FTFNYT

"Fuck The Fucking New York Times"

An expression of anger at the New York Times for their coverage of elections involving Donald Trump. Among the papers deeply flawed habits:

- Summarizing Trump's speeches to make it seem like he said something sane ("Trump spoke about strengthening the borders.") rather printing what he actually said ("Immigrants are poisoning the blood of our nation!").

- Only interviewing Trump voters to get the pulse of "real America" (and somehow always talking to Republican Party officials without identifying them as such).

- Innumerable articles in Hillary Clinton's emails while paying scant attention to Trump's bankruptcies, tax evasion, sexual assaults, ties to the Russian government, racism, stupidity, etc., etc, ...

This is not to say that the NYT were the only ones doing this. Other media from NPR to The Washington Post to CNN displayed similar behavior. Part of the problem is a misplaced sense of neutrality, wherein anything bad written about Republicans must be "balanced" by something bad about Democrats (the opposite is never the case). The primary reason, however, is that Trump is great for ratings.

"Donald Trump may be bad for America, but he's great for CBS." -- Les Moonves, CEO of CBS

Also, media companies are owned by billionaires, so they vote for their own interests: tax cuts, monopolies, lax regulations, and union-busting.

See also:
but her emails
sanewashing
New York Times Pitchbot
Trump begins to hand over Ukraine to Russia and blames Ukraine for starting the war. Actual NYT headline: "Fair or Not, Zelensky is Angering Trump. Is His Style Hurting Ukraine?" No, that would be Russian missiles and bombs falling on Ukrainian cities. FTFNYT!
by Freelance Physicist February 26, 2025
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