Who said the New York Times was perfect?
On the weekend that US President Donald Trump incited a mob to march on the Capitol, resulting in five deaths, vandalised offices at America’s temple of democracy, and calls for Trump’s second impeachment, the Times wrote on January 9 that Twitter had “permanently suspended the president’s account.”
Permanently suspended. That’s an oxymoron. Dictionaries define “suspend” as “temporarily prevent from continuing […].” The key word is “temporary.” So, how do you permanently make something temporary?
The Times was wrong. Yet, because it’s the Times, most international broadcasters, notably Aljazeera, Deutsche Welle, Sky News, NHK World-Japan, trumpeted the error.
But the Washington DC media market’s online publication, Politico, caught the mistake and wrote differently. In an article titled, “Trump went “ballistic” after being tossed off Twitter,” Politico wrote that Twitter “permanently took down his account.”
The Times has since corrected its version online to read, “Twitter Permanently Bans Trump […].”
So, let’s not copy the Times blindly, shall we?
On the other hand, you’ve had it said how opinion is not journalism, right? And how newspapers should put a demarcation between news, whose business is facts only, and opinion?
Well, once in a while you run into opinion that’s expertly weaved into a news story.
“Trump is Said to Have Discussed Pardoning Himself,” a Times headline said on January 7. US law gives sweeping clemency powers to a sitting president. But no president has ever used these powers to pardon himself.
The stunning story by Michael S Schmidt and Maggie Haberman revealed that President Trump has suggested he wants to pardon himself before leaving office on January 20.
To tell this story, the two reporters leaned heavily on history and current data to weave into the story what would otherwise be opinion.
Sample these excepts:
“[Mr Trump’s] polling of aides’ views is typically a sign that he is preparing to follow through on his aims.”
By itself, “a sign that he is preparing” is opinion. But “polling” anchors it on objective data.
Then a lean into history. “A self-pardon would align with Mr Trump’s unprecedented use of the pardon power. The framers of the Constitution gave the president almost total authority to grant clemency for federal crimes, positioning the head of the executive branch as a check on the judicial branch and as someone who could dip into the justice system to show grace and mercy on the downtrodden.”
The first sentence is opinion. The next is historical context justifying the opinion.
So, want to lean into a news story? Better find data and history to back you up.
