Whoever writes the headlines at The NY Times is playing a not very subtle game. I’ve run across several articles analyzing how editorial choices can shape the news, and one of the ‘tricks’ is putting headlines on articles that don’t really capture the intent of the article, or just flat-out put framing around it that is, for lack of a better word, deceptive because many people just look at the headline and move on..
So this morning, following some encouraging Democratic results from the November election, the Times brings three people together to discuss the state of play in politics, still milking the horrendous (for Democrats) poll showing Trump leading Biden in key electoral college states.
I don’t get the print version of the paper — I read it online — and I’ve already seen two different headlines on this piece:
‘He’s 80 Years Old, and That Colors Every Impression Voters Have’: Three Writers Dish on Biden and the G.O.P.
That’s the version that came up on my phone this morning. When I fired up my laptop, this is the version on the digital front page there:
‘He’s Too Old, and I Feel Poor!’: Our Writers Discuss Voter Polls, Biden and the G.O.P.
Granted, they’re pulling provocative quotes out of the opinion piece — but the choice of what to emphasize is telling. Here’s the lead into the ‘conversation’:
Frank Bruni, a contributing Opinion writer, hosted a written online conversation with Katherine Mangu-Ward, the editor in chief of Reason magazine, and Nate Silver, the founder and former editor of FiveThirtyEight and author of the newsletter Silver Bulletin, to discuss their expectations for the third Republican debate on Wednesday night. They also dug into and sorted through a blizzard of political news — particularly the new New York Times/Siena battleground-state polling with dreadful news for President Biden that has Democrats freaked out (again).
They have some interesting things to say — some of it incredibly inane — but if you don’t read past the headline, the main thing you get is that BIDEN IS OLD! If you don’t dive in to the article, you won’t see things like:
Nate Silver: Thanks for having me, Frank! It’s nice to be back in the (digital) pages of The Times! I think whether Democrats would be better off if Biden dropped out is very much an open question— which is kind of a remarkable thing to be saying at this late stage. There’s a whole cottage industry devoted to trying to figure out why Biden doesn’t get more credit on the economy, for instance. And the answer might just be that he’s 80 years old, and that colors every impression voters have of him.
emphasis added
Hey Nate — have you looked at all the news headlines lauding Biden and his administration on all the things they’ve managed to accomplish despite Republican opposition at every turn? The decline in inflation? The record employment levels? The beginning of real action on climate? The competence coupled with the lack of real scandals in his administration? /s
How about all of the articles on the dysfunction of the G.O.P. and the medieval agenda they have for the country as they try to create a de facto monarchy — going back decades?
If you follow the link Silver includes, it takes you to his sub stack newsletter, where you can find this:
Trump and Biden are unpopular — if you’re a regular reader of this newsletter, you probably don’t need me to tell you that.2 But if they run against each other then one of them has to win — barring an unlikely third-party victory. A New York Times/Siena College poll this weekend suggested that Trump might have the edge. In that poll, Trump led by 4 points across six swing states.
Wait — Trump is unpopular too? How many news stories do you see starting off with coverage of Republican stories that hammer home Trump is unpopular— or old for that matter? The consensus among the three is that Trump’s lead is so great, the current Republican debate is meaningless — so when are we going to see headlines like: “Visibly Deteriorating Trump Dodges Age, Unpopularity Issues — Leads GOP Race for Nomination.”
There is one observation in the opinion piece that seems on point:
Mangu-Ward:Because this election cycle has been largely bereft of serious policy debate, I also think age is one thing people can grab on to to justify their unease about a Biden second term.
emphasis added (underline)
Try this teaser on the digital NY Times front page for another article which is a news/analysis piece:
How Abortion Lifted Democrats, and More Takeaways From Tuesday’s Elections
President Biden is unpopular, but the winning streak for his party and its policies has been extended through another election night.
Notice how they start by citing President Biden is unpopular?
Here’s the lead paragraph from the article by Jonathan Weisman and Reid J. Epstein:
The political potency of abortion rights proved more powerful than the drag of President Biden’s approval ratings in Tuesday’s off-year elections, as Ohioans enshrined a right to abortion in their state’s constitution, and Democrats took control of both chambers of the Virginia General Assembly while holding on to Kentucky’s governorship.
The night’s results showed the durability of Democrats’ political momentum since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and ended the constitutional right to an abortion in 2022. It may also, at least temporarily, stem the latest round of Democratic fretting from a series of polls demonstrating Mr. Biden’s political weakness.
emphasis added
About that poll — Charlie Pierce has some thoughts about it, including this:
...Quite simply, I don't believe a single one of those numbers. The key figure is the last one, although I think that sentence about the male-female split is very mushy, Dobbs being still alive and well as an issue, and with a theocratic fetus-fondler running the House of Representatives, it is likely to stay that way. I do not believe that the former president* will get 22 percent of the Black vote. I'd sooner believe he'd get 22 percent of the votes from pixies, elves, and the Tuatha de Denaan.
This election is closer than it ought to be, God knows; the Republican frontrunner was due in a New York courtroom Monday morning to answer charges that his entire financial empire was based on fraud and on books cooked like candied yams. Because few of the other Republican candidates are willing to point this out with any regularity, and because the ones that are — Chris Christie, Asa Hutchinson — are polling at the bottom of the Marianas Trench, the fact that he's been indicted up and down the eastern seaboard has figured less prominently in the campaign than the current president's age.
(It also has figured less prominently than the fact that the Republican frontrunner has been having public "episodes" a couple of times a week.)
emphasis added
Any political opinionating about Trump that ignores that reality is punditry malfeasance. I could almost believe that at some level the media is hammering on Biden’s age so they can get him out of the way and go back to warning about how the Democrats are going too far left. (Meanwhile guess what's coming to America wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross?)
The cumulative effect of this kind of framing should not be underestimated. Here’s a Youtube clip of Doctor Who ending the political career of a British Prime Minister:
Let’s go back to basics.
Democrats are focused on governing. Republicans are obsessed with ruling.
We’re not voting on who we’d most like to have a beer with, or who is the popular political equivalent of Taylor Swift — but that’s what the media seems to think matters.
Democrats have policies intended to respond to voter needs and desires by using government to provide workable solutions — that old “form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity” thing. Political reporting that focuses on age, popularity, and other trivia misses the point of who can and will do a better job of meeting that challenge. (Charlie Pierce has a great meditation on this, if you can get past the Esquire paywall.)
Republicans have no policies other than A) whatever is coming out of Trump’s pie hole at any given moment, and B) the agenda of the oligarchs, white nationalists, and evangelicals pushing Project 2025 — which they will pursue with any Republican in the White House, not just Trump.
Abortion is curently the most visible issue that highlights the difference between the two parties, but the differences have never been greater. On healthcare, on Social Security, on national defense, on foreign relations, on inequality, on civil rights, open voting rights, on economics, on climate, on education, on freedom of religion, on just about any issue that has real consequences, the record is clear.
But that’s not what seems to make the headlines.