Dan Gainor: NY Times goes farther left, CNN’s Cuomo erupts, and CNN's Ryan bars reporter from covering her
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Charles Dickens wrote: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” This week we saw the worst of The Times – The New York Times, that is.
Last week, the paper was caught up in a liberal freak-out over a five-word headline in its print edition: “TRUMP URGES UNITY VS. RACISM.” That tantrum over an accurate headline prompted editors to change the headline in later print editions to the more opinionated “ASSAILING HATE BUT NOT GUNS.” The headlines were for a story about remarks by the president following horrific mass murders in Texas and Ohio.
The freak-out continued this week, with Times Executive Editor Dean Baquet holding a 75-minute staff meeting to try and address concerns.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}TOP NEW YORK TIMES EDITOR HOLDS TOWN HALL TIED TO TRUMP HEADLINE DRAMA: REPORT
A recording of the meeting was leaked to Slate, which produced a massive transcript that shows how the Times is home to the pampered, liberal elite – including many who are still upset by the original headline because it failed to attack Trump.
Near the end, of the meeting Baquet let his frustration show. He was tossing F-bombs and called the headline situation “a f------ mess.”
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So was the meeting. Baquet admitted what we all know – that liberals read and work at The New York Times. “What I’m saying is that our readers and some of our staff cheer us when we take on Donald Trump, but they jeer at us when we take on Joe Biden,” he said.
The meeting should end any doubt about the biases of the Times. One staffer described the image of the paper, how readers “are depending on us to keep kicking down the doors and getting through, because they need that right now. It’s a very scary time.”
And Associate Managing Editor for Standards Phil Corbett told a staffer that “the mistakes you’re seeing are when we’re going, shall we say, too easy on Donald Trump.” Yes, he really said that – “too easy.” On President Trump.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}All of that was a backdrop as Baquet described how the paper had focused on Special Counsel Robert Mueller and his investigation of allegations that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to put Donald Trump in the White House, and allegations that Trump obstructed the investigation.
But “the story changed” when Mueller “walked off that witness stand,” Baquet said.
The failure of the Mueller probe to find wrongdoing by Trump and his campaign must have come as a crushing blow to the Times and many of its readers. So now Times readers need a new narrative.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Baquet then described “the vision for coverage for the next two years.” He talked about “a guy (Trump) who makes these kinds of remarks” and “the world’s reaction to him.”
Then Baquet got to the heart of where the paper is going: “How do we write about race in a thoughtful way, something we haven’t done in a large way in a long time?”
Out goes Russia. In goes race. Heck, headline writers could keep in the same letter of the alphabet.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A Politico article explained how many Times staffers also blamed former “data guru” Nate Silver for making a big deal of the headline embarrassment. He was the first one to highlight it and Politico wrote how his criticisms have highlighted his “personal grievances with the paper that was unable to meet his demands.”
That wasn’t the only embarrassment the paper struggled with. Deputy Washington Editor Jonathan Weisman was demoted for offending the far left by tweeting about "Justice Democrats." He was taken to the woodshed and punished. The press release said he “apologized for his recent serious lapses in judgment.”
It’s all part of shifting even further left. The Times it is a changin’ – but not in a good way.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}CNN’s Chris Cuomo erupts
The late New York Democratic Gov. Mario Cuomo was known as one of America’s most eloquent orators, able to stir passions in audiences by painting beautiful pictures with his words.
No one would describe an obscenity-filled eruption by his son Chris Cuomo, a CNN anchor, that way.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}CNN STAFF ‘EMBARRASSED’ BY CHRIS CUOMO’S FREDO FLAP
Cuomo, who is also the younger brother of liberal New York Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo, went ballistic – in an incident captured on video – when a man approached him and called him “Fredo.” For you folks who aren’t movie buffs, that’s the inept, middle brother from “The Godfather.”
The clearly enraged CNN anchor dropped the F-bomb about 25 times, threatening his critic. The whole exchange and video are so bizarre you really have to watch. At one point, Cuomo said: “I’ll f------ ruin your s---. I’ll f------- throw you down these stairs like a f------ punk.”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Yep, three F-bombs in 16 words. Oh, and a threat to throw someone down the stairs. Over calling Cuomo “Fredo.”
It got even worse. When the man said he was part-Italian, Cuomo kept on going into Loony Land. “Are you Italian? It’s a f------- insult to your people.” Then he added: “It’s an insult to your f------- people. It’s like the N-word for us.”
The incident dominated Twitter, trending No. 1 and No. 4 at the same time. Strangely, CNN’s public relations people, echoing Iraq’s Baghdad Bob, stood by Cuomo’s bizarre claim. Spokesman Matt Dornic agreed that “Fredo”was “an ethnic slur.” Even liberal Vox said that was ridiculous.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“Daily Show” Host Trevor Noah mocked Cuomo as having a reaction that “seemed like a negative Italian stereotype.” Noah said: “Now I see why CNN makes people fight in separate boxes, that’s just workplace safety. Cuomo is like, ‘if I wasn't in this box I would smash your face!’”
Of course, President Trump got his digs in, as well. “I thought Chris was Fredo also. The truth hurts. Totally lost it! Low ratings @CNN,” the president tweeted.
But that wasn’t the best part. First off, Cuomo had actually jokingly called himself “Fredo” in a 2010 radio interview, the New York Post reported.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Cuomo also got caught up in the same kind of gotcha video incident he had blamed the Covington High School students over, saying they were “victims of their own choices.”
It’s shouldn’t be lost on anyone, that Covington’s Nick Sandman – falsely criticized by Cuomo and many others in the media – showed far more class and brains in his incident than the so-called professional TV anchor.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Freedom of the press? What’s that?
That wasn’t enough for the folks at CNN. CNN political analyst April Ryan had her own controversy to cope with. Ryan was speaking Aug. 3 at the New Jersey Parent Summit and a fellow journalist was trying to cover it.
However, Ryan closely guards her public image. So much so that she has her security guard stopping anyone she doesn’t like from recording what she says. In this case, the individual recording was another journalist – Charlie Kratovil, editor of New Brunswick Today.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Ryan’s security guard took exception to it. He instructed Kratovil to stop taking a video, but never even identified himself. Then he took the camera and forcibly removed the journalist.
One big problem with that. Fox News reported that “Kratovil had previously RSVP'd to the event and received confirmation.” Kratovil responded to the attack, “Don’t touch my camera, please.”
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}None of that was enough. This video shows Kratovil being forcibly dragged from the event even though he said that “there were other people taking video.” You can hear Ryan in the background saying, in her most imperial voice, “when I speak, I do not let the news cover my speech.”
Journalist, eh? Sure.