Thank you Jessica. I sent an email to the NYT and WaPo last Sunday and Monday after their negative reporting on Biden's blow-out win in S.C. I forwarded Robert Hubble's Substack to both Editorial boards, with an inquizitive note as to why their headlines are so skewed against Biden. I recieved the automatic response fron NYT but none from WaPo to whom I included the Executive Editor, Sally Buzbee, National Editor Phillip Rucker and and six other mannaging and assistant editors.
No response yet. I believe my letter was polite, but serious. I have not had time today to read your original post. If I had not showed you the one I sent on the 5th, I'll put it below:
Why does it appear so many times that your headline editor is a Russian Bot?
The forwarded Substack by the eminent Robert Hubble should give you pause, and hopefully you might reflect upon what your commitment to our Constitution and the democracy we love means to yourselves.
Joyce: I was able to access the NYT's "We Want to Hear from You" link this morning. I was in the process of filling out the narrative, had to leave before completed, went back to fine-tune and now I am getting popups that make it clear it's now for subscribers only. I had cancelled my NYT subscription 2 months ago and wanted to remind them why. Grrrr.
Wonderful letter to the Times, Jessica! Thank you so much for sharing it. I intend to write today and include the fact that I have a gift subscription now but do not intend to subscribe myself. I appreciate the corrected email addresses and intend to include them in a comment on Hubbell this morning. Thank you so much for continuing to inspire me and to help keep me sane
I will email them again. I might use part of that amazing letter in one of the comments on your original post today. Thanks for everything you do Jessica.
Here’s my letter in case it might be helpful to anyone (mostly borrowed from Jessica; one graph from the other one in the comments on first CWCW post today):
I’m writing as a *former* subscriber (reporting like this is why I finally canceled my subscription) to say that your reporting on the Hur report yesterday bordered on journalistic malpractice. Your coverage largely ignored the fact that Biden was fully exonerated and instead harped (in a headline you’ve thankfully since changed), on the “political nightmare” of the partisan attacks on his memory. You framed your coverage as ‘analysis.' The reality, as Popular Information’s Judd Legum swiftly pointed out, is that "stories like this are the story.”
What can the New York Times be thinking? Trump shows clear signs of cognitive impairment. You regularly give him a pass. President Biden is considered by all who’ve interacted with him—including his political enemies—to be sharp and capable.
The Hur report was written by a former Trump associate; it was a political hit piece and the Times bought into it with zero journalistic scrutiny. I have to ask again, do your editors WANT a Trump presidency? Because that’s what your misleading, biased, and hysterically one-sided coverage will bring us. History will not be kind to the Times for its relentless attacks on the one man capable of saving us from dictatorship.
I’m old enough to remember, back in the day, when the New York Times truly was “all the news that’s fit to print.“ All it is now is another arm of the right wing. There truly is no liberal media left and it’s beyond me, well, it isn’t they know exactly what they’re doing, why the MAGAats scream about the liberal media.
Your role and manner now reminds me of a fight between three brothers, one of whom is obviously a dissociative psychopath with a knife, another is an Rhodes scholar and a pacifist, and the third is confined to a wheelchair. The first is attacking the third while the second one tries to reason with him. The Gray Lady is like their mother fretting about all her children and wringing her hands pleading with them to be good. We all know the boy with the knife needs to be institutionalized or imprisoned and Mom can either help that happen, or continue to be an unwilling enabler.
I’ve lived in dictatorships; the Philippines in the late 1970s when Marcos was still in power, is one example. This is how fascism takes root. NYT owners know this. My letter is speaking to them, not the journalists who must do their bidding if they want to keep their jobs.
Hey Paula, it's been a while since we sent those letters about the Hur report. I've heard nothing back, but par for the course. The pinhead "expert" (his words) Aaron Blake did a brainless report on the Michigan primary of last ??Tuesday, maybe the weekend and I sent him a serious response to that one too. I reamed him a good one in response to his mindless "Campaign Moment" column solicitation to follow. He deserves to be whacked over and over for his Putin reinforcing drivel.
While reading your assessment of the Michigan primary this morning, it became quite clear that you, and many other notable journalists, are stuck in horse race mode. You all seem, with few exceptions, to ignore the stakes of running such a race as the mud is getting ever deeper and more dangerous. Do you understand this analogy?
With all the "Biden should drop out for..." you might benefit from reading a well thought out alternative to that common thread, as provided below, by the esteemed Rick Wilson.
I copied and pasted Rick's Feb. 28th piece that followed.
Thanks for screaming into the abyss with me. :/. I finally did receive a response. It was ridiculously long, defensive, and from an editorial assistant. Well, I didn’t write to an editorial assistant. It’s so exhausting. I get my news only from the Substacks I follow. And some days, even that’s too much.
I have way more Substacks than I can afford or time to read. Jessica is great to help stay focussed. She lives nearby in SoCal and I asked for her recommendation for Dem Central Committee members on the Mar. 5th ballot (she is a member in a nearby district) and she got right back to me with the best ones to vote for, as well as for my 97 year old Mom in law accross town. Jess is an amazing, wonderful person. I get the clearest picture of the news from Heather Cox Richardson. She puts it all in context with the original documentaion that you can open and read in it's entirety. Stay hopeful out there, Paula. Robert Hubble, Joyce Vance and Simon Roenberg help with that.
Yes, understood. i is next to o. in many of my typos. Of cout (r next to t)se Jay Kuo, as well as Thom Hartman, Tim Snyder, Jareem Abdul Jabbar, Rick Wilson and so many more that my mind fogs over. Jessica is that for sure.
Thank you so much for providing these addresses. I wrote the following to all three (feel free, anyone, to borrow):
Subject: Passing on the fumbles
My football metaphor may be lame but so is your coverage of candidate Trump. I'm specifically concerned about how frequently Trump's gaffes and threatening behaviors are under- reported by your paper vs. the little coverage Biden's leadership on a host of issues and restraint on the political stage get picked up. Sure, I'm biased - and I am also deeply frightened of Trump and "fair" reporting that glosses over the risk of another Trump presidency. January 6th was a warm up act.
Quit pulling your punches. Only connect the dots - Trump is our worst nightmare, Republicans are falling into line, the wolves are circling our democracy. Putin is sleeping too easily these days.
Put their records back to back - 4 years of Trump vs 3+ years of Biden. Report that. Please. Be responsible. We need you.
Thank you, as always, for your strong and beautifully written messages for us to use when we feel upset and angry about an issue but don't know how to say it or who to write to. Your work is soooo important! I used some of your wording and added my own touches, and then cancelled my NYT subscription this morning.
Thanks for your encouragement on all fronts, but especially in contacting the NYT. I just sent them this: I am distressed beyond measure by your coverage of Joe Biden's speech the other night. He made a gaffe. Trump's nonstop gibberish gets virtually no coverage. Listen: "Within the 24-hour window of the NYTimes raking Biden over the coals, the following Republicans misspoke but the Times reacted with indifference: An hour after Biden says the President of Egypt is the President of Mexico Trump says the Prime Minister of Hungary, [Viktor Orban] is the President of Turkey”—a repeated mistake by Trump on the campaign trail.
Speaker Mike Johnson confused the countries of Iran and Israel in an interview on Fox News, saying that the US has already “funded Iran” in the existing US budget—a mistake viewed as slanderous by the tens of millions of citizens in both countries.
Fox News infotainer posing as a journalist Jesse Watters introduced South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem as the “South Carolina Governor.”" ~Robert Hubbell.
Are you going to continue to vilify Biden and give Trump a continual pass? Are you going to let the manufactured stories that undermine a man of integrity serve the ends of a narcissistic megalomaniac who has made it clear that America comes last in his list of concerns, after himself and Putin? Are you going to misinform and influence the voting public like the media did in 2016 and give the would-be dictator tons of free press at the expense of OUR democracy and quality of life? Are you going to sell the poor, the LGBTQ, and every other oppressed person into savagery with your mock coverage of so-called news, instead of speak the truth of the REAL news?
Trump is a dangerous, deranged, charlatan; the climate catastrophe is growing exponentially; big oil owns the government; good people, and lots of them, will die at the hands of the Trump regime if there is another one. So will democracy, and toppling it in the USA will eventually demolish it globally. I don't know how you editors can sleep at night. If it weren't for a few features I value, I'd cancel my subscription right away. You can be sure I'm through with your so-called 'news coverage' for the time being. With all due respect, which at the moment is not much.
No emails you send are ever a bother! thanks for being so prompt to publish corrections, as I hadn't yet sent mine out for the NYT.
Jess, you have the genius and grit we all need right now. Don't ever feel your posts are annoying!
Thank you Jessica. I sent an email to the NYT and WaPo last Sunday and Monday after their negative reporting on Biden's blow-out win in S.C. I forwarded Robert Hubble's Substack to both Editorial boards, with an inquizitive note as to why their headlines are so skewed against Biden. I recieved the automatic response fron NYT but none from WaPo to whom I included the Executive Editor, Sally Buzbee, National Editor Phillip Rucker and and six other mannaging and assistant editors.
No response yet. I believe my letter was polite, but serious. I have not had time today to read your original post. If I had not showed you the one I sent on the 5th, I'll put it below:
to sally.buzbee@washpost.com, philip.rucker, liz.seymour@washpost.com, scott.vance, monica.norton, matea.gold, justin.bank@washpost.com, amy.fiscus@washpost.com
Dear Sirs and Madams,
Why does it appear so many times that your headline editor is a Russian Bot?
The forwarded Substack by the eminent Robert Hubble should give you pause, and hopefully you might reflect upon what your commitment to our Constitution and the democracy we love means to yourselves.
Sincerely,
Ransom W. Rideout Jr.
Altadena,CA
A paid subscriber
Thanks for these email addresses. I will save them. And great letter!
And thank you. I'm getting warmed up!
Can I say that “the press is the enemy of the people” or is that reserved for dictators?
I di re sent them as well. Thank you
Joyce: I was able to access the NYT's "We Want to Hear from You" link this morning. I was in the process of filling out the narrative, had to leave before completed, went back to fine-tune and now I am getting popups that make it clear it's now for subscribers only. I had cancelled my NYT subscription 2 months ago and wanted to remind them why. Grrrr.
Frustrating! You can send to the emails, though...
Wonderful letter to the Times, Jessica! Thank you so much for sharing it. I intend to write today and include the fact that I have a gift subscription now but do not intend to subscribe myself. I appreciate the corrected email addresses and intend to include them in a comment on Hubbell this morning. Thank you so much for continuing to inspire me and to help keep me sane
Thank you for all YOU, do, Shelley!
I will email them again. I might use part of that amazing letter in one of the comments on your original post today. Thanks for everything you do Jessica.
That was a GREAT letter!
Here’s my letter in case it might be helpful to anyone (mostly borrowed from Jessica; one graph from the other one in the comments on first CWCW post today):
I’m writing as a *former* subscriber (reporting like this is why I finally canceled my subscription) to say that your reporting on the Hur report yesterday bordered on journalistic malpractice. Your coverage largely ignored the fact that Biden was fully exonerated and instead harped (in a headline you’ve thankfully since changed), on the “political nightmare” of the partisan attacks on his memory. You framed your coverage as ‘analysis.' The reality, as Popular Information’s Judd Legum swiftly pointed out, is that "stories like this are the story.”
What can the New York Times be thinking? Trump shows clear signs of cognitive impairment. You regularly give him a pass. President Biden is considered by all who’ve interacted with him—including his political enemies—to be sharp and capable.
The Hur report was written by a former Trump associate; it was a political hit piece and the Times bought into it with zero journalistic scrutiny. I have to ask again, do your editors WANT a Trump presidency? Because that’s what your misleading, biased, and hysterically one-sided coverage will bring us. History will not be kind to the Times for its relentless attacks on the one man capable of saving us from dictatorship.
I’m old enough to remember, back in the day, when the New York Times truly was “all the news that’s fit to print.“ All it is now is another arm of the right wing. There truly is no liberal media left and it’s beyond me, well, it isn’t they know exactly what they’re doing, why the MAGAats scream about the liberal media.
Your role and manner now reminds me of a fight between three brothers, one of whom is obviously a dissociative psychopath with a knife, another is an Rhodes scholar and a pacifist, and the third is confined to a wheelchair. The first is attacking the third while the second one tries to reason with him. The Gray Lady is like their mother fretting about all her children and wringing her hands pleading with them to be good. We all know the boy with the knife needs to be institutionalized or imprisoned and Mom can either help that happen, or continue to be an unwilling enabler.
I’ve lived in dictatorships; the Philippines in the late 1970s when Marcos was still in power, is one example. This is how fascism takes root. NYT owners know this. My letter is speaking to them, not the journalists who must do their bidding if they want to keep their jobs.
Hey Paula, it's been a while since we sent those letters about the Hur report. I've heard nothing back, but par for the course. The pinhead "expert" (his words) Aaron Blake did a brainless report on the Michigan primary of last ??Tuesday, maybe the weekend and I sent him a serious response to that one too. I reamed him a good one in response to his mindless "Campaign Moment" column solicitation to follow. He deserves to be whacked over and over for his Putin reinforcing drivel.
I sent him this :
Your Michigan horse race.
Ransom Rideout <rwrideout@gmail.com>
Feb 28, 2024, 4:04 PM (2 days ago)
to aaron.blake
Dear Mr. Blake,
While reading your assessment of the Michigan primary this morning, it became quite clear that you, and many other notable journalists, are stuck in horse race mode. You all seem, with few exceptions, to ignore the stakes of running such a race as the mud is getting ever deeper and more dangerous. Do you understand this analogy?
With all the "Biden should drop out for..." you might benefit from reading a well thought out alternative to that common thread, as provided below, by the esteemed Rick Wilson.
I copied and pasted Rick's Feb. 28th piece that followed.
Keep kickin' it Paula.
Thanks for screaming into the abyss with me. :/. I finally did receive a response. It was ridiculously long, defensive, and from an editorial assistant. Well, I didn’t write to an editorial assistant. It’s so exhausting. I get my news only from the Substacks I follow. And some days, even that’s too much.
I have way more Substacks than I can afford or time to read. Jessica is great to help stay focussed. She lives nearby in SoCal and I asked for her recommendation for Dem Central Committee members on the Mar. 5th ballot (she is a member in a nearby district) and she got right back to me with the best ones to vote for, as well as for my 97 year old Mom in law accross town. Jess is an amazing, wonderful person. I get the clearest picture of the news from Heather Cox Richardson. She puts it all in context with the original documentaion that you can open and read in it's entirety. Stay hopeful out there, Paula. Robert Hubble, Joyce Vance and Simon Roenberg help with that.
Yes, those four help me hang into the little sanity I have left. Also Jay Kuo. I think Jessica is a national treasure.
*onto
Yes, understood. i is next to o. in many of my typos. Of cout (r next to t)se Jay Kuo, as well as Thom Hartman, Tim Snyder, Jareem Abdul Jabbar, Rick Wilson and so many more that my mind fogs over. Jessica is that for sure.
Thank you Message sent from Voki and me!! - Your notes ARE NOT A BOTHER - They are the big plus every day!!!
Yay! Thanks, Alan!
I think I did one to editorial board before this and even got a response. Defensive, but a response.
Wow, really? That's great!
Thank you so much for providing these addresses. I wrote the following to all three (feel free, anyone, to borrow):
Subject: Passing on the fumbles
My football metaphor may be lame but so is your coverage of candidate Trump. I'm specifically concerned about how frequently Trump's gaffes and threatening behaviors are under- reported by your paper vs. the little coverage Biden's leadership on a host of issues and restraint on the political stage get picked up. Sure, I'm biased - and I am also deeply frightened of Trump and "fair" reporting that glosses over the risk of another Trump presidency. January 6th was a warm up act.
Quit pulling your punches. Only connect the dots - Trump is our worst nightmare, Republicans are falling into line, the wolves are circling our democracy. Putin is sleeping too easily these days.
Put their records back to back - 4 years of Trump vs 3+ years of Biden. Report that. Please. Be responsible. We need you.
Sincerely,
Michael Waddell
Subscriber
Marshfield, MA
This is so good! Thanks for sharing, Michael!
Thank you, as always, for your strong and beautifully written messages for us to use when we feel upset and angry about an issue but don't know how to say it or who to write to. Your work is soooo important! I used some of your wording and added my own touches, and then cancelled my NYT subscription this morning.
Thank you!
Thanks for your encouragement on all fronts, but especially in contacting the NYT. I just sent them this: I am distressed beyond measure by your coverage of Joe Biden's speech the other night. He made a gaffe. Trump's nonstop gibberish gets virtually no coverage. Listen: "Within the 24-hour window of the NYTimes raking Biden over the coals, the following Republicans misspoke but the Times reacted with indifference: An hour after Biden says the President of Egypt is the President of Mexico Trump says the Prime Minister of Hungary, [Viktor Orban] is the President of Turkey”—a repeated mistake by Trump on the campaign trail.
Speaker Mike Johnson confused the countries of Iran and Israel in an interview on Fox News, saying that the US has already “funded Iran” in the existing US budget—a mistake viewed as slanderous by the tens of millions of citizens in both countries.
Fox News infotainer posing as a journalist Jesse Watters introduced South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem as the “South Carolina Governor.”" ~Robert Hubbell.
Are you going to continue to vilify Biden and give Trump a continual pass? Are you going to let the manufactured stories that undermine a man of integrity serve the ends of a narcissistic megalomaniac who has made it clear that America comes last in his list of concerns, after himself and Putin? Are you going to misinform and influence the voting public like the media did in 2016 and give the would-be dictator tons of free press at the expense of OUR democracy and quality of life? Are you going to sell the poor, the LGBTQ, and every other oppressed person into savagery with your mock coverage of so-called news, instead of speak the truth of the REAL news?
Trump is a dangerous, deranged, charlatan; the climate catastrophe is growing exponentially; big oil owns the government; good people, and lots of them, will die at the hands of the Trump regime if there is another one. So will democracy, and toppling it in the USA will eventually demolish it globally. I don't know how you editors can sleep at night. If it weren't for a few features I value, I'd cancel my subscription right away. You can be sure I'm through with your so-called 'news coverage' for the time being. With all due respect, which at the moment is not much.
Rita this is 🔥🔥