N.Y. Times facing blowback for calling on Biden to drop out 'and not the convicted felon'
The New York Times editorial board urging President Joe Biden to drop out of the 2024 race has prompted a visceral reaction from some of the president's most outspoken supporters on social media.
Following the leading national newspaper of record's stinging editorial, NJ.com's Kevin Manahan assembled tweets from Biden supporters blasting the Times for grading the president on a steep curve while largely giving former President Donald Trump a pass. Manahan noted that progressives "gave the newspaper a social media middle finger and pointed out one-sided coverage that has favored Donald Trump, the first criminally convicted ex-president, who is facing more criminal charges to go along with a long civil rap sheet."
On Saturday, City University of New York journalism professor Jeff Jarvis posted a screenshot of the Times' front page to the social media platform Bluesky, referring to his city's flagship newspaper "the anti-Biden Times." He added that in his view, there was "no balance today." The screenshot showed nine headlines — eight of which were critical of Biden, and only one which criticized Trump.
Numerous prominent liberal social media accounts also unleashed on the Times following its editorial, alleging the Gray Lady was applying a double standard to its coverage of Biden compared to how it covered Trump. This is consistent with what an unnamed Times journalist told Politico, who confided to the outlet in April that Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger was quietly encouraging his newsroom to harp on Biden due to him refusing to grant the paper an exclusive sit-down interview.
"All these Biden people think that the problem is Peter Baker or whatever reporter they’re mad at that day,” the Times reporter said. “It’s A.G. He’s the one who is pissed [that] Biden hasn’t done any interviews and quietly encourages all the tough reporting on his age.”
"If The New York Times hadn’t spent so much time beating up Biden they might actually have credibility in making a suggestion. But now they’re just a joke," SiriusXM host Michaelangelo Signorile tweeted on Friday.
Sports commentator Jemele Hill posted a screenshot of the editorial, tweeting: "But according to the New York Times, this is the guy whose actually unfit to be president — and not the convicted felon insurrectionist bigoted rapist.
Mark Jacobs, who is a former editor at the Chicago Tribune, noted that there was no editorial from the Times calling on Trump to drop out after he was convicted of 34 felonies in late May. New York Times bestselling author Don Winslow was also livid with the paper, noting the publication's silence over Trump's "multiple convictions and multiple women saying he assaulted them or after January 6 or after dozens and dozens of other horrors."
Former Obama White House staffer Andrew Weinstein piled on, tweeting that he "was in a room with the president and a group of fired up volunteers in Atlanta after the debate and I guarantee you that they couldn’t care less what the New York Times has to say."
The newspaper has pushed back against allegations of an anti-Biden slant. Times spokesperson Charlie Stadtlander told Politico that "the notion that any line of coverage has been ordered up or encouraged in retaliation for declining an interview, or any other reason, is outrageous and untrue."
Click here to read other reactions to the Times' editorial compiled by NJ.com, and click here to read the editorial in its entirety (subscription required).