NY Times pretends Republicans and Democrats are attacking the press this campaign season

Written by Eric Boehlert

Published

The good news is that The New York Times over the weekend took notice of the Tea Party-flavored war on the press that Republican candidates have declared this campaign season. It's a nasty declaration that we've been writing about for some time.

The bad news is that The New York Times over the weekend suggested Democrats were also battling the press. That's just not true and it represents an annoying attempt by the Times to adopt a pointless they're-both-doing it narrative.

The Times headline (print edition):

Politicians Seems to Be Fighting Mad This Election year, at the News Media

The Times, of course, detailed the attempt by Republican Joe Miller's campaign to “arrest” a local Alaska reporter, as well as Republican Carl Paladino's thereat to “take out” a newspaper reporter. The Times also noted the growing strategy among Tea Party-backed candidates to simply not answer questions from reporters.

But what was the Times' proof of Democratic candidates teeing off at the press? Here:

Even before press-politician relations seemed to hit a nadir two weeks ago when security guards for Joe Miller, a Republican Senate candidate from Alaska, handcuffed a reporter, Charles B. Rangel, the famously cantankerous Democrat from Harlem, castigated an MSNBC reporter as television cameras rolled.

“It's a dumb question, and I'm not going to respond,” Mr. Rangel said in July, dismissing a question about his ethics violations case before adding a gleeful “Next!”

A) Rangel's outburst occurred in July wasn't really part of the “election” season. And B) How does a politician dismissing a single question from a reporter compare to having one handcuffed and “arrested,” or darkly threatening another?

Answer: It doesn't.

There simply is no comparison between how Democrats this campaign season are treating the press and how lots and lots of Tea Party candidates are. The Times attempt to conflate the two is just the latest example of how newsrooms don't understand the destructive forces that are being rolled out, or how they simply don't want to acknowledge the Republican attacks on the press.