This is long story….
But in some respects it is just about two men……
Joseph Biden and Donald Trump…..
We ARE in the Trump age weither you like it or NOT…..
Trump IS a 3 Ring Circus that atracks flies and media attention….
Joe Biden, the President is a quiet close to vest old time Congressional politican that operates in the shadow’s….
It IS unreasonable to expect the media, NY Times included, to NOT favor someone who lives and breaths FOR Media attention…….
When news broke one Saturday night in March 2023 that President Joe Biden’s nominee to lead the Federal Aviation Administration was withdrawing, Mark Walker was the reporter on duty in the New York Times Washington bureau. Assigned to write up the news, Walker asked the White House for a comment just before midnight. Assistant press secretary Abdullah Hasan was still up and emailed a quote blaming the withdrawal on a barrage of “unfounded Republican attacks.” After going through edits, Walker’s 502-word story was posted on the Times’ website in the wee hours Sunday morning.
Then all hell broke loose…..
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According to interviews with two dozen people on both sides who were granted anonymity to discuss a sensitive subject, the relationship between the Democratic president and the country’s newspaper of record — for years the epitome of a liberal press in the eyes of conservatives — remains remarkably tense, beset by misunderstandings, grudges and a general lack of trust. Complaints that were long kept private are even spilling into public view, with campaign aides in Wilmington going further than their colleagues in the White House and routinely blasting the paper’s coverage in emails, posts on social media and memos….
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Although the president’s communications teams bristle at coverage from dozens of outlets, the frustration, and obsession, with the Times is unique, reflecting the resentment of a president with a working-class sense of himself and his team toward a news organization catering to an elite audience — and a deep desire for its affirmation of their work. On the other side, the newspaper carries its own singular obsession with the president, aggrieved over his refusal to give the paper a sit-down interview that Publisher AG Sulzberger and other top editors believe to be its birthright.
The president’s press flacks might bemoan what they see as the entitlement of Times staffers, but they themselves put the newspaper on the highest of pedestals given its history, stature and unparalleled reach. And yet, they see the Times falling short in a make-or-break moment for American democracy, stubbornly refusing to adjust its coverage as it strives for the appearance of impartial neutrality, often blurring the asymmetries between former President Donald Trump and Biden when it comes to their perceived flaws and vastly different commitments to democratic principles….
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Having been in politics for some 50 years, Biden has long dealt with reporters and editors from the Times, and, for the most part, cordially. But frustrations began to mount early in 2019 as Biden launched his third run for the White House in a crowded Democratic primary field. Times reporters were annoyed not to have been invited to Biden’s first public appearance after announcing his candidacy, an informal stop at a Wilmington pizzeria that two other reporters were tipped off about. But aides to Biden, who tended to trust his generational contemporaries at the Times — columnists and other journalists he’d gotten comfortable with over several years — said they didn’t know anyone on the politics team well. “Unlike some outlets, the Times just never invested in a reporter who really knew and understood Biden and his appeal,” said one former campaign staffer. “And the coverage reflected that.”…..
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But it was the paper’s willingness to legitimize rumors swirling around Hunter Biden’s past business dealings in Ukraine that left top campaign officials most incensed…
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Although the newspaper, like most mainstream outlets with a heavy White House presence, devoted pages of coverage to the president’s early legislative successes, its unrelenting focus on Biden’s advanced age and his low numbers in the NYT’s approval poll have frustrated the president and top aides to no end. Beyond that, they bemoan the newspaper’s penchant for sweepy comparisons, analytical reporter memos — referred to in the Biden press shop as “opinion pieces” or “diary entries” — and story frames that seem consistently skeptical….
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Privately, other Times reporters who have engaged with the Biden White House and campaign view the frustration with the paper as a misguided effort to control its coverage. Beyond that, they believe writing about Trump with the stronger language Biden aides seem to want would likely do more to affect the newspaper’s brand, and the public’s trust in it, than Trump’s…..
image….President Joe Biden holds a copy of the New York Times as he departs the White House in May 2021. | Yuri Gripas/Reuters via Redux Pictures