Jason Horowitz, one of the New York Times more colorful reporters, gave Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker a gleeful finger upon his departure from the Republican presidential race, suggesting Walker has advanced his career on racist appeals in "Dismal Finish Is a Fitting Result, Old Foes Say." Horowitz wrote on Tuesday: "Old political adversaries of Mr. Walker greeted his dour denouement as a fitting result for a politician who they say began and furthered his career here with a divisive style, a penchant for turning out conservative supporters rather than working with opponents, and tacit racial appeals in one of the nation’s most segregated cities. But the irony is that Mr. Walker was eclipsed by candidates who have ignited the Republican base with more overtly nativist and, their critics argue, racist appeals." Those "racist appeals"? Actually tough-on-crime proposals targeted at victims of crime in Milwaukee.
Racism
New York Times arts reporter Jennifer Schuessler wrote about an odd controversy in the poetry world -- a white poet, discouraged by multiple rejections, found success when he submitted under a Chinese-sounding pseudonym, even gaining a place in a "Best American Poetry" anthology and causing embarrassment to the editor and rancor among other poets for his "reactionary" use of "yellowface." Schuessler's account assumed the inherent righteousness of the angry liberal, multi-cultural position of hostility toward poet Michael Derrick Hudson.
The folks at the New York Times must believe not only that their reporters are entitled to inject their opinions into hard-news stories, but that they can also inject their own "facts." Oh, and they can change those facts at will over time to fit the circumstances.
Sheryl Gay Stolberg's Wednesday story about the city's $6.4 million settlement with the family of Freddie Gray appearing in Thursday's print edition is a perfect case in point. Stolberg recast events following Gray's death to claim that there was only one night of rioting, when there were clearly two — even though contemporaneous coverage at the Times itself identified two separate nights of riots.
Donald Trump has been likened to (among others) Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon, George Wallace, Morton Downey Jr., and Nickelback, the band. “Nickelback” is also a football term, which brings us to yet another Trump comparison: Dave Zirin believes that the Washington Redskins franchise “is becoming the sports equivalent of the Donald Trump presidential run, a dead-ender operation with nothing to offer but a howl of anger at a slowly evolving world.”
As you probably surmised, Zirin thinks Redskins owner Dan Snyder should dump the team’s “Jim Crow era moniker,” but acknowledged in a Wednesday post that “Snyder clings even more tightly to the name, molding a new constituency of newfound ‘fans’ who want the team to be a symbol of the fight against ‘political correctness’…Now this billion-dollar brand stands disgracefully alongside Donald Trump, Sarah Palin, and everyone attempting to turn a carnival barker’s buck on white anxiety.”
New York Times editorial page editor Andrew Rosenthal appeared on a nytimes.com podcast and insulted every Republican candidate in nasty, personal terms, throwing around the words "idiot" and "xenophobic" and insulting Justice Clarence Thomas in a racially loaded fashion. Rosenthal then accused the 1988 George H.W. Bush using the Pledge of Allegiance as an issue "deliberately and specifically intended to remind Americans that Michael Dukakis was of Greek descent and therefore suspect."
Does Donald Trump’s popularity among Republicans indicate that a big part of the GOP base is more authoritarian than it is conservative? Yes, suggested Daily Kos founder and publisher Markos Moulitsas in a Friday post.
“The crazies don't really care about any conservative platform, they just want someone to reflect their own bigotries and xenophobia, all the while telling the weenies to fuck off,” wrote Kos. “They'd be just as excited if it was Hulk Hogan playing the role.” He remarked that Trump has a flair for “the kind of braggadocio that appeals to the conservative lizard brain” and concluded, “Remember how hot Vladmir Putin made conservatives? Donald Trump is the GOP's homegrown Vladimir Putin.”
CNN's Brian Todd zeroed in on the "horrifying recent pattern" of criminals murdering police officers during a report on Wednesday's Situation Room. Todd noted that "seven law enforcement officers [were] shot to death in a month – 24 officers shot and killed so far this year across America,"and reported that "the string of killings of officers in recent weeks...has really got the law enforcement community on edge." He also pointed out that "police advocates say a saturation of media coverage has contributed to the spike."
On Tuesday's CNN Tonight, Don Lemon wondered if some of Donald Trump's rhetoric had thinly-veiled bigotry in it. Trump indicated that the high turnout at his recent campaign rallies was "a great tribute to what we're all saying. We want to make our country great again." Lemon misquoted his guest in his follow-up question: "You said...it was a tribute to people wanting to take their country back – because I know you've heard the criticism...people out there saying it is a dog whistle...there's some sort of racist intent behind it. Can you please respond to that?"
One day after denouncing the media for their double standard in the portrayal of the tea party compared to the Black Lives Matter movement, Kelly File host Megyn Kelly returned Tuesday night and along with Townhall editor Katie Pavlich, the pair squared off against Fox News Channel contributor Richard Fowler in a heated debate with Fowler excusing members of the movement who have chanted violent, anti-police rhetoric.
Reacting to the murder of officer Darren Goforth, Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke told CNN’s Pamela Brown that the “anti-cop rhetoric” being peddled by Black Lives Matter has “fueled” these recent attacks on police across the country.
In its ongoing coverage of the sheriff’s deputy from Harris County, Texas being shot Friday night outside a gas station, Monday’s edition of the CBS Evening News criticized the slain officer’s boss for making “controversial statements” about the Black Lives Matter movement that “some have called...insensitive.”
In an interview with left-wing Salon columnist D. Watkins for Sunday’s Meet the Press web-based feature Press Pass, moderator Chuck Todd lobbed one softball after another to the controversial commentator. Todd began: “...there is an education that's happening, I think, in white America. Black America knew what was going on between law enforcement and African-Americans. I think white America is getting a taste of it for the very first time....Is this a positive moment in America?”