RUSH: By now you probably have heard about the New York Times headline conspiracy/controversy. If you haven’t, let me bring you up to speed on this. The New York Times, both website and print edition of the paper… I guess… No. This may be web versions.
I’ve got screenshots here. I don’t read the printed version of the New York Times, so I’m not sure. Let’s just stick with web version here for this, because it’s for certain. They released a story on Trump’s speech yesterday in which the president condemned white supremacy, he condemned white nationalism, condemned racism in all of its forms. It was generally a very well-received speech — except by the left, who claimed (summarized), “It was so good that Trump couldn’t have meant it!
“It was so good, Trump couldn’t possibly have really meant it, and he certainly didn’t write it. Somebody else obviously wrote it.” So the New York Times issues this headline in their first reporting of the story: “Trump Urges Unity Versus Racism.” The left blew up. Twitter blew up. The internet blew up. The Democrat presidential candidates blew up. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez blew up. They all blew up. Twitter blew up, and they were aiming their fire at the New York Times. (impression) “How dare the New York Times credit Trump for anything in a headline!”
The story excoriates Trump. The story has everything the left would want in it, but the headline, “Trump Urges Unity Versus Racism,” the left is saying, “Clearly the Times screwed up,” and they needed to correct this. All of the left-wing media watchdog sites and the Democrat presidential candidates (and any number of left-wing, pajama-clad, out-of-work Millennials in the homes of their parents) just obliterated the Times website, excoriated them, ripped them to shreds.
The New York Times caved faster than anybody on the right you have ever seen cave under an assault, and they reissued a new headline. “Assailing Hate But Not Guns” was the replacement headline. So the original headline was “Trump Urges Unity Versus Racism.” Now, that’s exactly what Trump did! If the New York Times was a newspaper that simply reported “all the news that’s fit to print,” there is nobody could assail that, because that’s exactly what Trump did. The New York Times made a mistake as far as the left is concerned.
“That headline humanizes Trump. We cannot have that! We, the people on the left, cannot have Donald Trump seen as human with a human heart and human feelings and human compassion. That flies against every effort the left is making to demonize Trump. So we can’t have that.” So the New York Times wilted. As I say, they wilted faster than you’ve ever seen any conservative or Republican wilt to public onslaught. The backlash was fierce. Liberals were announcing they were canceling their subscriptions!
Now, the way that happens is that the liberal will get on the New York Times website and send a vicious comment: “Cancel my subscription. Screw you!” To which the response is, as William F. Buckley once said to complaining subscribers of National Review, “Cancel your own damn subscription!” We’re not gonna do it for you. You do it! That should have been the Times’ response. “Cancel your own damn subscription!” But no. The Times begged forgiveness, asked for time, and reissued a new headline:
“Trump Urges Unity Versus Racism,” and then “Assailing Hate But Not Guns” is the replacement headline. “Assailing Hate But Not Guns.” Nate Silver tweeted, “Not sure ‘Trump Urges Unity Versus Racism’ is how I would have framed the story.” Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: “Let this front page serve as a reminder of how white supremacy is aided by and often relies upon the cowardice of mainstream institutions.” Now, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says that Nancy Pelosi’s a racist.
She’s a prominent, respected leader in the Democrat Party is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Anyway, none of us had any doubt. But for anybody on the fence, let there be no doubt: There is no such thing as media. There is no such thing as actual journalism being practiced by what we call the mainstream media. It is all left-wing activism. And I think this is further evidence of my notion that the media is leading this charge, because the leaders fell short here. The New York Times dropped the ball, and the rank-and-file simply couldn’t put up with it.