The New York Times would like you to know that they are very uncomfortable using the word “lie.”
Each time President Trump says something that we know, based on the evidence, is not accurate, we hear from readers who are upset that we did not call the president a liar.
There’s a reason people call for that word. Trump is not accidentally making a misstatement, exaggerating for effect, ladling on a little sarcasm, or making what anyone would regard as an honest mistake. He’s lying. He’s doing it frequently, and aggressively, and part of the reason he does it so freely is the sheer joy he gets from knowing that you will not call him on it. The word “lie” is a perfectly good word and has the distinct advantage of not just being accurate, but fitting neatly into the limited space available to headlines. Use it.
But it’s not just that the New York Times won’t call out Trump’s lies by name, or label him a liar. It’s that they justify this decision with the soppiest milquetoast declaration of both-siderism imaginable.
Executive Editor Dean Baquet: Most politicians obfuscate or exaggerate at times. But I wouldn’t use the word “lie” in a news story in cases like that.
Donald Trump is extremely grateful for your thoughtful consideration. Oh, wait. That’s a lie. Because Trump just thinks it hilarious that you’re willing to piss away what power you have to influence the national conversation while he waddles around calling you names along with everyone else. And after all, it’s not as if Trump has told 15 lies a day over just the last week. Except, yes he has.
But worse than failing to call out Trump on his lies, are headlines and articles that amplify those lies. Take this recent example from NBC News.
Trump attacks 'filthy' Red Hen, the Virginia restaurant that asked Sarah Sanders to leave
That’s the actual headline. Is the Red Hen “filthy”? No, that’s a lie. But NBC has done here what the media so often does—repeat Trump’s words, making sure they’re nailed down firmly in the public’s mind. And maybe, just maybe, they’ll get around, some paragraphs later to letting you know it’s … anything but a lie.
That NBC article with the headline goes the full-Donnie by repeating all the false charges of Trump’s tweet in the first paragraph. Then, to be sure you got it, it repeats the entire tweet immediately after the first paragraph. So, just two paragraphs in, Trump’s lies about a tiny restaurant being kicked by the most powerful man in the country, have been repeated three times. It’s hard to do better Trump service that that.
But wait! Following repeating most of the tweet in the first paragraph, and the the text of the tweet in the second paragraph, the article follows up with … the embedded tweet. Here’s what Trump says. What Trump says. What Trump says. What Trump says.
That is the start of the article. And if that’s not enough, the next paragraph repeats a line from the tweet. By this point, “filthy” might as well be this nice little bistro’s name.
Eleven paragraphs down—that’s eleven (11)—comes this sentence.
Meanwhile, despite Trump's claims that the Red Hen is dirty, the restaurants has passed its inspections with minor or no violations.
Well, okay then. Certainly that sentence embedded just a mile or so down the screen is going to have all the impact of repeating Trump’s words over. And over. Then over and over.
That’s not good journalism. That’s not even good stenography. But damned it’s not just fine propaganda.