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The death of The Fourth Estate?

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Bob Gaydos
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.......... Or, when I realized that my suspicion that The New York Times was not going to do anything to help save democracy in America was correct.

***

"To say that the threats of democracy are so great that the media is going to abandon its central role as a source of impartial information to help people vote -- that's essentially saying that the news media should become a propaganda arm for a single candidate, because we prefer that candidate's agenda."

-- Joe Kahn, editor NY Times, May 5,

in an interview with Semafor

***

"On this particular day, I looked to see what the great gray lady, The New York Times, had to say about the Trump trial. Its editorial went into great detail, carefully explaining all the nuances of the justice system and why everything was being done the way it was being done, etc. It was not until the end of what the paper itself described as a 'seven-minute read,' that the editorial referred to Trump's 'disregard for the rule of law and his willingness to demean American justice when it suits his interests'.

"It continued, 'Those actions render him manifestly unfit for office and would pose unique dangers to the United States during a second term. The greatest of those dangers, and the one that Americans should be most attuned to, is the damage that a second Trump presidency would inflict on the rule of law.'

"Well, no you-know-what Sherlock. Did no one at the Times ever explain to the editorial writer that don't bury the lead applies to editorials as well as news stories? Seven minutes to tell people don't ever put this lunatic in office again? He's too dangerous?! 'Manifestly unfit!'

"Give me a break! Tell them at the top, tell them why and tell them again at the bottom. Tell them every damn day while you've still got a press! Geez, people, this is no time to be gentle."

-- Me, April 28,

in a column posted on opednews

***

-- The time, spring, 2034. The scene: A New York Times editor is watching the news on Government Channel 1 with his 10-year-old daughter.

Daughter: "Daddy, what were you doing when our great Orange Leader, who sadly just died, was saying he had to be made president for life, so that he could save the country from all the evil people trying to sneak into it and send them all back where they came from, and that he had to release all of those people who were wrongly put in jail for trying to kill the vice president, who was actually a traitor, and free the Capitol from a Congress that wasn't following the Constitution and that he needed to punish all those people who were telling all those lies about him and stop Congress from sending money to Ukraine for weapons to fight Russia because Czar Putin was a good man and that we really needed instead to focus on saving the world from windmills? And he did! Do you remember what you were doing when he was saying all that?"

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Bob Gaydos Social Media Pages: Facebook Page       Twitter Page       Linkedin page url on login Profile not filled in       Instagram page url on login Profile not filled in

Bob Gaydos is a veteran of 40-plus years in daily newspapers. He began as police reporter with The (Binghamton, N.Y.) Sun-Bulletin, eventually covering government and politics as well as serving as city editor, features editor, sports editor and (more...)
 

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