Tucker & Hannity are obvious suspects. But I wouldn’t rule out Ingraham
Also, I don’t know his definition of commentator. Is Rufo a commentator? https://t.co/UGgZAPvZjB
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) February 7, 2024
Ingraham or Hannity, possibly as part of an organized strategy? https://t.co/hXPbUD1bqf
— Sydra (@sydrasmith) February 7, 2024
Here is who did it: https://t.co/wjzEGJSEhI
— Bert C (@MrBerre) February 7, 2024
But it’s fantastic *content*!…
While back I saw two different ex-NYT reporters describe mtgs w editors who asked the reporters to lay out the themes they would be emphasizing over the next 6 months
IOW, they were telling reporters to commit to a conclusion that they would spend the next 6 months supporting https://t.co/5FlRZIvfrf
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) February 5, 2024
2/One of the reporters was like “uh, wtf? I’ll be writing about news that happens & working sources for ideas of what to write. How TF can I predict the next six months of news?”
Can’t vouch for the credibility of those sources (or precision of my memory) but reading that…
3/…made me see the reporting in the NYT in a new light. If you look closely you can start to see the same themes over months, even when the fundamental premise is bullshit, & especially when the premise may have seemed plausible but subsequent events showed it to be wrong…
4/…yet the NYT keeps pumping out pieces based on the now discredited premise. (The failed Biden economy is a great example.) There are also the cases where it appears they’ve decided to pursue a subject & give it outsized attention, like back in the 90’s w the racist…
5…country clubs, or “her emails,” or of late the free speech on campus bullshit, their scaremongering about trans kids, or their Carrie Nation-ing of the danger of alcohol.
I can’t give a strong empirical basis for this, but the NYT isn’t the only paper I read regularly…
6/…& I don’t get this same sense of “pursuing themes” in the Washington Post, Chicago Sun-Times, Detroit Free Press, or Detroit News.
Sticking w a story, out of proportion to what the rest of the press is covering, isn’t inherently bad; two of the greatest films…
7/…about journalism (All the President’s Men [from the book] & Spotlight) are stories of just such pursuits of stories missed or ignored or not emphasized by the rest of the press. But in those & similar cases they weren’t writing from a plan, they were follow tips, finding…
8/…clues, & following & assembling the story, rather than starting with the story & working backwards from the conclusion.
Again, I may have some of this wrong—I’d love to hear from former reporters/editors whether what I’m saying is consistent with their experiences…
9/…at the NYT; I’ll update this thread if I learn anything that confirms or casts doubt on the notion that the NYT plays off themes at the expense of sound reporting & analysis. But like I said, if you look for evidence of story arcs even if the premise is flawed or…
10/…just plain wrong, I suspect that like me you’ll find many examples at the NYT, and no comparable pattern at many or any other major newspapers.
I’ve said this before: Then-editor Howell Raines personally hated Bill Clinton with every fiber of his being; Raines wanted the ‘poor boy from Little Rock makes good’ narrative all to himself, and never stopped resenting that Bad-Boy Bill stole *his* spotlight. Institutional inertia and the anti-Democratic bias of its owners has kept that reputational mudslide going ever since…
11/I don’t remember as much from the 90’s & how much of that was editorial planning & how much was horrible & unrestrained reporters, but it was a disaster
There’s also Judith Miller https://t.co/yxdpCPiogN
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) February 5, 2024
Alison Rose
Is Rufo a commentator?
Maybe. I prefer to call him a slimy mendacious little putz.
Baud
Whoever picked EMAILS won the lottery.
Leto
OT: JPL cuts 8% of its staff
trollhattan
Speaking of Tucker, Columbia Journalism Review ponders his Putin trip in comparison to William Randolph Hurst’s journey to Germany in order to fawn over that Hitler person.
trollhattan
@Leto: Please tell me they’re not siphoning it off to give to SpaceX.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
M$M: We’ve got a narrative and we’re sticking to it.
”Dewey defeats Truman!”
cain
Just goes to show how much shit these assholes throw at us – they want us to fail, they want the economy to fail – they are dangerous partisans.
I think most of us do not subscribe to the NYT. Is anybody here still subscribing?
BlueGuitarist
Looks like Jesse Kelly, taking a victory lap re Lankford, is the current right wing hack in the Rush Limbaugh time slot.
cain
Here is some fun video of the trucker people showing up at the border and confused that it isn’t a hellspot.
https://twitter.com/Democracy1stE/status/1754477396366143724
eclare
I’ve never heard of Jesse Kelly, is it true that he’s the one who threatened a senator?
bbleh
Here’s one theory about TNYT: they’re asking for consistency in “brand” — ie, message — as part of a long-term business strategy to come out of the current cataclysm for newspapers in as strong a position as possible, and they want journalists who will support that strategy. One might expect as a corollary that those journalists who decline to map out a brand/message strategy for the next 6 months — ie until the election is an all-consuming extravaganza — will find themselves on the losing end of regrettable-but-necessary business downsizing decisions.
Exactly what that overall business strategy might be, and to what extent it is overtly pro-Trump, I don’t know. I would guess at this point that it’s a strategic straddle intended to alienate as few readers and advertisers as possible until it’s clear which way the wind is gonna blow. But I don’t think reporting actual news as volatile situations evolve is very high on their list of business priorities.
eclare
@cain:
I quit in the run-up to 2016. I think some people still subscribe for the crossword puzzles.
Old School
Is Jesse Kelly well-known enough to “destroy” a senator?
Alison Rose
@cain: The dude wearing a shirt that says “Jesus wept” on the back — LOL I bet he’s weeping now, looking at y’all acting like absolute idiots in his name.
counterfactual
@trollhattan: All SpaceX contracts are fixed-price fee-for-service contracts, and have been assigned years ago. They currently have Commercial Resupply Services, Commercial Crew Program (both for the space station), and Human Landing System (for the Artemis program) along with the normal as-needed NASA launches.
Baud
I wonder if any reporter has pitched spending six months on the theme of Republican fascism.
Steeplejack
Dagnabbit. Got word of two fraudulent charges, or charge attempts, on my bank card via Yelp/Grubhub in New York City—about $215. Bank of America caught them right away and alerted me. I answered some security questions on line and filled out a form, and it looks like it will get sorted out. No problem there.
But BoA canceled the card and told me they’d get me a new one in “five to seven business days.” Yikes, that could be a problem. I’m okay on the day to day, but I realized I’ve got a raft of accounts linked to the card, everything from Amazon to streaming services to subscriptions, etc., all of which will have to be redirected to the new card. (My initial count is 19.) I don’t have any charges due this week, but next week will be cutting it close. So I guess tomorrow I’ll put on the tactical gear (pants!) and head over to my local BofA office to see about getting a new card immediately. A hassle but necessary.
P.S. I have no idea how my card info got out into the wild—especially Grubhub. I have never used that service.
PAM Dirac
@trollhattan: What I heard is that a large chunk of the cutbacks is due to a big slash in the budget for Mars Sample Return. The latest reviews were very negative and instead of ramping up the activity there is about a 60% cut. A decent chunk of the astronomy community thinks Mars is hogging far more of the exploration budget than it deserves.
cain
@Alison Rose: Watching them fight amongst themselves. There are some other vids about one guy confronting another guy for being a pedophile. Another woman lamenting that crooks are joining up their precious cause and tearing up.
They sound pathetic.
Their leader literally is a rapist.
cain
@eclare: Funding misinformation just to do crosswords. Sheesh.
Alison Rose
@PAM Dirac:
Well, all that caramel and nougat takes time and effort to get through.
JustRuss
“Now look Paul, sure, the economy’s looking pretty good if you believe in “numbers”….but some people in an Ohio diner are saying…”
eclare
@Steeplejack:
Oh wow that sucks!
bbleh
@Steeplejack: when my card was hijacked, it almost certainly was via a sandwich shop / deli in Chicago, and more likely an employee stealing numbers of people from out of town than from some kind of systematic hack. The first thing they did was try a couple of SMALL purchases at various stores and services in the area. I was advised at the time that, had those not been caught, the big charges would have come quickly afterward.
I’d ask your card provider to move automatic charges from your old card to your new one immediately. Go over them one by one if necessary. I’d push on this, tho YMMV.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Steeplejack: What a pain.
Old School
Balloon-Juice doesn’t do this?
”I’ll write about insurance.”
”I’ll emphasize how big of an idiot Ron DeSantis is.”
”I’ll post paintings and about how far behind on my next book I am.”
Dangerman
POS. The lot of them.
Quinerly
@Steeplejack: almost the same thing happened to me Sunday. Wells Fargo caught 3 fraudulent charges to Temu (I didn’t even know what Temu was) and 3 fraudulent charges to Google. Wells texted and called me; reversed them and closed the acct. Sending me a new card I should have by Tuesday. I’m leaving Thurs for Las Cruces, NM; Willcox and Bisbee, AZ. The Wells card is my traveling card tied to hotel points. Fingers crossed it gets here before I leave.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Quinerly: Someone once stole my card number and used it to donate $10,000 to Harvard.
That one was a headscratcher.
CindyH
@Steeplejack: when that happened to me, ongoing charges were honored until card was replaced/activated
Sure Lurkalot
@Steeplejack: the last time this happened to me, the bank card issuer charged the web transactions that had used the old account number to the new account number before I got my new card—they didn’t “bounce” them. That card was with (bad boy) Chase, not (bad boy) BOA.
Josie
OT, a dear friend lost her kitty of 17 years this week. I’d like to give her a copy of the poem that Raven usually posts about the loss of a beloved pet. I have searched but cannot find it. Does anyone have a copy or know where I can find it? TIA.
eclare
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
That is weird.
Steeplejack
@bbleh:
BoA seems to be handling this well so far. They have already nuked the current card, so I don’t see how there can be any more spurious charges. (But I am monitoring my BofA account page closely.)
But I don’t see how BofA can move the automatic charges. They’d have to distinguish between “automatic” and “ordinary” transactions, and I don’t know if they could even do a “group forwarding” maneuver. There are automatic charges that occur every month, some that occur once or twice a year and at least one (looking at you, E-ZPass) that occurs intermittently at wide intervals (currently over a year).
I am remembering from the last time I got a new card—when the previous one expired—that I also got a new card number and I had to do the “inform everybody” thing. I am okay with that; I just want to get on it now to get ahead of upcoming charges. (Currently Apple TV+ next week.) Can’t do that without the new card number (and expiration date).
Alison Rose
@Josie: Do you mean this one, perhaps?
Gvg
I got a letter from my bank that thanked me for signing up to google pay…which I had not, so mine got cancelled Monday night. I should have kept a list of what was on auto pay for that. I know it means I can’t do curbside groceries. Not willing to put in a debit card for that. There are a lot fewer protections for debit.
There was also a phishing attempt today. And we had to evacuate the building because of a suspicious package. That was a false alarm of course, but not a productive day.
Hope my card comes soon.
hells littlest angel
@Steeplejack: I think going to a BofA branch will be a waste of time. Retail banking and credit card are separate businesses.
dmsilev
@PAM Dirac: Yeah, that’s pretty much the story. NASA is waiting on Congress (i.e. the House Republicans) to pass an actual appropriations bill rather than an endless series of Continuing Resolutions, and until that happens there are more commitments than funds. Mars Sample Return is an easy target for the agency to cut, because there have been some serious management problems identified. Personally, I think NASA should have instead cut the budget for the SLS rocket (technically Space Launch System, but often called the Senate Launch System because Richard Shelby in particular insisted on it, and it’s built by contractors scattered all over the country pretty much just for political reasons). SLS is enormously expensive, takes forever to build each rocket (for both of those, you can thank/blame lead contractor Boeing), and currently only has one vaguely viable mission (Moon landings). Still, pork-barrel politics, so it stays.
Steeplejack
@CindyH, @Sure Lurkalot:
I’ll see what happens. I had one Amazon transaction that was “pending” today, so I’m not sure if it got in under the wire.
Quinerly
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Bizarre. I have to assume it went to Harvard as “Anonymous.”
TBone
Heh. Digby sez:
“…This reads like a bomb threat from a particularly illiterate person at the end of a coke binge. As a general rule, we should amend the Constitution to bar people who communicate in all caps from the presidency. It’s truly disqualifying.”
https://digbysblog.net/2024/02/07/immunity-for-dummies-2/
Josie
@Alison Rose:
That’s the one. Thanks so much.
Alison Rose
@Josie: You’re welcome :) I had it saved.
Hoppie
@eclare: NYTimes puzzles are crap. Cryptics for the win! Will Shortz tried to introduce dumbed down cryptics in the Times and failed miserably. Times puzzles are write-downs, not puzzles.
WaterGirl
@Steeplejack: That happened to me once. I would put it somewhere between gigantic pain in the ass, and a nightmare.
Steeplejack
@hells littlest angel:
I hear what you’re saying, and I dread the visit, but in the communications from BoA they said if I need the new card right away to go to a local branch. 🤞
smith
With all the fun of Preacher of the House Johnson presiding over GQP chaos and TFG going down in flames, there doesn’t seem to be much attention being paid to the fact that we’re going to need a new CR right quick, like in less than a month. With Johnson unable to organize a one car funeral, it could get pretty messy.
lowtechcyclist
@Steeplejack:
I got hit by some fraudulent activity over the weekend, the card is closed, and the credit union said the new card would take 10-14 business days to get here.
At least I have a backup credit card, having been through this before.
Yeesh. At least I didn’t have that problem.
dmsilev
@smith: The current one expires right around the time of the State of the Union address. Which a lot of people still watch. Do they really want to give Joe Biden an easy “Republicans suck and can’t do their jobs” angle?
Mike S. (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!)
@Steeplejack: This is why I have two credit cards listed with Amazon and a few other places like EZPass.
HinTN
@dmsilev: They don’t have the wit to see that train coming.
karen marie
@Steeplejack: I cannot imagine trusting a fucking bank to transfer automatic billing payments from a stolen card number to the replacement card number. That is just insane. But I also think using an app on one’s phone to transfer money out of one’s bank account is insane too, so …
Because a phone is easily lost, I do no banking on it. I don’t even have my email login info on my phone. Shit be lost, you be fucked.
Hoppie
@karen marie: Truth be told.
Jeffro
I can’t imagine being part of a party whose elected officials jump when Jesse Kelly cracks the whip.
Gobs Of Pathetic(ness)?
I can’t make it work well, so let’s just call them the Loser Party. After all, trump IS their leader.
karen marie
@TBone: It’s a puzzle. If Trump did nothing wrong, why does he need immunity?
Leto
@trollhattan: @counterfactual: maybe some of them land up there, but it’s another self-inflicted shot in America’s junk. I’m mad because JPL usually does work that heads back to the civilian population in a myriad of ways that beneficial to us all. I hate conservatives. That’s it.
Steeplejack
@karen marie:
I don’t do any banking on my phone, and I don’t have my BoA log-in saved on the phone. I do all my banking on the home computer (or with the bank card when I’m out and about.) I do use email on my phone, but I have the phone’s lock screen activated.
Jackie
@Alison Rose: Do you have a link to that poem that could be bookmarked? My daughter’s senior pup has been having health issues and he’s slowing down. That would be perfect to send to her when the time eventually comes.
Steeplejack
@Jackie:
It’s from Irving Townsend’s book of essays Separate Lifetimes. Here’s a link to one source.
SiubhanDuinne
@Josie:
We who choose to surround ourselves with lives even more temporary than our own live within a fragile circle, easily and often breached. Unable to accept its awful gaps, we still would live no other way. We cherish memory as the only certain immortality, never fully understanding the necessary plan. — Irving Townsend
(Apologies if others have posted it — I haven’t been through all the comments, but I knew I could find it easily. I hope it provides comfort to your friend.)
JMG
I had a 30 year career in journalism. In my experience, there is no incident of “Bias”or of distorted coverage that wasn’t directly traceable to the publisher/owner of the paper, radio, TV station, network or webiste. The Sulzberger family is pro-Trump because that’s what they want. Commercial motives have nothing to do with it except they know a outright Trump endorsement means instant commercial death due to a 75 percent subscription loss.
Steeplejack
@SiubhanDuinne:
I think you’ve got it right. I don’t think it’s actually a poem, although it is often quoted that way. I used to have a copy of the book, but no longer.
CaseyL
Want to read a mind-blowing, amazing, speech about race? By John S. Rock, the first African-American person admitted to the Supreme Court bar?
Highlighted by David Nathanson on Mastodon, who said, “John Rock chewed them up and spat them out. Holy moly.”
Here it is. Unfortunately, an awful lot of it is still applicable today. This paragraph particularly caught my attention:
p.a.
NYT: anti-Democratic and anti-democratic.
Alison Rose
@Jackie: I only had it from here, when Raven posted it on the post about Tunch dying.
But I found it here, too, which would be a much better link to send.
NotMax
@Steeplejack
I feel your agita. Went through the same dance twice</em. within the space of a month in , IIRC, 2022. Original card axed, new one to be sent out Canceling the first replacement card over fraudulent changes remains a puzzlement as I received a phone call about suspicious changes on it before it had arrived in the mail, thus also before I’d called the number on the new sticker to activate it.
Fortunately, none of the bogus activity ended up costing me a penny.
Shalimar
@Steeplejack: BoA should let you view a virtual version of the new card in their app before you get it in the mail. You can use that for any online/recurring payments.
Steeplejack
@Shalimar:
Maybe they should, but I haven’t seen anything about that yet.
Jackie
@Steeplejack: Thanks, Steeplejack!
NotMax
Stupid fingers. Italics fix.
@Steeplejack
I feel your agita. Went through the same dance twice within the space of a month in, IIRC, 2022. Original card axed, new one to be sent out. Canceling the first replacement card over fraudulent changes remains a puzzlement as I received a phone call about suspicious changes on it before it had arrived in the mail, thus also before I’d called the number on the new sticker to activate it.
Fortunately, none of the bogus activity ended up costing me a penny.
Steeplejack
@NotMax:
Thanks. I think the damage has been stemmed, but I’m still on alert.
Jackie
@Alison Rose: Bookmarked! 😊
raven
@Steeplejack: He also produced Miles Davis’ “Kind of Blue”.
Nix Besser (fmr. steppy)
This sucks.
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/mojo-nixon-dead-obituary-1234964257/
Mojo Nixon is dead.
Percysowner
The kitties have landed! They are currently being cats and hiding. I have been warned it that they are traumatized and shy, so it may be a while before they come out.
There was a slight disaster. They brought me tons of food treats, toys and litter. Sadly the litter was scented and immediately started triggering a migraine. The good news is that I was able to get to Petco and get unscented litter for now. The rescue is going to order from Amazon and ship me unscented ASAP, so things should work out. I’m huddled under an electric blanket with all my windows open to get out the smell. Life is an adventure. I’m going to bed soon, but I’ll update over the next few days.
raven
@Steeplejack: Here’s a site where you can buy it for $15.
https://suzanneclothier.com/shop/separate-lifetimes/
eclare
@Percysowner:
Thanks for the update! I hope your migraine clears up soon. Soon you’ll have three furballs to snuggle when you don’t feel well.
piratedan
@Nix Besser (fmr. steppy): died out on tour, not sure he would have wanted it any other way.
Steeplejack
@raven:
Thanks!
rivers
@cain: I subscribe still despite my belief that the political reporting is biased, superficial, sclerotic and focuses on the “odds and not the stakes.” The reason I continue is simple. The NYT is virtually alone in having the resources to do deeply researched important stories that require time, several reporters and institutional support. A really good recent example was a piece on the high rate of maternity deaths among African-American women and the reasons for it. I also subscribe to the Washington Post whose political reporting is clearly superior.
wjca
Why pay attention to it right now? After all, they’re about to leave town for 2 weeks recess….
CaseyL
@Percysowner: Congrats on the new roomies! …and eek! for the allergic reaction to the scented litter. Seems like you know what to do: let them be for now as they explore the house and get accustomed to the new digs. I hope you can give us updates!
Kristine
@Dorothy A. Winsor: @Quinerly: My most exciting fraudulent charge was $1000 at a posh London nightclub. Bank quickly blocked it and canceled my card. Unfortunately this happened on a Sunday afternoon at an SF convention—I tried to get money from an ATM and it was declined. Then I received the fraud alert.
Prior to the nightclub charge, the thief tried to buy $200 worth of clothing from a UK store.
I assume they bought the number from a darkweb site.
Old School
@Nix Besser (fmr. steppy):
I hope Don Henley sends a nice bouquet.
Nelle
A little late to the thread and a bit repetitive from past postings, but for those who are newer…my daughter (MA in journalism) was a stringer for the NYTimes from about 2013 to 2020. I was horrified by the times she was asked to get “someone” to say “xyz.” The assignment editor had a story line and just needed names to attach to the story.
Only a few times was she asked to find a Hillary supporter or a Democrat. One time was when she was asked to find some women who had marched against Trump to see if they were now disappointed in Biden. Mostly, she was asked to find Trump supporters.
She is no longer a practicing journalist.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Nelle: That’s truly distressing.
BlueGuitarist
@raven:
speaking of Kind of Blue, there’s an interview somewhere with Walter Becker in which he expresses dissatisfaction with the sound of some steely Dan albums and the interviewer asked something like, is there an album you’re satisfied with?
Walter answered, Kind of Blue.
TBone
@karen marie: While it may appear to be puzzling, it’s not mysterious in any respect. It’s a clumsy attempt to prevail upon the Supremacists he appointed to the court to do him a favor in exchange for their positions. Ginni Thomas has prolly been doing extra favors for Clarence in this regard. An orange jumpsuit without the orange makeup and cotton candy hairdo would pierce his ego!
raven
@BlueGuitarist: And they say that Duane Allman listened to it for inspiration.
TBone
@JMG: I just read up on that family (the owners). Weird doesn’t begin to describe this shit
Nix Besser (fmr. steppy)
@piratedan: I didn’t know until this very day about the time Don Henley jumped on stage with Mojo to sing that song:
https://www.austinchronicle.com/music/2014-06-20/don-henley-must-die/
Balls as big as church bells.
CarolPW
@Nix Besser (fmr. steppy): Agree. Will miss his turns on Sirius/XM. Wish he had been on the Outlaw Cruise (west) I was on.
Soprano2
@Steeplejack: My husband’s Discover card had several Grubhub charges on it. We had never used them. I think his card# was stolen online. We didn’t have to pay for them.
Steeplejack
@Soprano2:
I’m at a loss. Don’t use apps, keep close tabs on my card (I thought). Who knows?
ColoradoGuy
@Nelle: Pravda on the Hudson. Filling in the blanks on a pre-written story … how is that news?
I guess when all TV networks become Fox, maybe the NYT hopes to become the one remaining authorized newspaper?
Chris Johnson
@rivers: So. If you knew that the NYT was in fact an unofficial organ of Vladimir Putin dating back to the compromise of some of its leaders, resulting in them bringing as much intelligence to bear as they could on the problem of ‘how to in turn compromise the United States and take it down without being caught doing so’, would you continue to respect the Times’s institutional aims?
I’m not sure there’s ever been a better target for MICE (as a weapon for flipping people into being agents of an enemy power). All newspapers ended up desperate for money, they’re owned by fellow oligarchs who are calling the shots so the ideology might be indistinguishable, compromise is easy for people moving in these circles, and there’s nobody more full of ego than former masters of the world in a dying industry.
And controlling the Times is a great way to insinuate the concept that the media is controlled by hostile forces, because it’s taking a whiff of reality and then repurposing it to say ‘yes, the media is all corrupt and controlled by enemies… to wit, the liberals!’ in a neat bit of DARVO. It’s extremely useful to the cause.
So what’s it gonna take for you to abandon the NYT and be wary of basically everything compromisable that is also a way of wielding media power? ‘cos the people doing this mean business and have been at it for a long time.
Also note a story on African-American maternity deaths can be carrying the subtext ‘the Democrats are failing you and trying to hurt you’.