What a mess -- Maureen Dowd lectures liberals about the press

[dajoki]

What a mess — Maureen Dowd lectures liberals about the press
https://pressrun.media/p/what-a-mess-maureen-dowd-lectures


Anxious to engage in Both Sides whitewashing of journalism failures from the Trump era, some prominent journalists are lashing out at liberals for having the nerve to criticize news coverage of the Biden White House. Leading the defensive charge is New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd, who penned a condescending harangue https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/27/opinion/sunday/democrats-media-tanden.html#click=https://t.co/tg0lmEBTl5 over the weekend, claiming liberals are hypocrites for finding fault with the press when a Democrat is in the Oval Office.

Embracing a straw man argument that Democrats "lionized" the media during the Trump years because they detested him so much, Dowd insists the left is guilty of hypocrisy because they can't take it when the media's critical lens focuses on Democrats. "The truth is, many on the left don’t understand what a reporter is," Dowd lectured Times readers, most of whom know exactly what a reporter is.

Dowd's scolding was immediately picked up by other elite journalists on Twitter, who lent their voices to the idea that liberals don't understand how journalism works, and mocked Democrats for thinking the press should not hold their party accountable. (Spoiler: Zero Democrats actually think that.) By embracing that absurd claim, journalists feel free to dismiss criticism from the left, because they say it's not based in reality. That's a convenient dodge and it's also delusional.

First off, if Dowd thinks liberals spent four years lionizing the New York Times for its Trump coverage, then the Beltway bubble she lives in is even more impenetrable and remote than I thought. Progressives for years were rightly fuming over the Times' forced timidity when covering Trump — the paper's failure to call out his lies, its never-ending attempt to normalize his radical behavior, and the daily's relentless, fawning coverage of Trump voters, who were depicted as the true voice of authentic America — not the backbone for a looming insurrection.

Secondly, the idea that after four years of watching the Trump media circus, liberals think Beltway journalists are on their side, as Dowd claims, is beyond comical. Liberals understand perfectly well how this game is played and are under no illusions that the Times is doing the Democrats' bidding. In fact, quite the opposite.

snip//

[JohnSJ]

1. Dowd's ignorance is astounding

[Dem4Life1102]

9. Not ignorance, arrogance

[JohnSJ]

10. Well said

[Chicago1980]

2. The Red Head Hillary Hater speaks...

Dowd has been annoying for decades.

[SidDithers]

3. ...

Sid

[elleng]

4. Foolish to read her;

I never do.

[Irish_Dem]

5. Dem MOC are holding our country together right now, even when their lives are threatened.

They risk their lives every day, stood right up after the insurrection to certify the EC count.

They go to work every day with armed guards around their work place to help the American people.

Dowd would probably praise the British for starving her people.

[PatSeg]

6. You know, I kind of forgot that Maureen Dowd

even existed. Maybe that's why she feels the need to make noise right now. I'm sure I am not the only one who forgot about her.

[underpants]

13. I had too

See my post below. Where the hell has she been? Over shadowed by the ultrapowerful charisma of Maggie Haberman?

[Hortensis]

16. Me too. Guessing the Trump crowd sucked the air out of

the market for her poison pen. And that now she rushes to fill the vacuum...

[PatSeg]

17. Yes, it would seem so

I even did a search at The New York Times and there were some articles, but I can't recall her articles ever show up in my emails from the paper.

[oasis]

7. MoDo-Do needs to slink back under her rock. nt

[Paladin]

8. Maureen Dowd, Ross Douthat, Bret Stephens.

As long as conservative hacks like these are given space in the NYT opinion section, I'll be more than happy to refrain from "lionizing" what used to be a reliably liberal publication.

[UpInArms]

11. The undies did their best in 2000 to destroy Gore

GOING AFTER GORE

The Love Story distortion set the stage for the "I Invented the Internet" distortion, a devastating piece of propaganda that damaged Gore at the starting gate of his run. On March 9, 1999, CNN's Wolf Blitzer conducted an interview with Gore shortly before he officially announced his candidacy. In answer to a question about why Democrats should support him, Gore spoke about his record. "During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative"—politico-speak for leadership—"in creating the Internet," he said, before going on to describe other accomplishments. It was true. In the 1970s, the Internet was a limited tool used by the Pentagon and universities for research. As a senator in the 80s, Gore sponsored two bills that turned this government program into an "information superhighway," a term Gore popularized, and made it accessible to all. Vinton Cerf, often called the father of the Internet, has claimed that the Internet would not be where it was without Gore's leadership on the issue. Even former Republican House speaker Newt Gingrich has said that "Gore is the person who, in the Congress, most systematically worked to make sure that we got to an Internet."

The press didn't object to Gore's statement until Texas Republican congressman Dick Armey led the charge, saying, "If the vice president created the Internet, then I created the interstate highway system." Republican congressman James Sensenbrenner released a statement with the headline, delusions of grandeur: vice president gore takes credit for creating the internet. CNN's Lou Dobbs was soon calling Gore's remark "a case study … in delusions of grandeur." A few days later the word "invented" entered the narrative. On March 15, a USA Today headline about Gore read, inventing the internet; March 16 on Hardball, Chris Matthews derided Gore for his claim that he "invented the Internet." Soon the distorted assertion was in the pages of the Los Angeles Times and The Boston Globe, and on the A.P. wire service. By early June, the word "invented" was actually being put in quotation marks, as though that were Gore's word of choice. Here's how Mimi Hall put it in USA Today: "A couple of Gore gaffes, including his assertion that he 'invented' the Internet, didn't help." And *Newsday'*s Elaine Povich ridiculed "Gore's widely mocked assertion that he 'invented' the Internet." (Thanks to the Web site the Daily Howler, the creation of Bob Somerby, a college roommate of Gore's, we have a chronicle of how the Internet story spiraled out of control.)

[underpants]

12. " Trump's dark genius at topping himself with outlandish narratives."

Last edited Tue Mar 2, 2021, 04:06 PM - Edit history (1)

She exhibits the twists and spins the media performed rather than simply reporting on the situation. Trump wasn’t some grand illusionist, we lied and couldn’t keep his story straight. There were commonly three or so different stories coming out of the Clustertrump.

Dowd must thinks she’s some great power fighting for journalism. Oh and the all powerful but still unseen LEFT in organizational or human form is still a mighty power in the universe I see. I didn’t know she was still writing for the Times - where the hell has she been the last 4 years?

[PatSeg]

14. "Where the hell has she been the last 4 years?"

It would seem as if no one has been reading her, as I hardly ever hear her name anymore. I remember a time when she was kind of a star, but apparently she has become rather irrelevant, as well as unreadable. I always found her more of a gossip columnist, being too snarky and edgy to be taken seriously. The times have changed, but it appears Dowd has not.

[Grins]

15. It is long past time for...

....Dowd to be put out to pasture. She has been in that sinecure for far too long.

And along with her, David Effing Brooks.

And over at the WaPo, George Will who has been a highly paid ball-washer for the Reich there for FORTY-SEVEN YEARS!

And at the WSJ - the woman who likes her box-martini’s shaken and not stirred, Peggy Noonan.

Her, along with - Mrs. Allen Greenspan.