White House press briefings are back on, which means our media have ample opportunity once again to misrepresent what Donald Trump’s press secretary says. The New York Times’ Maggie Haberman took full advantage of that today with Kayleigh McEnany’s remarks on Trump and Mike Pence’s health:
.@PressSec calls for reporters to celebrate instead of just cover in gaggle: “The President's healthy. The Vice President's healthy and I think that's something all reporters should be celebrating and the American people as well."
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) May 14, 2020
McEnany indeed said that. But for some weird reason, Haberman left out the context:
This tweet by a New York Times reporter is misleading.
I was TWICE asked a hypothetical about the health of the President and Vice President.
Full context of my quote below: https://t.co/Y8LPYYrf95 pic.twitter.com/ee1oXQtxbM
— Kayleigh McEnany (@PressSec) May 14, 2020
Wait … you mean McEnany wasn’t just suggesting that reporters “celebrate instead of cover”?
McEnany’s waving off of concerns about the possibility of Trump and Pence getting sick isn’t the best look, and it’s hard to dispute that she could’ve answered the question better, but Haberman’s pulled quote makes it sound like McEnany just called on reporters to stop asking questions and just be grateful for President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence. And that’s not a fair characterization of what McEnany said.
In fairness, @maggieNYT is a garbage reporter. https://t.co/cIaf9b48Ox
— RBe (@RBPundit) May 14, 2020
Full quote from @nytimes ?? pic.twitter.com/hD6eWl8gk9
— Mario (@GymLeaderMario) May 14, 2020
There definitely seems to be a pattern at the New York Times when it comes to leaving context out of otherwise shocking remarks.
For what it’s worth, Haberman pushed back against McEnany’s criticism:
There is no context in which "celebrating" by reporters is part of our job. I'm sorry you don't understand that. https://t.co/zDDkQWWupV
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) May 14, 2020
We can actually agree with that … but it raises a valid question:
If that wasn’t eight years of the media celebrating Barack Obama, we don’t know what it was.
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