Finally

So, the New York Times has finally noticed that Donald Trump is bat-sh%$ insane.

Even then, they do their level best to fob this observation on a 3rd party, specifically a computer program that counts words, because they are cowardly pissants.

Being a cowardly pissant is antithetical to journalism, but they are all nepo-babies there, so it does not matter:

The New York Times has finally weighed in on the subject of Donald Trump’s mental unfitness. On Sunday, Peter Baker and Dylan Freedman described Trump’s obvious problems at great length.

It marked a red-letter day for journalism.

The New York Times is by far the most influential news organization in the media ecosphere. By publishing this story, it has created a permission structure for others to more directly address the issue of Trump’s mental fitness.

So let’s go! Start your engines! As I wrote, perhaps a bit prematurely a few weeks ago, Trump’s mental capacity is now topic one.

………

As Michael Tomasky wrote in The New Republic on Monday, Baker and Freedman’s piece “could stand as the single most important piece of journalism in this election” – particularly if “the Times keeps finding ways to raise this question, and … other mainstream outlets follow.” 

Of course they are.  For some reason, other media outlets see the New York Times imprimatur as authorization to cover this story.  I'm not sure why, because that f%$#ing paper is a sh%$-show, but it is what it is.

I don't expect them to run this non-stop though, because when he was President, Trump gave the NYT a one on one interview, so they lack the motivation of narcissistic butt-hurt.

BTW, here are the weasel words:

………

The heart of the story was a statistical analysis:

According to a computer analysis by The New York Times, Mr. Trump’s rally speeches now last an average of 82 minutes, compared with 45 minutes in 2016. Proportionately, he uses 13 percent more all-or-nothing terms like “always” and “never” than he did eight years ago, which some experts consider a sign of advancing age.

Similarly, he uses 32 percent more negative words than positive words now, compared with 21 percent in 2016, which can be another indicator of cognitive change. And he uses swearwords 69 percent more often than he did when he first ran, a trend that could reflect what experts call disinhibition. (A study by Stat, a health care news outlet, produced similar findings.)

You know, considering the allegations of tumult in his campaign, a real journalist could do more than say, "We have a computer program that counts words," but that is actual work.

………

Another giant problem with the article was that it failed to use the word “lie” even once. And it failed to connect the dots between Trump’s “rambling” and how his constant lies are not random – they come straight from the authoritarian playbook, consistently intended to divide the nation and terrify voters into electing a strongman. (See Ruth Ben-Ghiat.)

It’s also worth noting that Baker snuck an astonishing revelation into his 19th paragraph:

Some of Mr. Trump’s cabinet secretaries had a running debate over whether the president was “crazy-crazy,” as one of them put it in an interview after leaving office, or merely someone who promoted “crazy ideas.” There were multiple conversations about whether the 25th Amendment disability clause should be invoked to remove him from office, although the idea never went far.

How long has Baker been sitting on this quote? And while there have been vague reports in the past about such conversations within the cabinet, they’ve been in the context of the Jan. 6 insurrection, not his mental health. That strikes me as newsworthy.

He sat on it until he was certain that he could not get a book deal out of this, like many other NYT staffers (looking at you nepo-baby Maggie Haberman) and Bob Woodward did.

I don't expect much to come of this.  The Times spent years writing about Biden's alleged cognitive decline, and there is less than a month to the election, but we should see more coverage from places like the Washington Post, LA times, Boston Globe, Chicago Sun Times, etc.