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Let’s be super clear about what happened here. NYTimes writer @elainaplott wrote a story whose ENTIRE PREMISE is that persuadable Georgia suburbanites are still leaning toward Trump, but multiple ppl quoted—including *in the story’s lede*—are Republican apparatchiks. /1 https://twitter.com/KenTremendous/status/1319649238934941697
The Times ends up having to post not one, not two, but three corrections. @elainaplott
https://mobile.twitter.com/TomKludt/status/1319664847039201280 /2
https://mobile.twitter.com/TomKludt/status/1319664847039201280 /2
Despite the fact that this bias blows up the whole point of the story, the Times soldiers on, leaving the piece up and trying to assure readers that this Extremely Awesome Journalist just made a boo-boo. Or three. https://mobile.twitter.com/patrickhealynyt/status/1319737349262233600
Readers who aren’t congenital idiots are fully aware that @elainaplott has a documented history of
• being an “Ann Coulter fangirl” (Plott’s own words)
• serving as a Buckley Fellow at the National Review
/4
• being an “Ann Coulter fangirl” (Plott’s own words)
• serving as a Buckley Fellow at the National Review
/4
Yet we’re supposed to believe this was just a failure to vet. The least bad explanation: a GOP operative fed this story, along w/names of quotable “random” suburbanites, to Plott. Does ANYONE actually think Plott wdn’t know the story pitcher was w/GOP? /5 https://mobile.twitter.com/elainaplott/status/1319739477485649920
The Times has done this repeatedly in stories about working class voters, Middle Americans, &c and been called out for it in recent years. So @patrickhealynyt & his writers know perfectly well this is a problem. But it never occurred to him to vet Coulter Fangirl’s sources?!? /6
Here’s a question to ponder: how often in the last 4 years has the Times made this conceal-the-source’s-bias “error” about a Democrat? Has it happened even once, @patrickhealynyt?
/fin
/fin
CODA: If you’re wondering whether I’m exaggerating about how often the Times has managed to do this same thing, or something very similar, let me offer a few examples. Here’s a classic from 2017, @patrickhealynyt: https://mobile.twitter.com/mattmfm/status/1177218912443936769
Here’s another one from 2018. Starting to see a pattern, @patrickhealynyt? https://mobile.twitter.com/brianbeutler/status/1010604108926119937
2019: meticulous dissection of a Times article quoting an entire basketful of alleged swing voters who turn out to be … wait for it … dyed-in-the-wool deplorables. https://mobile.twitter.com/mattmfm/status/1177175443335766016
So spare me the nonsense that Elaina Plott’s stunt this week was an innocent mistake.
So spare me the nonsense that Elaina Plott’s stunt this week was an innocent mistake.
