Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

“When somebody takes the time to draw up a playbook, they’re gonna use it.”

Usually wrong but never in doubt

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

Fundamental belief of white supremacy: white people are presumed innocent, minorities are presumed guilty.

People really shouldn’t expect the government to help after they watched the GOP drown it in a bathtub.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

“I never thought they’d lock HIM up,” sobbed a distraught member of the Lock Her Up Party.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

Their freedom requires your slavery.

There are a lot more evil idiots than evil geniuses.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

A consequence of cucumbers

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

Nikki Haley, who can’t acknowledge ‘slavery’, is a pathetic shill.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

The line between political reporting and fan fiction continues to blur.

“That’s what the insurrection act is for!”

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / NYT Pitchbot Interviewed on Aaron Rupar’s Public Notice Substack

NYT Pitchbot Interviewed on Aaron Rupar’s Public Notice Substack

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This post is in: 

A few excerpts from the DougJ interview.  You might have to sign up for the substack to read the whole thing.

We knew him when…

h/t Babette, a longtime lurker

“Here’s why that’s bad news for Biden”: A chat with NYT Pitchbot

The legend himself speaks to Public Notice.

by Aaron Rupar / Thor

Tweeting is just a hobby for the man behind Pitchbot, a 50-something math professor living in Rochester, New York. (We agreed to not disclose his identity.  But he has a big following because his tweets, as absurdist as they can be, speak to the real shortcomings of news media in the age of Trumpism.

“My tweets critique how the media frames things,” he told us. “They help get to the bottom of all the both sidesing and ridiculous framing that goes on at places like the New York Times.”

Public Notice contributor Thor Benson connected with “Doug” for a chat about the inspiration for the New York Times Pitchbot and its evolution over time. A transcript of their conversation, lightly edited for length and clarity, follows.

Thor Benson

Tell me about how the New York Times Pitchbot got started.

New York Times Pitchbot

I had been blogging on this site called Balloon Juice for a while, and when I had kids, blogging or writing anything long form became kind of impossible. So I got interested in Twitter, and I really liked these accounts called the Federalist Pitchbot and Reason Pitchbot. I thought they were really funny.

I decided I’d like to do something like that, so I did New York Times Pitchbot. I did it for a couple weeks — kind of intermittently — and then a conservative journalist friend of mine told me, “This is a great bit. You should really stick with it.” A few weeks later, another journalist who’s a friend of mine told me that he really liked the bit, too, so that’s how I got into it.

Thor Benson

When did it start taking off?

New York Times Pitchbot

It changed a lot. I started off trying to sound like the New York Times with the stilted headline style and old time, inside baseball jokes. Then I did one making fun of Jared and Ivanka — “Sources close to Jared and Ivanka say that privately the couple opposes the pandemic.”

NYT Pitchbot Interview

That one got retweeted all over the place, and suddenly I had a non-trivial number of followers.

I was like, “Hey, this really seems to work,” so I gradually got more and more into it, and it kept growing and growing. But I think like everybody else it kind of stopped growing when Elon took over and the traffic went down.

Thor Benson

Is it fair to say your jokes became more political over time?

New York Times Pitchbot

Initially, I thought it would be fun to make fun of all of the sheet pan articles and other ridiculous things the Times does, like when they visit a neighborhood and write about how hip it is. But I noticed people like the political tweets the best.

My tweets critique how the media frames things. They help get to the bottom of all the both sidesing and ridiculous framing that goes on at places like the New York Times. I originally didn’t really mean for it to be that but to be just a little fun and jokey, but then gradually the ironic critique thing seemed to be what people really liked.

At first I thought it’d be fun to just make up completely new, crazy headlines, but I realized people like a template. They do eventually get old to people, but it takes a long time. In a lot of ways, with these templates, people like the joke the tenth time in more than they liked it the first time.

The template ones do sound more like the New York Times, because they clearly use a template for their headlines.

Eventually I drifted into making fun of The Atlantic and these Substack and New York Magazine people who take themselves very seriously. Certain parts of what I do now are New York Times-specific, but a lot of it is more making fun of that whole adjacent group of self-important jackasses.

Thor Benson

Yeah, I’ve noticed you like to target people like Glenn Greenwald.

New York Times Pitchbot

The Glenn stuff — I just can’t help myself. People like it too. His feed is so ridiculous. With the New York Times, sometimes I’d go on the opinion page looking for something to make fun of, and I’d go through it and say, “Meh.” Unless it was a Pamela Paul day or a Bret Stephens day, I’d be like, “There’s really nothing here that gets my creative juices going.” Maybe it’s a little milquetoasty, but it’s not that bad.
,,,
Making fun of Glenn just became its own kind of fun thing. The “who I do not support” really took off, which I didn’t make up myself. It was created by a guy who runs an account called “Glem Greenwald.”

Thor Benson

Have you ever had someone from the New York Times tell you they like your work?

New York Times Pitchbot

Yeah, a couple times, actually, but not often. What I’ve noticed is a lot of people from the Washington Post and other journalists follow me, but only like one or two people from the New York Times. I kind of wonder if they’re not supposed to.

I used a lede from a sports article to do a “bad news for Joe Biden” one, and the writer said he was honored that I used it, so I’ve had a couple interactions with New York Times people. Not very many, though.

Thor Benson

People love to tag you when they see something they think you’ll like. Do you get overwhelmed by that?

New York Times Pitchbot

I miss most of them, probably. At first, I would see them all. I still like to go into my mentions, because that’s where I find a lot of my best stuff. Most of the really crazy things I find and riff on, they’re usually something somebody found for me. They either DM’d me or they tagged me on it. I miss a lot of them. I get a lot of tags.

Thor Benson

Do you intentionally try to remain anonymous?

New York Times Pitchbot

Yeah. I don’t know how strong my rationale is for remaining anonymous anymore. Initially, I did it because I thought if conservatives read it, they might get mad. I have conservative students and colleagues. What I’ve found is that conservative people who are high information enough to be reading this account usually like it for whatever reason.

These days I’m a little more worried about the horseshoe left people. I find they really, really hate the account. Maybe it’s because I make fun of Glenn so much. I teach at a university, and if I have any really big Glenn fans in my classes, I don’t want them to know about it.

Reader Interactions

110Comments

  6. 6.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Eduardo: He is still on the virtual masthead.  One of his markers here was “obscure” Elvis Costello references in post titles.

  14. 14.

    oldster

    Good on you, DougJ!
    If my dim recollection of the past decades serves me, I seem to recall you trolling John Cole pretty often in the early days. You always had a good ear.

  16. 16.

    Anonymous At Work

    Have things come around full-circle?  Doug pitches a headline and the NYT uses it a few weeks/months later?

  17. 17.

    Josie

    Thanks for posting this, WaterGirl, and thanks to DougJ for visiting. Good for you, making the big time.

  18. 18.

    Scout211

    A DougJBalloon sighting on the blog!  I think I’m having the vapors.

    Congratulations DougJ, you done good.

  19. 19.

    Yarrow

    @DougJBalloon:  Congrats on all the fame. Good to see you hear. I really miss your posts. John Cole has decided to write here again. Maybe it’s time to get the band back together. Where’s Tim F?

  20. 20.

    Lyrebird

    @DougJBalloon: ​
     

    Another long-time fan. You have found your medium for sure!

    And I definitely get wanting to keep your more political work out of your classroom role.

  27. 27.

    Elizabelle

    @DougJBalloon:   Jamie Dimon just served himself up to you at Davos.

    Michael Hiltzik’s LA Times column yesterday on the wisdom emanating from Davos, year after year, was lit.  Sadly, LAT does not have gift links.

    On my phone, but will put the link up from my laptop shortly.  There is a link in the previous morning post.

    And: welcome back!

  29. 29.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @DougJBalloon: Congrats on the success.  I imagine you are now rolling in $ now that you’ve hit the big time /sarcasm

    Your work is another great step on the long tradition of Lefty satire and it brings me back to the days of Al Weisel/Jon Swift and Doghouse Riley.  I absolutely love when people read your tweets/headlines and don’t get that they are satire.  I don’t know why, that will always be funny to me.

  33. 33.

    piratedan

    @DougJBalloon: waiting for the NYT article that states that Nikki Haley as being a true GOP candidate because of her embrace of capitalism in how she’s sold out both Women and People of Color.

     

    :-)

  35. 35.

    cain

    @Eduardo:

    Oh man – is he ever. He is a former front pager. But before that he used to come in with multiple accounts and basically do “pitchbot’ type of things with the commentariat.

    Which led to a number of us getting a “dougj” detector – some of us would catch on. “It’s DougJ!” – sometimes though it isn’t and I’ sure he’d laugh his ass off – probably laugh his ass off either way. :D

    Welcome back, DougJBalloon (if only for a short time. :-)

    It’s some kudo though to get Biden to ack you :D when you got the prez (both of em) laughing – it’s a good thing :D

  37. 37.

    cain

    @Anonymous At Work: Yes – sometimes the NYT Pitchbot is a predictor. A few times life imitated art. The reaction always felt at least from Doug this kind of “open mouthed, I can’t believe this, lol” when he reposts the times or washington post.

    Showing them as the clowns they are is good fun.

  38. 38.

    Miss Bianca

    @cain: I remember – it finally got to the point where I would just automatically presume any troll-y or crank-y post was DougJ boppin’ us on the head.

  39. 39.

    cain

    These days I’m a little more worried about the horseshoe left people. I find they really, really hate the account. Maybe it’s because I make fun of Glenn so much. I teach at a university, and if I have any really big Glenn fans in my classes, I don’t want them to know about it.

    I can’t believe there are still glenn greenwald fans. Glenn deserves every bit of mockery.

    Of course, I think when John was still a Republican – I think they would regularly converse.

    horseshoe left – someone has go to define that one :D haha

  40. 40.

    kindness

    Since we’re in an election year, DougJ has an almost eternal fountain of things to make fun of.

    You go guy!  Know we miss you here.

  43. 43.

    Kay

    Eventually I drifted into making fun of The Atlantic and these Substack and New York Magazine people who take themselves very seriously. Certain parts of what I do now are New York Times-specific, but a lot of it is more making fun of that whole adjacent group of self-important jackasses.

    So needed.

  46. 46.

    Rusty

    I love the last paragraph, that it’s the horseshoe left that hates the NYT Pitchbot.  On reflection it’s not remotely surprising.  Not only is the far, far left into ineffective, performative politics, they are also a humorless lot.  I’d rather hang out here!

  48. 48.

    trollhattan

    Sometimes picture people smashing mirrors at the NYT HQ/Palace and being pissed when maintenance replaces them.

    Fight the good fight, DougJ!

  49. 49.

    Geminid

    @Baud: As Professor Henry Higgins might say:

    [Carry] Freddie? What an infantile idea. What a heartless, wicked, brainless thing to do..

  51. 51.

    StringOnAStick

    @cain: The only Greenwald fan I know is an accelerationist anarchist who was giddy at the thought of voting for Sarah Palin.  He’s still sure the workers paradise will come when everyone is sufficiently immiserated to finally vote as the properly enlightened proletariat.  Yeah, he’s a highly educated dumbass.

  53. 53.

    Matt McIrvin

    @cain: I always got the impression that “hey, it’s DougJ” detections only ran about 20% actually DougJ, but maybe I was just unobservant.

  54. 54.

    Kay

    @Poe Larity:

    Freddie deBoer is a special case because although he’s the Right’s favorite Leftist he never actually writes about any Left policy. It’s pure identity – no follow thru at all. He says somewhere in each essay that he is a Leftist – I think knowing that this is why they people on the Right are hiring and promoting him- but this ideological or political “identity” he claims seems to have no relevance at all to what he thinks about. Freddie deBoer could write all of his essays as a Leftist or a liberal or a conservative – it wouldn’t matter at all. He mostly agrees with Jeb Bush. If I just read him and ignored how he describes himself I would put him on the Right.

  55. 55.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Kay: He’s the modern Even the Liberal Mickey Kaus. I never saw Mickey Kaus write anything that wasn’t right-wing propaganda but somehow he was always Even the Liberal.

  56. 56.

    Quadrillipede

    I think I found satire slightly more amusing when I was less aware that there is literally no idea that is so insane that nobody would believe it.

    That’s not satire’s fault though. 🤷‍♂️

  59. 59.

    RevRick

    @DougJBalloon: AND now random people will be asking themselves, “What is this Balloon Juice thing?” and visiting the site, likely propelling it to a top 9999. Thanks for nothing, inundating us with the hoi polloi.

  60. 60.

    Kay

    @Matt McIrvin:

    My Lefty youngest sent me a DeBoer essay – “why the shit libs are wrong about mental illness” and I had to tell him “this is fine but understand it’s the views of a moderate Republican”.

  62. 62.

    Quadrillipede

    @StringOnAStick: the workers paradise will come when everyone is sufficiently immiserated

    I don’t really like the FTFY thing (I find it presumptive) but replacing “everyone” with “billionaires” might have some potential…

  63. 63.

    Matt McIrvin

    @RevRick: And Elon Musk will buy us to turn us into Xalloon Xuice, your one-stop blog for neofascist spew about the woke mind virus!

  72. 72.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Matt McIrvin: I’ve heard some very weird far Lefty’s tell me that.

    It’s pretty clear they haven’t read anything actually about RFK’s or Phillip’s positions. It’s very weird.

  74. 74.

    Kay

    @Matt McIrvin:

    He’s more shallow than that. To me he’s like Sinema. “She dresses eccentrically! She drinks wine! She runs marathons! She once identified with the Green Party!” but at the end of the day she’s Jeb Bush. They don’t seem to be aware that these “outsider” views they have are really conventional and already represented by moderate Republicans.

    Freddie defends standardized testing (for example) as if this is a brave contrarian view. It’s the official policy of the US government and every state government. I don’t know why he “feels like” an outsider- his views are absolutely the status quo.

  77. 77.

    BethanyAnne

    @Matt McIrvin: I stopped reading Jonathan Haidt when he began to sound like that. “I’m a liberal, and here’s why liberal should shut up and learn from conservatives.” Piss off, Haidt.

  78. 78.

    Kay

    @Matt McIrvin:

    I dress conventionally, hardly drink at all, have been married for a hundred years and have four kids, don’t run marathons and and don’t belong to the Green Party but my views on a lot of things are much less conventional than Sinema and deBoer and Greenwald.

  79. 79.

    wjca

    @MisterForkbeard: It’s pretty clear they haven’t read anything actually about RFK’s or Phillip’s positions. It’s very weird.

    Pretty expectable, actually.  Just like the cult of TIFG, what they really care about is someone attacking someone they don’t like.

    They don’t like Biden (not pure enough!).  RFK Jr and Phillips are attacking Biden.  So what their actual positions are is simply irrelevant.

  80. 80.

    Eduardo

    @cain:

    But before that he used to come in with multiple accounts and basically do “pitchbot’ type of things with the commentariat

    LOL

  81. 81.

    Kay

    @Formerly disgruntled in Oregon:

    I just want attention paid to the fact that although The Woke Mind Virus Controversy has completely consumed the NYTimes, The Atlantic, 50% of Substack and 100% of middle aged male stand up comics, it really flopped as a broader political movement. You know, with VOTERS.

    Winning is supposed to matter in elections. I thought these people were all about merit? They keep fucking backing losers. Musk backed DeSantis. Then he backed RFK Jr. Then he backed Vivek. They may not have their fingers on the pulse of the electorate to the extent they believe they do.

  82. 82.

    Dave

    @Kay: That “may” is being very generous. If I had to guess they are actually less aware of where the public is at then John Q Normal guy who only watches sports, action movies, and reads the occasional headline. They certainly aren’t any better informed they just take it as axiomatic that they must be because all the best people tell them so. Crassly it’s an emotional circle jerk posing as a pseudo-intellectual circle jerk.

    And of course John Q Normal guy’s wife is probably more aware because a lot of the things the best amongst dismiss out of hand are things that impact Jane Q Normal.

  84. 84.

    moops

    @Kay:

     

    I think it is important to state that you make an effort to back politicians that you think are not getting the attention they deserve.   If the person you want elected is already way out in the lead, then the billionaires don’t get too involved personally.  Just drop their bribe in the kitty and wait for the election win.  What Elon is telling us with his doofus random walk is that he is a committed GOP man, but would rather not have to vote for Trump.

  86. 86.

    Mai Naem mobile

    @DougJBalloon: congrats Doug. I’m not on Twitter as much but when I see your stuff I am amazed that you still manage to keep up the quality of your snark.  I also heard you on a Sirius/XM lefty show last year .I think it was Michaelangelo Signorile’s show.

  88. 88.

    Matt McIrvin

    @MisterForkbeard: I noticed back in 2016 that there was a segment of the “far left” who were really cultural reactionaries while identifying it as socialism. They seemed to have the idea that if the left abandoned the Woke (I think that year they called it “SJWs”) it could turn back time to 1932 and reassemble a new FDR coalition of leftism for the white man.

    It was connected to the idea that representation for women and minorities was a corporatist ruse, which was born out of hatred for Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, but especially Hillary Clinton.

  89. 89.

    clay

    @Kay:

    They may not have their fingers on the pulse of the electorate to the extent they believe they do.

    But everyone who kisses up to them they interact with tells them how smart they are! How could they possibly be wrong about anything?

  90. 90.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @StringOnAStick: I know one person who still loves Greenwald.  He’s a #FreeAssange guy who thinks Amnesty International can do no wrong and Hillary is history’s greatest monster.  So in other words, a fucking idiot.  We are still friends because I like him as a person and we have some shared interests of camping, jazz etc., but any time politics comes up I change the subject as fast as I would with a Trump-supporter.

  93. 93.

    Matt McIrvin

    @trollhattan: Elon Musk loves trains as long as they’re sufficiently futuristic that they cannot actually be built. Preferably traveling in an evacuated tube.

  94. 94.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: Too many people use having money as a marker for someone being really, really smart about everything. It doesn’t mean that at all. ETA – then they completely ignore when these people are wrong. It’s like how Jeanne Dixon used to make all these predictions every year that people would read as if they might come true. No one ever checked last year’s predictions to see if any of them actually happened!

  95. 95.

    Soprano2

    @DougJBalloon: Congrats on the interview DougJ! You’re my second “I knew that person when” person. I posted with Digby at the Brill’s Content web site way back in 1998-2000, when message boards were a thing. When Brill’s went down in flames most of us migrated to EZ Boards, where we had regular flame wars with the conservative posters there. I wonder about one of them, he called himself vintagetechnology. He had a thing about the “degradation” of the left, he was always posting things about how “the left” was degrading the culture. I wonder how he feels about TFG. He lives in Tampa, so that tracks!

  97. 97.

    MazeDancer

    Back in 2018, when Doug was the BJ Fundraiser, and I was starting PostCard Patriots, we used to tag team of sorts.

    So, I have emails we exchanged that, of course, I will never delete now. (Actually, I never delete emails…)

    But Doug is responsible for founding the BJ-Four Directions relationship.

    I had seen them on Rachel Maddow. And had nudged Doug a couple times about them. So had Anne Laurie.

    And in October, he posted a fundraiser about them. And the rest is history.

    Don’t think he would take my emails now. But we’ll always have 2018…

    And way to go, DougJ!

  98. 98.

    Denali5

     

    @DougJBalloon,

    I always enjoyed your comments when you were posting here at Balloon Juice. It was great to have someone right here in snowy Rochester making these great posts. I am off Twitter now because of you know who, but do miss hearing your take down of The NY Times. I used to think The NY Times was a great paper. Not so much anymore.

  100. 100.

    Nancy

    I think I sat next to DougJ at a Rochester meet-up some years back. I’ll bask slightly in the reflected glory.

    I would like to follow the Pitchbot at someplace other that X.

    Mr. DougJ I think you posted a photo of your toddler asleep on the family dog. It was cute and heartwarming at a time when we needed that.

    Enjoy your well-earned glory.

  101. 101.

    StringOnAStick

    @UncleEbeneezer: I booted the similar idiot out of my life when he fell for the men’s rights movement and kept pressuring me to join him.  As a female who started my post college working career in a traditionally male job in the 1980’s, he can fuck right off with that shit.

  103. 103.

    Dangerman

    @RevRick: Do we dress up the place (Green Balloons)? Do WE dress up? As long as it does’t involve ties, I’m good (whoever dreamed up the idea of something tight around your neck is laughing his or her ass off in Hell).

  104. 104.

    Captain C

    @Kay:

    They don’t seem to be aware that these “outsider” views they have are really conventional and already represented by moderate Republicans.

    That’s the problem right there.  There aren’t anywhere close to enough moderate Republicans anymore for this to be widely known.

    I don’t know why he “feels like” an outsider- his views are absolutely the status quo.

    Presumably by claiming outsider status he gets more clicks and therefore more bucks and attention.  He also seems to have a problem with self-awareness.

  105. 105.

    Captain C

    @Kay:

    They may not have their fingers on the pulse of the electorate to the extent they believe they do.

    They confuse their own thoughts and those of their suckups with that of the general public.

  106. 106.

    Jackie

    @Yarrow:

    Good to see you hear. I really miss your posts. John Cole has decided to write here again. Maybe it’s time to get the band back together. Where’s Tim F?

    That would be awesome!!!

  107. 107.

    Paul @.

    Ohhh, I like the fire in his last post on the fundraising. I feel like I remember this one, but speaking of which I clicked the tag and looks like our last fundraising post was in November 2023, I’m assuming you have a priority list given how impactful we were in 2020/2022/2023 but as primaries get settled I really want to know where my $$$ can do the most good and trust the outlets we have found here at BJ to help make that decision.

    @WaterGirl:

    (FYI, nym is supposed to be “Paul W.”

  108. 108.

    MomSense

    Hooray for DougJ and have to say bringing the balloon juice ethos to the masses cracks me up.
    Keep being awesome, Doug.

  110. 110.

    Elizabelle

    Want to add the Columbia Journalism Review article on DougJ from May 2022.  It was linked in the Public Notice interview.

    And, sadly for us, was published when the site was down.

    CJR:  The bot that saw the Times

    A few weeks ago, the person behind the New York Times Pitchbot—not a bot at all, but a Twitter account whose posts satirize New York Times headlines and articles—was at his home, in Rochester, New York, doing laundry with one hand while tapping out, with the other, one of his most frequent refrains on Twitter: “Dems in Disarray.” But the tweet—a parody of what NYT Pitchbot considers one of the media’s laziest constructions—wouldn’t send. “Whoops!” read an alert from Twitter. “You already said that.”

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