After seeing the number of negative President Trump headlines in Sunday’s Washington Post, a reader asked if the Sunday New York Times was any different. The Trump headlines in the Sunday Times:
A Scheme Aided the Trumps. Tenants Are Paying.
Pick for Chief of Staff Called Trump a ‘Terrible Human Being’ in 2016
Justice Caught Up With Trumpworld
The “Scheme” headline went with a page one investigative piece on how three generations of the Trump family abused the law to inflate rents on rent-regulated apartments in New York City.
The A-section chief of staff story was about Mark Mulvaney, who once “described Mr. Trump in 2016 as a ‘terrible human being’ who said ‘disgusting and indefensible’ things about women on the infamous ‘Access Hollywood’ recording.”
The “Trumpworld” piece was a Michelle Goldberg op-ed column. The lede: “Ever since the 2016 election, it’s been common for some people to refer to whatever year we’re in as a synonym for dystopian weirdness.”
A big difference between the Sunday Post and Sunday Times.
The Post, being a Washington paper, is predictably more political. But the big difference also shows that the Times is much more of a newspaper in the traditional sense, while the Post increasingly reads like a clickbait digital site that also has to publish a newspaper, one that digital pioneer and richest-man-in-the-world Jeff Bezos probably would be happy to see disappear.
We buy newsprint and print all these sections and stuff them together and put them in plastic bags and have people in trucks deliver them all over the Washington area and people then retrieve the papers off their front lawns, look at them, and throw them in the trash? What century are we living in?
Well, here’s my take on the Post headlines, viz. clickbait or not:
Few Americans believe Trump’s false claims [not]
Never Trumpers in exile [CB]
In need of support, Trump is more isolated than ever [CB]
‘Stop’: GOP avoids discussing Trump’s legal woes [on the fence–useful to see whether GOP position has changed]
Flights of fantasy and a caravan of claims, 2018’s biggest Pinocchio’s, explained [not]
The Trump falsehoods people are most and least likely to believe [CB]
Interior’s Zinke is latest to leave Trump’s Cabinet under investigative cloud [not–did the Times ignore this??]
Inquiries threaten to control Trump’s 3rd year in office [CB]
Obama warned Trump against hiring Flynn [on the fence]
Is there anything Trump touches that isn’t corrupt? [CB]
Anti-Trump conservatives want to reverse the GOP’s destruction. But they helped light the fuse. [not–useful historical perspective, albeit not new]
In the spirit of regifting, some tips to help you avoid making a gaffe like Trump’s [CB]
Editorial page cartoon: Policeman to Trump: “I think you may be headed to jail.” Trump: “I demand to see my lawyer.” [not–editorial cartoons are sui generis]
To go with a review of four-anti-Trump books, a picture shows President Trump looking asleep while sitting at his desk in the White House oval office. The caption: President Trump is the “embodiment of a culture that’s more Real Housewives and less Shining City on a Hill,” writes GOP Strategist Rick Wilson. [not–it’s just art with a review]
A Holiday parody in the weekly Style Invitational contest: [not–standing feature]
Six out of 14. Make of that what you will and come up with your own tally> Given, as you said, that the Post inevitably wallows in political gossip and tidbits (just as the Times trades in insider stories on arts and culture), I don’t see concluding that it’s gone over to the traffic-driven dark side.
I also don’t see the connection with the argument about the relevance of print, but maybe I just need more coffee.