The New York Times is not heeding the admonition to “keep its mouth shut” from Steven Bannon, President Trump’s strategic Svengali, judging by a pointed tweet sent Trump Saturday.
A brief volley of tweets falls short of open warfare but is far from the abject, humiliation drenched passivity that Bannon feels apt from The Times and other media.
It was all prompted by Trump’s curious and seeming obsession with his preeminent hometown newspaper by Trump. He both bashes it and craves its imprimatur, it would appear.
First came a trio of Trump tweets belittling the paper:
The failing @nytimes has been wrong about me from the very beginning. Said I would lose the primaries, then the general election. FAKE NEWS!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 28, 2017
Thr coverage about me in the @nytimes and the @washingtonpost gas been so false and angry that the times actually apologized to its…..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 28, 2017
…dwindling subscribers and readers.They got me wrong right from the beginning and still have not changed course, and never will. DISHONEST
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 28, 2017
Then came the paper’s brief response:
.@realDonaldTrump Fact check: @nytimes subscribers & audience at all-time highs. Supporting independent journalism matters. pic.twitter.com/yzh90y6ih0
— NYTCo Communications (@NYTimesComm) January 28, 2017
Dean Baquet, the paper’s executive editor, explained Saturday, “We have responded to the tweets before. We just want to make clear that our readership and subscriptions are at an all-time high and to say otherwise is just wrong. Independent journalism matters right now. Why not shout it from the rooftops?”
J. Freedom du Lac, an editor at The Washington Post, also responded to Trump’s tweets Saturday.
Fact check: WaPo’s paid subscriber base and readership are doing the opposite of dwindling. pic.twitter.com/JCrdnfyFqf
— J. Freedom du Lac (@jfdulac) January 28, 2017
Don’t bet against Trump responding as his hold on facts is once again questioned. Even as president, he’s revealed a thin skin when it comes to polling, TV ratings and, most famously, crowd estimates (on Inauguration Day).
And, now, The Times insists he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. At least on this easily verified matter, it won’t keep its mouth shut.
Chief Media Writer
New York City native, graduate of Collegiate School, Amherst College and Roosevelt University. Married to Cornelia Grumman, dad of Blair and Eliot. National columnist, U.S. News & World Report. Former managing editor and Washington Bureau Chief, Chicago Tribune. Former Washington Bureau Chief, New York Daily News. Current or former contributor to The Atlantic, Huffington Post, Vanity Fair, Daily Beast, CNN, MSNBC and Fox News.
