama, Who Is Getting More Jokes Ready
Graphic: Rubio’s Exit Leaves Trump With an Open Path to 1,237 Delegates
Graphic: Clinton’s Growing Delegate Lead Is Nearly Unbeatable
Graphic: 2016 Delegate Count and Primary Results
Photographs From the Primary Campaign Trail *
Elizabeth Warren Gives Donald Trump a Hostile Welcome to Washington
Hillary Clinton, Faulting Donald Trump, Calls Israel’s Security ‘Nonnegotiable’
Mr. Trump Goes to Washington, to Meet the Establishment
Donald Trump Says He’ll List His Top Supreme Court Picks
Hillary Clinton Campaign Has Raised Millions Toward Beating Bernie Sanders
John Kasich Says G.O.P. Senators Should Meet With Supreme Court Nominee
Majority Threshold ‘Unfair’ in G.O.P. Nomination Process, Donald Trump Complains
Empathy May Be Overrated in an Election, and in a Leader (with photo of Trump)
Trump and Sanders Test Economic Model Predicting a G.O.P. Win
* So, I thought that perhaps the “Photographs” link would show the incredible Bernie photo that I posted above, or one much like it (there were many). Instead, at the very end of the photos page, there was the photo below, the only one involving Bernie, taken with a depth of field that shows only one row with a few people in focus, and otherwise absolutely worthless in terms of giving any indication at all of the size of the crowd. BUT EVEN WORSE — it’s not even from any of Bernie’s rallies in Washington, but an outdated photo of a rally in Youngstown, Ohio!!
Mark Makela for the New York Times. “Supporters of Bernie Sanders as he spoke at a rally in Youngstown, Ohio”
There is nothing more evocative of everything that is wrong with American journalism today, how incredibly compromised, biased and insufficient (if not incompetent) it has become, than a comparison of these two photos — the first one above, easily available on the Internet for anyone who looks (i.e., relatively few people over the age of 45) that shows clearly and vividly the scope of an amazing if not historic event, and the second one just above, from America’s “Paper of Record”, showing, well, almost nothing, except for an attempt to ignore and diminish.
The Fourth Estate is effectively dead, and is being replaced, for better and for worse, with the vast, messy hodgepodge that is citizen and online journalism. But thank heavens we have that, because that’s about all that stands between us and complete domination by the mega-corporations that now own and dominate the media. Maybe, just maybe, social media and the internet will make the crucial difference while that is still possible.
