In an effort to explain their wildly inconsistent reporting between Tara Reade and Christine Blasey Ford, the New York Times is making matters worse for itself.
In an effort to explain its wildly inconsistent reporting between Tara Reade and Christine Blasey Ford, the New York Times is making matters worse for itself.
There’s an episode of “Major Crimes” (or it might have been “The Closer”) when the murderer is finally caught and he begins to “explain” himself. One character, I can’t remember who, half-jokingly remarks that “he’s going to explain himself onto Death Row.”
That’s what the New York Times is doing here.
In its attempt to make excuses for dismissing Tara Reade while covering for the Biden campaign, the Times is explaining away whatever thin shred of credibility it has left.
One of the Times reporters who wrote that garbage book on Kavanaugh (that Mollie Hemingway singlehandedly destroyed), explained the disparity in their reporting this way:
So, the reason they credulously reported the accusations against Kavanaugh is because it was “the biggest political story in the country.” And clearly when you’re dealing with the “biggest political story in the country,” journalistic integrity and ethics go out the window.
Odd how the New York Times doesn’t seem to believe that, during a presidential election year, the presumptive Democrat nominee for President being accused of sexual assault isn’t a big political story.
Sure, if Tara Reade was accusing President Trump of shoving her against a wall and letting his dirty digit do the walking, the New York Times would be screaming from the rooftops. The Times would be going out of its way to make it the “biggest political story in the country.”
But Tara Reade is accusing the Democrat Party’s presumptive nominee. So the last thing the New York Times wants is for it to become a big political story.
“It was just a different news judgment moment.”
Yes, that much is plain.
Let me translate that gobbledygook into English: “Kavanaugh was a Republican-appointed Supreme Court nominee we were actively seeking to destroy, so we made it a big, BIG story; Biden is a Democrat Presidential candidate we are actively seeking to promote, so we’re using our ‘judgment’ to cover it up.”
These guys really need to stop explaining themselves. Because at this point, Tara Reade is far more credible than the New York Times.
Fact is, when you’re explaining, you’re losing the argument. And the New York Times is explaining itself into a corner.
There is no justification for admitting, as NYT Executive Editor Dean Baquet did the other day, that they edited out that now-infamous phrase, “beyond the hugs, kisses and touching that women previously said made them uncomfortable” at the behest of the Biden campaign.
But I guess that’s just an example of “a different news judgment moment.”
We all know why Tara Reade is getting the bum’s rush.
This is all about giving Biden and the rest of the Democrats cover.
As I said the other day, now if anyone brings up Tara Reade, Biden and the Democrats can simply say, “Listen, that allegation was thoroughly investigated by the New York Times, and was found to be without merit.”
Which is precisely what is happening.
Take for example, Senator Tammy Baldwin.
Back on October 4, 2018, this is, in part, what Senator Baldwin said in a statement about Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford:
Keep in mind, Blasey Ford’s accusation had zero corroboration from anyone. Even the people she claimed were “witnesses” didn’t corroborate her story.
Yet despite that, Tammy Baldwin believed Blasey Ford’s accusation was “credible.”
Now, here’s what Senator Baldwin has to say about Tara Reade:
Suddenly a lack of corroboration matters to Tammy Baldwin.
But the Times – not to mention most of the American news media — brought this on themselves. Their inconsistency and hypocrisy isn’t exactly hard to see.
In her column “Media Coverage of Kavanaugh Was Criminal. Here’s How They Can Fix it Going Forward,” Mollie Hemingway writes:
And that’s the nub of it right there.
Between their hideous behavior during the entire RussiaGate fraud and their willing, eager destruction of Brett Kavanaugh, the New York Times and the rest of the garbage news media have torched their own reputations and credibility.
We don’t believe them anymore.
And as Mollie Hemingway said, we have no reason to believe them.
It is that distrust that has the Times scrambling to “explain” their handling of Tara Reade and her accusation against Joe Biden.
The last thing the writers or editors at the New York Times want is to have to defend their spurious “reporting.” Mostly because they can’t.
But we don’t believe them anymore. And because of that doubt, coupled with their lack of credibility, they feel compelled to “explain.”
And the more they explain, the more damage they do to themselves.
In the end, it is the New York Times’ reporting, and not Tara Reade’s accusation, that is without merit.