Doug J from Balloon Juice has a twitter account called NY Times Pitchbot where he mimics the ridiculous bothsides journalism practiced everywhere, but especially at the Times.
Today's analysis from Peter Baker on Trump's indictment renders the satire moot, by exceeding it.
The argument as such is that Trump's indictment represents some sort of crossroads for American democracy, because we've never indicted a former president before. We've never had a president like Trump before, you mewling moron. There have been scandals that plagued presidents, yet very few touched them directly, with the exception of Nixon. Grant and Harding and any number of Gilded Age politicians had corruption around them, but they themselves were honest. Even previously corrupt figures like Chester Arthur were elevated by the responsibility of the office.
Trump shat on every principle America purports to stand for.
Baker quotes legal experts and historians who say that the only surprise is that it took this long in the country's history to indict a former president. Then - giving equal weight - he quotes various GOP figures and apologists as if their criticisms were genuine. He does engage in some "balancing", for instance, when he pairs GOP quotes about how only "Banana Republics" indict former politicians with examples of the multitude of established democracies - France, South Korea, Italy and so on - who have in fact indicted former heads of government. Hell, Benyamin Netanyahu is currently facing charges and Boris Johnson could soon.
Unless the GOP apologists' quotes comes with the explicit words "However, this is false" then it remains a classic form of the Times bullshit objectivity that in fact enables our descent into a post-truth world.
A grand jury found that there was enough evidence to indict Trump. Trump is a private citizen. There will likely be more indictments surrounding his election fuckery. Trump is a uniquely corrupt figure in the history of the Republic. As the only president with no previous experience in the military or public service, he brought his self-centered, self-dealing ways to DC and proceeded to enrich himself while degrading our public institutions. We are a worse country for his having been president.
That's the story. That's it. It was Trump that shattered the precedents, not Alvin Bragg, and if you can't see that, you should not have a prime position on the front page of the NY Times.
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