The New York Times' Latest Effort to Appease Trump Voters Is Its Most Embarrassing Yet
After a year-plus of sending reporters out to “Trump Country” to find out what Trump voters were thinking about health care, budgets, taxes, and more, the New York Times has decided to stop reporting on Trump voters so much and just turn its pages over to them directly.
The Times editorial board has been sharply critical of the Trump presidency, on grounds of policy and personal conduct. Not all readers have been persuaded. In the spirit of open debate, and in hopes of helping readers who agree with us better understand the views of those who don’t, we wanted to let Mr. Trump’s supporters make their best case for him as the first year of his presidency approaches its close. Tomorrow we’ll present some letters from readers who voted for Mr. Trump but are now disillusioned, and from those reacting to today’s letters and our decision to provide Trump voters this platform.
No context, no inconvenient facts, just what Trump voters say—as if we don’t have the base’s adoring replies to Trump’s tweets to tell us that. One person after another who thinks Trump has crushed ISIS and deserves credit for an economy that has continued on the path it had already been on under former President Barack Obama.
Does the Times have a mission to talk to every single Trump voter in the country? And turned to this strategy as their reporters started having trouble finding Trump voters to quote who hadn’t already been in the Times previously and on every major network? Bear in mind, Trump’s support is loooow. And yet we hear endlessly more from outlets like the Times about his supporters than we do about, say, what people who voted for the popular vote winner think after a year. Just for instance.
Maybe the Times editorial board thinks it speaks for all people who didn’t vote for Trump, but having read the paper’s coverage of Hillary Clinton’s campaign—hell, no. This is an abdication of reporting on the American political scene. And it’s an irresponsible approach to Trump voters themselves: As one friend said, “It’s morbid fascination meets fetishization meets absolute ignorance.”
