this new york times "interview" with donald trump is perhaps the most craven, humiliating, embarrassing-to-the-times thing they have ever published about him. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/27/us/politics/donald-trump.html

@peterbakernyt spent 40 minutes on the phone with donald trump, and ended up publishing a story with less than 300 quoted words. know how i know? i counted them. there isn't a single quote from donald trump that needs more characters than you can fit into a single tweet.

there are a total of 27 quotes in the entire piece, most of which aren't even full sentences, they're just excerpts of what were, presumably, longer and more rambling run-on sentences that demonstrate how unfit for this office the president actually is.

think i'm joking? this is the ENTIRETY of direct quotations that the new york times included in this piece. "all the news that's fit to print" this most certainly is not.

anyone who has seen trump speak contemporaneously in the last few years understands this is not the full story. everyone understands that this is expressly and intentionally edited in this way in order to make trump seem more palatable than everyone knows he is.

if the vaunted, historic new york times wants to act as donald trump's public relations agency, they should disclose that. if @peterbakernyt wants to act as his spokesperson, he should go do that instead.

but, whatever they do (and i'm under no illusion that they'll do anything differently at all under their current leadership), they absolutely do not get to call this journalism.

amongst everything else wrong with this piece — and there's an awful lot wrong with it — every editor who allowed this to go out like this up to and including the editor in chief should be fired right along with peter baker.

a local alt-weekly wouldn't run this kind of a chopped, seasoned, overcooked and exquisitely-plated interview with a candidate for city council, but it's very clear access is more important than accuracy to the new york times politics and editorial teams.