Trump Falsely Accuses NYTimes Reporters of Bias Based on Critical Quote Actually Said by TX Democrat

Photo credit: Justin Sullivan, Getty Images.

In a late night Twitter rant, President Donald Trump falsely accused one of his favorite media foils, the New York Times, of dispensing with objectivity and deliberately attacking him in a news story. In fact, the highly critical quote in question came from the chair of the Texas Democratic Party not Times reporters, but Trump dishonestly failed to acknowledge that in either of his online posts about the story.

Trump’s Monday night outrage was aimed at a Times news analysis published on the day before, which assessed his attempt to claim the mantle of a “wartime president” in his response to the coronavirus outbreak. The conclusion of the long story contrasted the leadership styles of Trump with that of his likely 2020 Democratic rival, former Vice President Joe Biden. In the final paragraph, the Times clearly attributed to Texas Democrat Gilberto Hinojosa an opinion on why Biden’s approach is preferable to Trump’s.

But that is not how Trump portrayed it in his deceptive tweets.

This is the way the @nytimes finished a story on me. “You can see the contrast between the steady, assured, informed and strong leadership that VP Biden (Sleepy Joe) has shown, and the bungling, chaotic and dishonest start-stop approach that Mr. (not Pres.) Trump has shown….

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 24, 2020

….us since the beginning of this crisis.” They meant the opposite? Forgot to mention that I closed our Country to China (and Europe) very early, long before it was considered acceptable to do so. Sleepy Joe said I was “xenophobic”, but I saved thousands of lives! Fake News!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 24, 2020

Trump’s first tweet, it should be noted, also took umbrage at another phony, non-existent swipe by the Times, by subtly complaining via the parenthetical “(not Pres.)” that the paper did not show him the proper respect in the quote.” In fact, Trump was recognized as “President Trump” in the story’s first paragraph, and he was then referred to as “Mr. Trump” in subsequent mentions, as per the Times style guide.

1st ref. was Pres. Trump. Mr. Trump is on 2nd ref. per NYT style guide. @anniekarni @maggieNYT @reidepstein did not write (Sleepy Joe) in their copy, which POTUS has within the quotation marks. Quote is from Gilberto Hinojosa, chairman of the Texas Democratic Party, not @nytimes https://t.co/TSRcq1VSW9

— James LaPorta (@JimLaPorta) March 24, 2020

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