(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Beyond parody: The New York Times nihilistic both-sideism on display in one tweet [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-02-25 Jonathan Weisman, Chicago-based political correspondent for The New York Times, author, (((Semitism))) - Being Jewish in the Age of Trump, and the novel No. 4 Imperial Lane Perhaps you have heard of The NY Times Pitchbot? It’s a parody twitter account of NY Times story lines, tweeting ‘headlines’ like: “Sources close to Jared and Ivanka said that privately the couple opposes the pandemic.” Well, the Pitchbot just ran across one he can’t parody. x I can't top this. https://t.co/rgGHRbQxI0 — New York Times Pitchbot (@DougJBalloon) February 25, 2023 The caption under the photo at the top of this post explains who Jonathan Weisman is — a NY Times political correspondent based in Chicago. In case the tweet isn't showing up for you, Weisman tweeted this about the Ohio train disaster and ‘both sides’ on it coming from the Democrats and the GOP: “In some sense, both sides are right, both sides are wrong and, in the bifurcated politics of this American moment, none of the arguments much matter.” It rather puts me in mind of John Mellencamp’s 1980 album title comment on the world: “Nothin’ matters and what if it did.” This tweet from Weisman is an observation summing up his own comment on the story — which reads like a parody in its own right. x Democrats see East Palestine as action & consequences: Rail regulations were gutted, blame assigned. Republicans see a more operatic narrative, a forgotten town in a flyover state struggling against an uncaring mega-corporation and an unseeing government. https://t.co/zzE82xKNvT — Jonathan Weisman (@jonathanweisman) February 23, 2023 Democrats see East Palestine as action & consequences: Rail regulations were gutted, blame assigned. Republicans see a more operatic narrative, a forgotten town in a flyover state struggling against an uncaring mega-corporation and an unseeing government. Both tweets by Weisman are quotes pulled out of his analysis of the politics of the rail disaster. There’s a larger context in the full article, which is looking at how Democrats and Republicans are pursuing competing narratives on this and other issues. Which ones are based on real-world concerns that reach beyond just political considerations and which ones are simply looking for political advantage, well that’s not Weisman’s job to say. It would be easy to dismiss this as just one guy, if it wasn’t part of a larger problem with “the Paper of Record.” The Pitchbot had this to say about the Gray Lady: With his account, NYT Pitchbot imagines the Times formula for stories as a kind of wheezing algorithm, a bot churning out contrarian headlines and half-baked hot takes. “I was a lifelong liberal Democrat,” begins one mock pitch for the Times opinion section. “Then reproductive rights activists held a vigil in front of Brett Kavanaugh’s house.” Another: “Ukrainians Have Sunk the Russian Warship Moskva. Here’s why that’s bad news for Joe Biden.” (Like “Dems in Disarray,” “Bad News for Biden” is something of a catchphrase for the account.) NYT Pitchbot is a lifelong Times reader and a current digital subscriber. “Obviously, I think the New York Times does fantastic journalism,” he says. Still: “I’ve always had a lot of issues with how the media handles national politics. Like, I really thought that what went on around the Iraq War was insane.” He finds the Times’ framing of political coverage grating, and criticizes its opinion section as contrarian, focused on “concern-trolling liberals”—engaging in disingenuous criticism. “There’s this obsession the Times has with attacking other liberals,” he says. Beyond an attempt at balance, “I think part of it is that’s the ecosystem that they live in, and they find the people around them irritating.” When The NY Times is good, it can be very good. When it’s not, it’s horrible. A search of the DK archives for Weisman turned up this tweet from him which is noted as having been deleted, circa 2019. If you’ve ever felt like the Times views the Midwest as a solidly Red landscape, this tweet gives you a hint of where that’s coming from. In 2017 The NY Times eliminated its Public Editor, someone whose job was to respond to reader criticisms. Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. had this to say at the time, in a memo explaining the decision. (Sulzberger turned the paper over to his son in 2020) ...The public editor position, created in the aftermath of a grave journalistic scandal, played a crucial part in rebuilding our readers’ trusts by acting as our in-house watchdog. We welcomed that criticism, even when it stung. But today, our followers on social media and our readers across the internet have come together to collectively serve as a modern watchdog, more vigilant and forceful than one person could ever be. Our responsibility is to empower all of those watchdogs, and to listen to them, rather than to channel their voice through a single office… emphasis added Relying on social media critics to keep The NY Times journalistic integrity intact. How’s that working out for you guys? 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