We have bees under the slab of our front porch. A few days ago, I sprayed some foam into the hole where they were congregating. That stuff expands and fills with a vengeance–there are now no bees living under my front porch, since their entry hole and the crevice behind it is now a solid block of foam.
Still, even though this was a few days ago, a few dozen drones keep buzzing around that foam. They land, walk around, and fly away, then come back a few moments later. Depending on my frame of mind, I find it depressing, comical or tedious. There’s simply nothing there for them, but they repeat their ritualized, instinctual behavior until they expire.
Since these drones have only a few neurons in their tiny bee brains, I understand why they keep beating their little bee heads against a solid wall. What I don’t understand is why liberals continue to pay good American money for the New York Times, expecting that the political coverage that paper produces will somehow get better. It simply won’t.
For at least the past two decades, the Times’ political coverage has been a poorly written mish-mash of beltway-driven analysis that is all too ready to sacrifice facts in service of a narrative. Browse the “DC Press Corpse” category on this blog — the Times is featured there prominently and frequently. That coverage also has an institutional hard-on for the Clintons that is completely out of proportion to the supposed bad deeds perpetrated by Bill or Hillary.
Do I even need to mention the real damage done to this country by the Times, including but not limited to Judith Miller, post-9/11?
As I’m constantly hearing as we discuss the Times, a number of good people work for the paper. I’m sure they are kind to children, dote on their pets, and tithe regularly at some house of worship or other. But they are also part of an institution that is failing, badly, at a point in our history where we can’t afford our “newspaper of record” to fall down while covering politics.
Even if Trump loses in November–and due in part to the Times, don’t be so sure he will–Trump has opened the the door for “Trump Lite” in 2020. “Trump Lite” is simply a white nationalist who isn’t as lazy, sloppy and narcissistic as Trump. Trump Lite reads his briefing books, uses a dog whistle rather than a ref’s whistle, and has only one wife. Trump Lite will execute a pivot the day after the convention, and the New York Times will eat it up and ask for seconds.
I’m a Guardian subscriber and a TPM Prime member, but there’s no way in hell that I’ll pay money for the New York Fucking Times. I don’t think it’s an overstatement to say that canceling your subscription is a civic duty.