The Left’s War Against The New York Times

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.

But overall, the complaints against the Times raise important questions. What is the Times’ responsibility to the public—liberals and conservatives alike—at a time when the president attacks the mainstream press as “fake news”? Was the paper complicit in President Trump’s election victory, and does it continue to enable him and his supporters today? Or are the Times’ left-wing critics being unreasonable, expecting it to be the kind of partisan publication that it has never claimed to be?