The New York Times has lost its journalistic compass

And no, the Wall Street Journal isn't much better

I know it’s been nearly 3 weeks, but apparently The New York Times, which published this banner headline,

forgot all about this little front page news article.¹

The New York Times wrote a headline on Sunday about Donald Trump being “painted” as a convicted criminal by the Biden campaign. Less than 3 weeks ago, it reported Trump as being a felon.

What part is the Biden campaign adding paint to?

The unanimous jury verdict, the 34 felonies, the nearly two dozen witnesses for the prosecution, or maybe in defending Donald Trump from this imaginary gallon of Behr’s Best, it is working with the “if the defendant sleeps through his own criminal trial, it doesn’t count” rule.

Of course, if the Biden campaign were to run ads outside of the Florida media market (which would include southern Georgia and Alabama) about how Donald Trump had stolen classified and top secret documents and then lied about having them in the 47 states north and west of the Sunshine State — then you might accuse the Biden campaign of painting Donald Trump of something he has not actually been tried for or convicted of.

Ditto for running ads about the plethora of evidence and witness testimony in his DC election interference case (obviously outside of the Washington, DC area media markets). That too would be a paint job — Sherwin-Williams style perhaps.

You really can’t paint over reality. Donald Trump is a convicted felon.

So why is the New York Times, supposed journal of liberalism, premising its coverage of President Joe Biden and his reelection campaign against the presumed GOP nominee Donald Trump with such a “pro-Trump” editorial slant?

Well, Joe Biden, who is pushing a very blue collar image, has been sloughing off an interview with the New York Tines editorial board. To make up for that insult, the Times has taken to publishing 30 plus articles about Biden’s age.

Nevermind, there are enough videos of Donald Trump glitching out, slurring his words, and going into bizarro-land in speeches to make even MAGA RNC Convention delegates take pause before nominating him as their 2024 presidential candidate.

And nevermind than there are plenty of newspapers, radio stations, and TV news outlets that have ignored or made the editorial decision not to report Donald Trump’s mental decline. Oh don’t get me wrong, it’s a great story for 2025 and 2026 about how “President Donald Trump being unfit for the presidency”, but it is also “too little, too late” at that point.

It’s not a mere case of journalistic ethics gone awry. The journalistic compass has reached a position in which its polar reality is “all point are due North or South”.

I was rereading my post from yesterday and took pause for forgetting how disingenouos “Fox and Friends” was for touting the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) in its ongoing “anti-Biden/pro-Trump” coverage.

When I get the television news here, it’s usually 6ABC in Philadelphia. Whenever they cover anything about Disney World, they make a point of informing viewers that 6ABC is owned by Disney.

The sound was off, yesterday, but it seemed readily apparent that Steve Doocy and his co-hosts weren’t being honest about something essential.

FoxNews, the Wall Street Journal, and NY Post (and a plethora of other publications) are owned by NewsCorp (the late Rupert² Murdoch’s media empire).

Your journalistic compass cannot be centered or even terribly accurate in such cases.

1. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/30/nyregion/trump-convicted-hush-money-trial.html?unlocked_article_code=1.0k0.ojlZ.6KUi2zljdNGu&smid=url-share

2. Apparently, Keith Rupert Murdoch is not dead…just retired. My mistake.