Quote of the Day

If Nazis Are Involved, Nazis Are the Lede.

—Jamison Foser

He makes what should be the obvious lede in a New York Times article about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio.

This is what he is referring to:

Nearly two weeks ago, before Donald Trump and JD Vance began lying about Haitian immigrants eating pets, the New York Times ran a lengthy piece headlined “How an Ohio Town Landed in the Middle of the Immigration Debate” that noted “by most accounts, the Haitians have helped revitalize Springfield … But the speed and volume of arrivals have put pressure on housing, schools and hospitals” and attempted to explain both. Sprinkled throughout the narrative is praise for the Haitian immigrants and the effect they have had on the city, as well as criticism – some of it extremely racist. And then way down at the very end of the article, more than 70 paragraphs deep, came this striking image: “On a recent Saturday, about a dozen Nazi sympathizers — masked men in matching red shirts, black pants and boots — waved swastika flags as they marched in downtown Springfield near a jazz festival. At least two of the men, who authorities said were outsiders, carried rifles.”

It was in the 3rd to last paragraph.

More generally, he is talking about how the media in general, and the Times in particular engage in a style of journalism that magnifies the lies:

………

Imagine a man, let’s call him Bob, is standing at a bus stop, waiting for the 5:10. He’s wearing a Dave Matthews Band hat and doing a crossword puzzle on his phone. Now imagine another man, let’s call him Bill, who has twice been convicted of random assaults and just got out of prison, walks up to him and punches him in the face and says “I hate the Dave Matthews Band.”

Would you expect a news report about this assault to focus on Bill’s history of violence, his previous convictions for assaulting people, and his time in prison? Or would you want news reports to focus on the Dave Matthews Band and the polarized reaction to their music? You’d expect a focus on what the assault and Bill’s history of violence say about Bill, right? There are, to be sure, deeply held views both pro and con about the Dave Matthews Band, but the Dave Matthews Band quite obviously is not the story here, right?

Note that this sort of coverage only applies to Republicans.

In 2000, you literally had high school kids showing that the Washington Post and the New York Times misquoted Al Gore in order to reinforce the idea that Gore was a serial liar.

This IOKIYAR coverage of politics is endemic to the national news media, and particularly bad in the Times and the Post.

Only Democrats can have trust issues, only Democrats can tell a lie, only Democratic lies can be called lies, and Nazis are never the lede.