thread re: NYT and its awful, illogical fear of calling out Trump "lies" over the years.

and its sudden change of heart. 1/7 https://pressrun.media/p/no-longer-seeking-access-the-press

in 2016, editor Dean Baquet *bragged* abt how the Times called Trump a liar and warned that using "falsehood" was giving him a pass. 2/7

when Trump claimed unexpected victory, NYT sprinted into a retreat and danced around "lies" while covering a pathological liar. 3/7

Suddenly Baquet said it wasn't fair to call Trump a liar bc the NYT couldn't read his mind, and that it wasn't the paper's "role" bc using "lies" might look like NYT was taking "sides" 4/7

for 4 yrs the paper burned through thesaurus creating nonsensical phrases like, — "Trump Misrepresents", "Trump Falsely Claims", "Trump’s Baseless Claim”, "Trump’s Falsehoods", "Trump’s False Claims", “Trump’s Inaccurate Claims"

when everyone at paper knew Trump was liar 5/7

Trump used that timidity to use lies for partisan gain and to attack, undercut democratic institutions.

the Times tho, led the media charge to normalize the radical behavior. 6/7

now, NYT has suddenly decided to refer to Trump election lies as "lies".....good news!

but will Times limit "lies" use to issue of election, or for all Trump lies?

and will NYT every explain its incoherent policy of the years? 7/7