The Gray Lady Is A Tramp

/38 Comments/in /by

Michael Calderone has an article laying out how much the Obama Administration has cozied up to the NYT.

But for all its new media airs, the new White House team remains in the thrall of perhaps the most emblematic old media institution of all.

Senior Obama officials during the transition posed for Times Sunday Magazine portraits and then opened the doors again with top-level access for another major magazine piece this month on health care. Midlevel officials cooperate for Times profiles detailing their key behind-the-scenes roles.

Even routine news stories buried deep inside the A-section of the Times often quote high-level sources speaking both on and off the record.

One part of Obama’s Times fixation is strategy. For all the proliferation of news outlets, Obama aides believe the paper still has an outsize ability to shape perceptions among political elites and other journalists.

To a degree, Calderone has a point. The Obama Administration is happy to pitch big stories to the NYT. And even more disturbingly, the NYT is willing to defer to the Administration on difficult stories. 

Mark my words. Within short order, we will learn that the NYT is showing the deference for Obama as they showed in October 2004, when they delayed the warrantless wiretap story. 

But Jeebus! Calderone is nuts if he believes that the Bush Administration wasn’t, similarly, in bed with the Gray Lady!

In addition to the delay of the warrantless wiretap story–which might well have made the difference in getting Bush re-elected, who can forget Judy Miller?!?!?!?  

With Judy Miller, the Bush White House had a full time mouthpiece at the NYT, with weekly laundered leaks of highly classified (and often, false) information attributed to Senior Administration Officials. And that mouthpiece went on to knowingly shield Scooter Libby–and with him, Dick Cheney–from criminal liability for leaking Valerie Plame’s identity. 

And it’s not like the NYT has given up its habit of sleeping with high-powered types, of both parties.  It was less than a month ago, after all, that the NYT allowed dead-enders to have their way with her front page to claim that 1 in 7 of those released from Gitmo were "recidivists"–just in time to scare the Senate out of funding the closure of Gitmo. Does Calderone think that that very obliging story–which set back Obama’s plan to close Gitmo significantly–was part of this burgeoning affair between the Obama Administration and the Gray Lady?  

And the NYT’s egregious spin on the Comey emails, in what appears to have been a successful attempt to pre-empt the OPR report? Has Calderone missed the clear fingerprints of Dick Cheney and Steven Bradbury all over the Gray Lady’s Sunday gown?

Obama is certainly wooing the Gray Lady (though not necessarily any more than he’s wooing–say–NBC). But he’s not the only one–Bush’s dead-enders still can’t give up their Gray Lady habit. And she seems content to be a willing mistress to serve all those both in and out of power. 

38 replies
      • Mary says:

        It’s going to be how everything was legal and legally authorized, that there were stressed people doing less than well thought through things, but hey’all, you save a country (or not, as on 9/11, or not, as when sending us to war in Iraq that has crippled this country and destroyed thousands and thousands of American lives) you break a few eggs. Luckily, they were mostly brown eggs.

        And guess what? We have a new, more malevolent benevolent Master now, so it’s all good. It’s Galariel with the ring, so it’s going to be nifty now. After all, it’s not like the new Master has to keep the guys he’s having send in drone attacks on Pakistani civilians to kill them happy by promising no war crimes trials. Cuz, bombing a baby in its bed is really different from disappearing that baby’s father to torture.

        • Petrocelli says:

          “… you break a few eggs. Luckily, they were mostly brown eggs.” – Mary

          That’s priceless !

  2. Watson says:

    Michael Wolff in Vanity Fair:

    “The Obamas may have the smartest, most finely calibrated press operation in White House history, parceling out scoops (The New York Times), partisan talking points (the Huffington Post), and First Family tidbits (the celebrity mags) to a desperate media. Just don’t ask them to admit it.”

  3. NelsonAlgren says:

    Remember something. Drudgico(aka Politico) is owned by a right-wing family. Glennzilla wrote a long piece about the money behind Drudgico(which I can’t seem to find right now). Here is another Glennzilla special: “Politico is to journalism as Jay Bybee is to the legal profession”.

  4. BayStateLibrul says:

    You sure it’s not fingerprints but stain?
    Love our “no mulligans for the Times” apt description…

  6. DeadLast says:

    While the Grey Lady is going down (on the Obama Administration), at least someone is digging through endless legal documents and good-to-shoddy news articles in order to do some actual reporting. Thanks EW.

    • freepatriot says:

      While the Grey Lady is going down …

      to what end ???

      this is just personal brain lint, but where is the payoff in the downward spiral ???

      I’m supposed to follow the money, and I’m off the map here

      the media and the repuglitarded party are on autopilot to suicide

      where is the profit in that ???

      we’re dealing with multiple players with multiple goals, but at some point, those players and those goals should intersect, and that’s where I’d find the money

      there ain’t no intersection here, or it’s all one big bankrupt intersection

      is everybody in their boat really that blind ???

      I can understand what motivates Obama

      and what motivates lushbo and his ilk

      what do the rest of em get out of this conflagration ???

      • behindthefall says:

        All I’ve been able to conclude is that it’s all about readership. “Favor” one side or the other, she thinks, and the “unfavored” side won’t buy the product. The h**l with whether “the product” continues to be worth buying.

      • prostratedragon says:

        Bill Keller is still there, as you note yourself earlier.

        It’s not his personal agenda, but he’s a good marker. Wish I could find that old Billmon post (ca. 2005) about NYT in which Keller rhapsodizes about the new reporters he planned to bring in courtesy of his relationship with one of the standard right wing training camps. Here’s something in its stead, for those who might have forgotten.

  7. freepatriot says:

    Calderone is nuts if he believes that the Bush Administration wasn’t, similarly, in bed with the Gray Lady!

    you are nutz if you think Obama and bush are similar

    Obama and the bushco were entirely different in their use of the grey wench

    Obama’s MO:

    Senior Obama officials during the transition posed for Times Sunday Magazine portraits and then opened the doors again with top-level access for another major magazine piece this month on health care. Midlevel officials cooperate for Times profiles detailing their key behind-the-scenes roles.

    Even routine news stories buried deep inside the A-section of the Times often quote high-level sources speaking both on and off the record.

    Magazine portraits, mid level officials cooperating on profiles, quoting high level sources ???

    that ain’t the dick n judy kabuki I remember

    or the dick and bumiller kabuki we just reviewed last month

    jes sayin, is all …

    (duckin & runnin)

  9. skdadl says:

    This question is probably doomed to sound gossipy, but I’ll ask it anyway because I honestly do not understand:

    Judy Miller is married to Jason Epstein, the legendary (and I mean that word, legendary in Britain too) editor of Random House, founder and editor emeritus of the New York Review of Books, and still, at eighty-one, coming up with immensely creative projects (like print-on-demand) for an industry in transition. JE is a truly distinguished guy, and people here will all know the general political tilt of the NYRB.

    So my question is … obvious.

    • fatster says:

      Oh, heck, let’s gossip!

      “she seems content to be a willing mistress to serve all those both in and out of power.”

      And I’ll bet she wears a peignoir, too.

  10. Mauimom says:

    she seems content to be a willing mistress to serve all those both in and out of power.

    And we know what that’s called . . . –> [whore]

  11. Watson says:

    “she seems content to be a willing mistress to serve all those both in and out of power.”

    How about:
    She seems content to be a willing mistress to serve all the powerful, both in and out of office.

  12. plunger says:

    Perhaps the Wednesday or Thursday surprise you are foretelling is the same one that is of such concern – the big subject changer – the attack on America BY Dick Cheney.

  13. Mary says:

    At least WaPo still has its close personal relationship with the “serious” voices of MSM

    Blue has the thread up on Beck and his live chat at WaPo

    http://firedoglake.com/2009/06…../#comments

    Efforts to hire plagiarist kids and using Beck to drive traffic — that explains a lot about how NYT, after its Judy Millar and GITMO recidivist “fact unchecked” debacles is still holding on to that #1 slot

  15. Nell says:

    OT: Greg Sargent’s coverage of the House Dems’ proposal to reform CIA briefings. His coverage and the comments appear to be proceeding as if the Gang of Eight briefings were required by law rather than being an abused exception that’s eaten the rule of full committee briefings.

    I have no time to look up Mary’s excellent citations of what the current law requires, or the good threads on Cheney’s planned abuse of briefings, only alluded to them in comments.

    • fatster says:

      Please tell me, which “EPU” did you mean? (I’m old and in the way.)
      EPU Energy Processing Unit
      EPU Economic Planning Unit (Malaysia)
      EPU E Pluribus Unum
      EPU European Payments Union (organization formed after WWII)
      EPU Emergency Power Unit (F-16 Aircraft)
      EPU Earnings Per Unit
      EPU Extended Power Uprate (nuclear power)
      EPU Early Pregnancy Unit (hospitals)
      EPU Environmental Protection Unit
      EPU European Political Union
      EPU European University Centre for Peace Studies
      EPU Electrical Power Unit
      EPU Elliptically Polarized Undulator
      EPU Estimated Position Uncertainty
      EPU Evil Parallel Universe (firedoglake)
      EPU External Power Unit
      EPU European Pharmaceutical Union
      EPU Extended Processing Unit
      EPU Emergency Psychiatric Unit
      EPU Editorial and Publications Unit (Philippines)
      EPU Electronic Processor Unit
      EPU Excess Property Unit
      EPU Electronic Program Update
      EPU Equivalent Power Unit
      EPU Exeter Political Union (Phillips Exeter Academ, Exeter, NH)
      (fr thefreedictionary.com)

      Thnx.

      • bmaz says:

        http://www.urbandictionary.com…..PU’d

        A blogging term meaning to write, in response to a blog post, a comment that ends up virtually unread at the end of the comment thread as another post goes up and all commenters proceed to leave responses in the new thread. Term derived from a habitually late commenter who posts as “Evil Parallel Universe” at the political blog firedoglake.com.

        • fatster says:

          Oh, thank you! (And I’m ensuring you won’t be the last on this one.)

          I’m learnin’, I’m a-learnin’.

        • phred says:

          Ya know bmaz, it’s worth taking a peek in EPU territory to learn that EPU is in the urban dictionary. It suddenly seems so official now ; )

  18. freepatriot says:

    some of us bottom feeders live off of the crumbs we find in EPU land

    that an the pizza crusts behind the couch

    (mmm, couch pizza)

  19. ART45 says:

    I’m an outsider.

    The NY Times has sucked mostly during my life.

    Yet the Left has grabbed hold of the Times.

    Go back into the 1960s. See how the Times supported the war and let down MLK.

  20. libbyliberal says:

    I was uncomfortable watching Brian Williams with his White House tour. West-Wing-like reality tv … a little TOO cozy with the camera? Soft news or just free p.r. FWIW, I can’t find Rahm’s crochetiness adorable. Obsequious 4th estate. Are they reaching out to show “WH accessible and normal” to the paranoid right wingers? Or let the Dems simply enjoy the house they have been excluded from for 8 years.

  21. alank says:

    The Obama administration is not averse to manipulating the press to their advantage, the stock and trade of politicians and civil servants, I’ll be bound.

    In some research on the administrations policy announcements and omissions regarding surface mining permitting and enforcement I came upon this little tidbit from the WV Gazette Coal Tattoo Blog:

    For any Coal Tattoo readers who somehow missed the news, here’s the basic story from The Associated Press and a similar account from The Washington Post. Obama officials gave AP and the Post the scoop on the story, by handing them interviews with several top officials who spoke on background and with White House Council on Environmental Quality Chairwoman Nancy Sutley, who spoke for the record and was quoted by name in both stories.

    From a PR standpoint, I guess it was nicely played by Obama’s folks. They got two national stories that, at least in their initial versions, failed to point out that one of Obama’s key proposals — doing away with the Corps of Engineers streamlined permit process for valley fills — was something a federal judge had already ordered the government to do (and, bizarrely, that the Obama administration’s Department of Justice had taken action to fight in an appeals court). And it doesn’t seem like a coincidence that the Post not only got the jump on the story, but handed Obama a very friendly editorial that — as National Review Online pointed out — basically absolved Obama for teasing coalfield folks into thinking he was going to ban mountaintop removal. (Of course, recall that the Washington Post editorial writers came up with the idea that opponents to the TrAIL and PATH power lines — both truly aimed at helping sending more coal-fired electricity east to their growing suburbs and big cities — were blocking “green energy.”)

  22. Bustednuckles says:

    Lol, here is an example of a EPU,
    Twenty bucks, same as in town.
    Sleeping with the Gray Lady can lead to serious consequences including heart burn, anal leakage and a willingness to cross the aisle.
    See your doctor if the symptoms persist.

  23. 4jkb4ia says:

    Can’t disagree with anything in this post.

    Perhaps this is far enough in EPUville, but I was thinking of making fun of plunger by saying that everything in Iran would be the perfect cover to release that report perhaps today. plunger is beyond this kind of sarcasm.

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