Wow, that Monday press briefing at the White House has sent tremors through the newscape.
Sometimes you have to beat back on the media to get them corrected and have the truth placed on the record. Other times you let them keep talking, as they expose their insipid bias and have the truth revealed in their stances. Maggie Habermann of the New York Times definitely falls into the second category.
For some reason, the Times seems to have placed her as the reporter running point on the coronavirus beat…and she has most often ended up running into a wall. Her coverage on the outbreak and the administration’s response to it has been so slanted that The Paper Of Record has been more like a record with numerous scratches; it has become unlistenable.
The president is using audio of me on The Daily to bash my reporting in the paper (though I’m so glad they listen to the Daily). Their use of the audio is misleading – I went on to say I said he treated that travel limitation as a Mission Accomplished moment.
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) April 13, 2020
It is slightly amusing to see a member of the media elite carping about something that is common practice, by the media elite. It becomes elevated to funny when it is Haberman making the complaint. And it then becomes hilarious when, just hours later, Maggie engages in the very same practice she is crying ”unfair” about when applied to her words.
Behold…
The problem is not that the president gets quoted out of context, as his advisers say. It’s that he gets quoted. https://t.co/VpQGwojF3H
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) April 14, 2020
Beyond Lemire, others also engaged in the practice.
Trump: When somebody is the president, "the authority is total."
!?!?!
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) April 13, 2020
President Trump: "When somebody's the president of the United States, the authority is total." pic.twitter.com/ZqM7VqswA5
— The Hill (@thehill) April 13, 2020
President Trump just now: "When somebody is the president of the United States, the authority is total."
Fact Check: That is definitely not true.
— Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) April 13, 2020
This is the state our modern media has now lapsed into — we need to fact check Their fact-checks.
Note how many media members here are perfectly at ease giving a partial, out of context quote in order to frame the president in their negative impression. That they did so barely an hour after Maggie was grousing about being taken out of context herself is precious.
To grasp what the press has done here you need to see the full quote. He was in a discussion on the subject of a declared national emergency, and it was in direct reference to such, in regards to the plans of the country’s governors, that he said this:
“When somebody is president of the United States, the authority is total. The governors know that. You have a couple bands of Democratic governors, but they will agree to it. They will agree to it. But the authority of the president of the United States, having to do with the subject we’re talking about, is total.”
(emphasis added for Maggie’s benefit)
To say that Haberman missed this point entirely — either by accident or intent — is not hyperbole. She later referenced an attempt by Vice President Mike Pence to lend more clarity on the matter, but she either was unable, or simply refused, to grasp his placing the quote in accurate context.
Good question to Pence – does he agree with the president's interpretation of his authority as "total?" Pence dodges, goes to support the president's emergency declarations in the states.
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) April 13, 2020
There is no way you can describe Pence’s quote here as a ”dodge. It is the entire point. It was directly attributed to the national emergency order, specifically what Trump referenced.
Haberman continues to be a constant source — a beacon, if you will — of evidence of the narrative drivers in press. As long as she continues, we will point out these efforts. And we want her to continue.
