February 2018

The New York Times has flourished under President Donald Trump, witnessing a surge in digital subscriptions and regularly breaking major news about the administration and the Russia inquiry (not to mention #MeToo). Yet liberal criticism of the Times has also intensified, especially on social media. Not a day passes, it seems, without a prominent Twitter user complaining that the Times is biased against the left, too friendly to President Trump and his supporters, or engaging in false equivalences between Democrats and Republicans.

[Commentary] There are different ways — as different as black and white — in seeing the world depending on whether you get your political news and analysis from Fox News and Breitbart News or CNN and The New York Times. One narrative today is crafted by platforms that have become political weapons for the Trump administration, while the other is largely the function of news organizations operating under traditional journalistic standards, like The Baltimore Sun, The Washington Post, The New York Times or CNN. One is propaganda, the other journalism.