
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt received glowing coverage from the New York Times for her press briefing debut despite delivering a performance that other observers have described as an "embarrassment."
In a report about Leavitt's first briefing, the Times described her as "steely and unflinching" despite the fact that she made a completely false claim about the Biden administration spending tens of millions of dollars to send condoms to Gaza.
Many of the critics were quick to hammer the Times for covering Leavitt's press briefing as a piece of theater rather than analyzing the veracity of her claims.
"The New York Times is written by children," commented Daily Show producer Matt Negrin on BlueSky.
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"New White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt did her first press briefing today and told a number of demonstrable lies (about condoms for Gaza, the criminal records of undocumented migrants, and more)," marveled former MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan. "This is how the New York Times covered it."
Journalist Bill Grueskin slammed the Times for writing glowing coverage of Leavitt's performance while leaving readers with "no idea if 72 million Americans had been kicked off Medicaid" thanks to Trump's executive order this week that froze all government grants and led to Medicaid portals in all 50 states being temporarily shut down.
Author Benjamin Dreyer had an all-caps response to the Times' coverage of Leavitt and simply wrote, "WHAT IN THE ACTUAL."
The New York Times is written by children
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— Matt Negrin still host of Hardball on MSNBC (@mattnegrin.bsky.social) January 29, 2025 at 12:00 AM
New White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt did her first press briefing today and told a number of demonstrable lies (about condoms for Gaza, the criminal records of undocumented migrants, and more). This is how the New York Times covered it.
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— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan.bsky.social) January 28, 2025 at 11:24 PM
“Steely.” “Unapologetic.” “Punchy.” “Unflinching.” “Twisting the knife.” “Wasted no time.” “Betrayed no fear.” [Also had no idea if 72 million Americans had been kicked off Medicaid.] www.nytimes.com/2025/01/28/u...
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— Bill Grueskin (@bgrueskin.bsky.social) January 29, 2025 at 7:12 AM
WHAT IN THE ACTUAL
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— Benjamin Dreyer (@bcdreyer.social) January 28, 2025 at 11:45 PM