New York's media community is culpable for the rise of Donald Trump the way Dr. Frankenstein was culpable for his own creation. Some introspection by the Times, NBC and others would be a sign of self-acknowledgment and good faith. Whipping people up with polls, as if polls were news, for the sake of ad revenue, is not going to look good in hindsight.
He's 35 and he wants to be a salaried NYT op ed writer. He's writing suck up "analysis" that takes the pressure off his bosses for the stupid stuff they do like the Times/Siena poll. Just watch. He'll be a columnist before he's 40. He knows how to play the inside game at the Times.
Hey now! Hey, now! You're not talking about "6 months Tom, are you? As in, "The troops will be finished in Iraq in 6 months." 2003, 2004, 200... Oh it's time to change the subject.
The whole roster? Maybe I’m reading that wrong, but there are actually some good columnists at the Times, although the bad ones DO outnumber the good ones. It’s management at the Times that needs to get the boot!
Couldn't agree more. The NYT has a long history of turning a blind eye to/rewarding personal ambition (see Jayson Blair, Judith Miller, and don't even get me started on how Bruni ended up on the oped page after pushing the brilliant Regina Schrambling out of his way). The suck-ups now run the joint and those who dare question it get canned, just ask Jill Abramson.
In the fantasy worlds I create in my mind to help lull me to sleep, Douthbag gets the boot and while Cohn licks his chops thinking he's getting the job, Frank Rich swoops in to save the day.
I wrote for the Times Mag and Sunday opinion for decades, and no one ever told me to skew my pieces or edited them to express one opinion or another. But this stuff? Why? They've got 10 million subs. It can't be "business reasons".... can it?
As I said above in response to Shadowcloud: He's 35 and he wants to be a salaried NYT op ed writer. He's writing suck up "analysis" that takes the pressure off his bosses for the stupid stuff they do like the Times/Siena poll. Just watch. He'll be a columnist before he's 40. He knows how to play the inside game at the Times.
Wait, which hypothetically elected president in 2024 is more likely to help the NY TIMES sell ads, Joe Biden or Donald Trump?
Quiet and competent leadership in harrowing times, or Harrowing Times on Stilts?
It doesn't require overt statements or even broad hints to a pro like you to do something you would reject immediately, and nothing like a "conspiracy," no, it's a kind of unspoken institutional groupthink to which only a few, a small percentage of the best, most serious journalists - and you were evidently one of them - pay practically no heed, if any.
Trump will not win the election. Polls have not been correct for several presidential cycles. Michael Smerconish [Smerconish.com] keeps beating the poll dead horse to death stating Biden is in deep trouble. The only thing I can agree with is the Biden needs a new communication team as his current team sucks at explaining Biden's accomplishments. Cohn can go suck eggs or whatever he feeds on. Have a great Veterans Day.
BLUF (bottom line up front): President Biden will win re-election.
"Disapproval" of Pres. Biden isn't really about the president (well, except for the 30% "usual suspects"); it's about general (justifiable) unease/distress.
Polls aren't equipped to integrate new truths of the times, informed by cultural social-media-rapid-stimulus-response behaviors, and are at least partly "generational." That is, people rarely really answer the questions being asked. Instead, they riff on where the question takes them.
In this environment it's not clear what any comms team could do to mitigate. Instead, the president just needs to keep doing what he's doing: focusing on his job, avoiding inane media-driven distractions, and letting the facts/results and his grown-up above-the-fray mien ultimately be his message, which people eventually get. I've observed that he -shrewdly - doesn't let the instant-news-cycle drive his responses. I'm sure that it drives his team crazy. I'm equally sure results vindicate his instincts.
Right off the bat there's no way gen z prefers tangeranus over Biden. That has to be made up. Also there's no way the black vote went from 8% to 22%. It's just not real.
They would probably go third party (and yes, Jill Stein is also about to join the fray). Who will it hurt more? RFK, Jr. might as well be a Republican. Manchin has been a Democrat in name only, if he jumps in. Stein is nobody.
I have the vague sense that Nate Cohn has never got anything terribly right. I saw that column and gagged because I can't stand the man. I did not subject myself to a full read of the probable B.S. My question is, Why does The Times want to do this to Democrats. Do you have any idea? They want low taxes? Claiming there is a very scary horse race where the good guy may lose because there are terrible things wrong with the good guy sells newspapers?
I watched the Leadville 100 miler once...I got the name from a movie, Let It Ride, about a day at the track. Richard Dreyfus overhears a trainer telling the jockey to run fast and win, which he interprets as valuable inside info.
Chaos and crackpot drama in the Oval Office sells ad space in the publication, and they know it.
The phrase "depraved indifference to the fate of American democracy and our basic rights" comes to mind, not because I am cynical, not because I wouldn't like to respect the NY TIMES as providing solid, professional journalism across the board, instead of in fragmentary segments, such that I canceled my sub six months ago.
I think some description like that is fair and accurate.
N.B. It's different if you happen to live close to NYC, and rely on various kinds of local reporting that is still good, but I'm in Minneapolis and online where I can read all sorts of perspectives on current events, or find something like what I took some notes about the last hour before reading LKTIV's predictably fascinating, no b.s. newsletter:
Okay, Lucian. I have avidly consumed your excellent writing and analysis, as well as many others, including Jen Rubin and others, who routinely excoriate the state of our current agenda driven media. This bogus insistence on media “balance” moved to the realm of a Monty Python skit long ago. What is to be done? We all know the media is invested in making people frightened and therefore baitable (made that word up, free to use for anyone). We are without a doubt in an era of extreme crisis. When arguably the most influential media source is on the take by all appearances, I founder at how to impactfully respond?
I know you’re not an advice columnist. I’m a generally intelligent person. I guess I’m like many people who share this sense of dread and impotence. Thoughts?
This is an advertising problem that requires an advertising solution. The DNC needs to fire whoever is doing it now and hire the guys that make Taco Bell commercials. Then run those commercials in every sports event on tv for the next 20 years.
If not "Her Emails!" sure as hell "Hunter's laptop!". When your base doesn't give a damn about legislative success or policy keep beating that horse till it's extra special dead.
Who is Nate Cohn? I'm an NYT subscriber. I don't know or want to know him. Unfortunately, I do know who David Brooks is: a former Washington Times (owned again by the Moonies!) hack, possibly the most mealy-mouthed columnist in the world.
David Brooks wrote a column, up this evening, telling Dems to calm down and have some confidence in Biden. He says - people know the difference between taking a survey and casting a vote and may use a survey to vent in ways they never would if they thought it was for real. I bet there were Democrats, particularly younger Democrats, mighty po’d and ready to vent at Joe when they took the survey while (per your earlier piece) bombs were raining down on Gaza. The context and the stakes will be very different when they step into voting booth a year from now.
I don’t know Lucian, I have been reading David Brooks for many years, and I like how he thinks, I don’t always agree with him, but I don’t always agree with anyone, case in point. He’s got a brain, that’s why I read him, I missed his essay today, I’ll read it tomorrow. I think we should calm down, but not loose focus. Tuesday’s election results show me that people are paying attention and are not going to vote against their own interests. The insipid clown offers nothing, absolutely nothing, he’s way less than clueless and is fixing to have a very bad year, karma is starting to catch up to him. Breshear (sp) won in Kentucky because he delivered for people that needed help, a lot of that Infrastructure money will be spent in the next year benefiting the lives of a lot of people, we have to trust that they will see that. The White House can use a shakeup in getting what the president has accomplished out, no doubt, I hope they fix that. If you are tuned like we are, it’s very clear what a benefit he has been as president, more people need to see that, is all.
Oh, no! Am I really going to have to start reading David Brooks again? It's been years. …
TOTALLY O-T: Did Jack Dorsey's bluesky just open the floodgates? I suddenly find myself with an acct after months waiting. Several welcome feeds here—southpaw, tpm, popehat, Dave Weigel, a few others. More promising than competitors, but too many missing–tips, anyone? Mine: the Birds! by @daryllmarie.bsky.social feed, bsky's response to formerlytwitter's @BirdCentralPark. —@daien.bsky.social [you won't find anything there; I joined to lurk]
Thanks for this. When I was in grade school they taught us to read (and fold) the Herald Tribune. But I’ve pretty much given up reading the Times. It’s still great if you want more on multi-million dollar apartments, stock broker weddings, or kambucha smoothies.
Governor Dad Vest made a huge push to get out the vote in Virginia and still lost. He was all over the state spending money. He even sent voters cash just before the election.
I thought a long time ago that the NY Times was mostly a liberal pro-Democratic paper, which endorsed the liberal section of the larger cities and now it seems to be going Republican?
It's like they are actively sabotaging the Democrats by dumping on Biden, and extolling Trump in all possible ways.
I'm rather pissed about that-because they are a paper of record, and if they say it, the masses will believe it. I'm just wondering if they're trying to out do Fox 'News' in getting Trump's lot to read them.
I wouldn't bother, because most of those people don't read it and even if they did they're not going subscribe to it, being a reputed "Liberal" paper.
They've been definitely tilting the reportage for the wealthy, well-healed people in that area lately, and ignoring anyone who isn't, and I'm getting tired of being told that being not one of the rich people is not a good career move.
There's something going on in that newspaper, and I'm wondering who runs it now? Tucker Carlson?
Because it's gone downhill lately and it's losing it's luster as a paper that is important. The Guardian is taking its' place in my view. Far more news a less ignorant opinion.
It has always been socially liberal and fiscally conservative. The local poor used to buy The NY Post (before Murdoch bought it) for easy reading & sports scores. The Times crowd was always the business & wealth class.
The local poor probably still buy the Post because it loves Trump. I still don't get how the very people who are victimized the most vote for the people who would willingly send them to hell in a hand basket like Trump. I guess it's because he hates what they hate but he can say aloud without getting busted for it like they can.
I don’t live there anymore, so I’m not sure who buys the Post. I imagine it’s still for a quick look at the news and the sports pages.
Unfortunately a lot of the “not college educated” crowd remembers that they didn’t do so well under Clinton or Obama even though it was Reagan that started their downward slide. Repubs have had better messaging while Dems tried to cater to the middle class professionals. Dems ignored the Unions for years. Hopefully Biden can gain back their trust.
Already a correction: the abortion amendment passed in OHIO, not Virginia. h/t Gabe Goldberg. Have no excuse for that one.
Virginia, Ohio, both were great wins!
A thank you from Ohio!
New York's media community is culpable for the rise of Donald Trump the way Dr. Frankenstein was culpable for his own creation. Some introspection by the Times, NBC and others would be a sign of self-acknowledgment and good faith. Whipping people up with polls, as if polls were news, for the sake of ad revenue, is not going to look good in hindsight.
All good points. Nate Cohn didn't have the intellectual honesty to admit that he was wrong.
Agree. Can't get to intellectual honesty w/o first possessing intellectual virtues and intellectual rigor. Nate Cohn is 0 fer 3.
Any political analyst who choses those polled over those who voted is the very definition of MTP.
He's 35 and he wants to be a salaried NYT op ed writer. He's writing suck up "analysis" that takes the pressure off his bosses for the stupid stuff they do like the Times/Siena poll. Just watch. He'll be a columnist before he's 40. He knows how to play the inside game at the Times.
I wonder if he's going to replace Thomas Friedman, who is replaceable any day of the week.
One of them has to go. Oh, heck, the whole roster of them can go. Perhaps you can apply for it? That would fantastic!
Hey now! Hey, now! You're not talking about "6 months Tom, are you? As in, "The troops will be finished in Iraq in 6 months." 2003, 2004, 200... Oh it's time to change the subject.
The whole roster? Maybe I’m reading that wrong, but there are actually some good columnists at the Times, although the bad ones DO outnumber the good ones. It’s management at the Times that needs to get the boot!
Couldn't agree more. The NYT has a long history of turning a blind eye to/rewarding personal ambition (see Jayson Blair, Judith Miller, and don't even get me started on how Bruni ended up on the oped page after pushing the brilliant Regina Schrambling out of his way). The suck-ups now run the joint and those who dare question it get canned, just ask Jill Abramson.
In the fantasy worlds I create in my mind to help lull me to sleep, Douthbag gets the boot and while Cohn licks his chops thinking he's getting the job, Frank Rich swoops in to save the day.
It would be great to see Frank rich back at the Times!!
I wrote for the Times Mag and Sunday opinion for decades, and no one ever told me to skew my pieces or edited them to express one opinion or another. But this stuff? Why? They've got 10 million subs. It can't be "business reasons".... can it?
As I said above in response to Shadowcloud: He's 35 and he wants to be a salaried NYT op ed writer. He's writing suck up "analysis" that takes the pressure off his bosses for the stupid stuff they do like the Times/Siena poll. Just watch. He'll be a columnist before he's 40. He knows how to play the inside game at the Times.
Wait, which hypothetically elected president in 2024 is more likely to help the NY TIMES sell ads, Joe Biden or Donald Trump?
Quiet and competent leadership in harrowing times, or Harrowing Times on Stilts?
It doesn't require overt statements or even broad hints to a pro like you to do something you would reject immediately, and nothing like a "conspiracy," no, it's a kind of unspoken institutional groupthink to which only a few, a small percentage of the best, most serious journalists - and you were evidently one of them - pay practically no heed, if any.
But didn’t Traitor Trump say he is going to go after the Times?
Trump will not win the election. Polls have not been correct for several presidential cycles. Michael Smerconish [Smerconish.com] keeps beating the poll dead horse to death stating Biden is in deep trouble. The only thing I can agree with is the Biden needs a new communication team as his current team sucks at explaining Biden's accomplishments. Cohn can go suck eggs or whatever he feeds on. Have a great Veterans Day.
BLUF (bottom line up front): President Biden will win re-election.
"Disapproval" of Pres. Biden isn't really about the president (well, except for the 30% "usual suspects"); it's about general (justifiable) unease/distress.
Polls aren't equipped to integrate new truths of the times, informed by cultural social-media-rapid-stimulus-response behaviors, and are at least partly "generational." That is, people rarely really answer the questions being asked. Instead, they riff on where the question takes them.
In this environment it's not clear what any comms team could do to mitigate. Instead, the president just needs to keep doing what he's doing: focusing on his job, avoiding inane media-driven distractions, and letting the facts/results and his grown-up above-the-fray mien ultimately be his message, which people eventually get. I've observed that he -shrewdly - doesn't let the instant-news-cycle drive his responses. I'm sure that it drives his team crazy. I'm equally sure results vindicate his instincts.
Right off the bat there's no way gen z prefers tangeranus over Biden. That has to be made up. Also there's no way the black vote went from 8% to 22%. It's just not real.
They would probably go third party (and yes, Jill Stein is also about to join the fray). Who will it hurt more? RFK, Jr. might as well be a Republican. Manchin has been a Democrat in name only, if he jumps in. Stein is nobody.
I have the vague sense that Nate Cohn has never got anything terribly right. I saw that column and gagged because I can't stand the man. I did not subject myself to a full read of the probable B.S. My question is, Why does The Times want to do this to Democrats. Do you have any idea? They want low taxes? Claiming there is a very scary horse race where the good guy may lose because there are terrible things wrong with the good guy sells newspapers?
"Liberal" media.
Interesting profile. Sonoran Desert Roadrunner?
Yes it's a Janet Austin sculpture, mosaic tiles over concrete.
I have a Roadrunner that eats its kills on my patio here in the Great Sonoran Desert.
Whats left of it!
Your Profile name reminds me of my days in The Phoenix Arizona Road Runners club and my deceased wife that ran the Leadville 100 miler.
I watched the Leadville 100 miler once...I got the name from a movie, Let It Ride, about a day at the track. Richard Dreyfus overhears a trainer telling the jockey to run fast and win, which he interprets as valuable inside info.
When was Nate Cohn named the wunderkind? Hasn't he been very wrong in the past?
Chaos and crackpot drama in the Oval Office sells ad space in the publication, and they know it.
The phrase "depraved indifference to the fate of American democracy and our basic rights" comes to mind, not because I am cynical, not because I wouldn't like to respect the NY TIMES as providing solid, professional journalism across the board, instead of in fragmentary segments, such that I canceled my sub six months ago.
I think some description like that is fair and accurate.
N.B. It's different if you happen to live close to NYC, and rely on various kinds of local reporting that is still good, but I'm in Minneapolis and online where I can read all sorts of perspectives on current events, or find something like what I took some notes about the last hour before reading LKTIV's predictably fascinating, no b.s. newsletter:
https://prdaficalmjediwestussa.blob.core.windows.net/images/2019/08/movies400.pdf
The 400 movies nominated to be in the AFI's greatest American movies
by RossRivero99 | created - 12 Apr 2017 | updated - 12 Apr 2017 | Public
https://www.imdb.com/list/ls069008658/
Okay, Lucian. I have avidly consumed your excellent writing and analysis, as well as many others, including Jen Rubin and others, who routinely excoriate the state of our current agenda driven media. This bogus insistence on media “balance” moved to the realm of a Monty Python skit long ago. What is to be done? We all know the media is invested in making people frightened and therefore baitable (made that word up, free to use for anyone). We are without a doubt in an era of extreme crisis. When arguably the most influential media source is on the take by all appearances, I founder at how to impactfully respond?
I know you’re not an advice columnist. I’m a generally intelligent person. I guess I’m like many people who share this sense of dread and impotence. Thoughts?
It's bottom-line driven and in many cases, career driven. See my replies to Shadowcloud and Jesse Kornbluth.
This is an advertising problem that requires an advertising solution. The DNC needs to fire whoever is doing it now and hire the guys that make Taco Bell commercials. Then run those commercials in every sports event on tv for the next 20 years.
That makes eminent sense, thus guaranteeing they won't do it - until someone ELSE does it, it works well, and is now "safe."
https://democraticautopsy.org/
If not "Her Emails!" sure as hell "Hunter's laptop!". When your base doesn't give a damn about legislative success or policy keep beating that horse till it's extra special dead.
Who is Nate Cohn? I'm an NYT subscriber. I don't know or want to know him. Unfortunately, I do know who David Brooks is: a former Washington Times (owned again by the Moonies!) hack, possibly the most mealy-mouthed columnist in the world.
See my replies to comments about him above.
David Brooks wrote a column, up this evening, telling Dems to calm down and have some confidence in Biden. He says - people know the difference between taking a survey and casting a vote and may use a survey to vent in ways they never would if they thought it was for real. I bet there were Democrats, particularly younger Democrats, mighty po’d and ready to vent at Joe when they took the survey while (per your earlier piece) bombs were raining down on Gaza. The context and the stakes will be very different when they step into voting booth a year from now.
Jeez, when Brooks is a voice of reason in the Times, how the Gray Lady has fallen.
No fucking kidding!! Talk about a hack...Brooks sends me through the roof.
I don’t know Lucian, I have been reading David Brooks for many years, and I like how he thinks, I don’t always agree with him, but I don’t always agree with anyone, case in point. He’s got a brain, that’s why I read him, I missed his essay today, I’ll read it tomorrow. I think we should calm down, but not loose focus. Tuesday’s election results show me that people are paying attention and are not going to vote against their own interests. The insipid clown offers nothing, absolutely nothing, he’s way less than clueless and is fixing to have a very bad year, karma is starting to catch up to him. Breshear (sp) won in Kentucky because he delivered for people that needed help, a lot of that Infrastructure money will be spent in the next year benefiting the lives of a lot of people, we have to trust that they will see that. The White House can use a shakeup in getting what the president has accomplished out, no doubt, I hope they fix that. If you are tuned like we are, it’s very clear what a benefit he has been as president, more people need to see that, is all.
Brooks was the reason I quit my atomes subscription. He does know how to write so that his ideas SEEM reasonable, but they were still terrible ideas.
Personally I think Brooks has become rather off the mark more often than not.
Being a 'well-established conservative' writer seems to have gone to his head and wiped out his brains.
Let’s hope so. Not much faith in Brooks, though.
Oh, no! Am I really going to have to start reading David Brooks again? It's been years. …
TOTALLY O-T: Did Jack Dorsey's bluesky just open the floodgates? I suddenly find myself with an acct after months waiting. Several welcome feeds here—southpaw, tpm, popehat, Dave Weigel, a few others. More promising than competitors, but too many missing–tips, anyone? Mine: the Birds! by @daryllmarie.bsky.social feed, bsky's response to formerlytwitter's @BirdCentralPark. —@daien.bsky.social [you won't find anything there; I joined to lurk]
Thanks for this. When I was in grade school they taught us to read (and fold) the Herald Tribune. But I’ve pretty much given up reading the Times. It’s still great if you want more on multi-million dollar apartments, stock broker weddings, or kambucha smoothies.
I know kambucha smoothies taste good, so that makes sense to me, but the relentless uber-consumer focus is absurd.
Nate proves information cannot become wisdom without analysis and interpretation; moreover, wisdom requires insight .
Due Diligence
Governor Dad Vest made a huge push to get out the vote in Virginia and still lost. He was all over the state spending money. He even sent voters cash just before the election.
Matt BEVIN, not Blevin. Jeez, going back over these old elections can get so...uh...confusing.
I thought a long time ago that the NY Times was mostly a liberal pro-Democratic paper, which endorsed the liberal section of the larger cities and now it seems to be going Republican?
It's like they are actively sabotaging the Democrats by dumping on Biden, and extolling Trump in all possible ways.
I'm rather pissed about that-because they are a paper of record, and if they say it, the masses will believe it. I'm just wondering if they're trying to out do Fox 'News' in getting Trump's lot to read them.
I wouldn't bother, because most of those people don't read it and even if they did they're not going subscribe to it, being a reputed "Liberal" paper.
They've been definitely tilting the reportage for the wealthy, well-healed people in that area lately, and ignoring anyone who isn't, and I'm getting tired of being told that being not one of the rich people is not a good career move.
There's something going on in that newspaper, and I'm wondering who runs it now? Tucker Carlson?
Because it's gone downhill lately and it's losing it's luster as a paper that is important. The Guardian is taking its' place in my view. Far more news a less ignorant opinion.
It has always been socially liberal and fiscally conservative. The local poor used to buy The NY Post (before Murdoch bought it) for easy reading & sports scores. The Times crowd was always the business & wealth class.
The local poor probably still buy the Post because it loves Trump. I still don't get how the very people who are victimized the most vote for the people who would willingly send them to hell in a hand basket like Trump. I guess it's because he hates what they hate but he can say aloud without getting busted for it like they can.
I don’t live there anymore, so I’m not sure who buys the Post. I imagine it’s still for a quick look at the news and the sports pages.
Unfortunately a lot of the “not college educated” crowd remembers that they didn’t do so well under Clinton or Obama even though it was Reagan that started their downward slide. Repubs have had better messaging while Dems tried to cater to the middle class professionals. Dems ignored the Unions for years. Hopefully Biden can gain back their trust.
👍👍🙏