The New York Times has garnered criticism over the year for its reporting on Donald Trump and the 2024 election. On Wednesday, that criticism led to in-person protests outside the building. Readers left online complaints and cancelled subscriptions before direct protests began. Their demand, accordi...
I’m glad they’re doing it. This sane-washing shit drives me crazy. You constantly see headlines saying things like “Trump proposes new policy making guaranteeing sunshine and rainbows for everyone” when in reality, a Trump supporter asked him about lowering food prices and he went in a 15 minute rant that included him saying “and I am the best at sunshine, the sunshine loves me… and don’t even get me started at the rainbows… my communist opponent hates rainbows but not me, the rainbows said ‘sir, you are the best at sunshine and rainbows, more than anyone has ever seen’.”
I don’t know if “sane-washing” is the right term. It seems more like they are working as campaign staff to spin a message out of his ramblings.
If they were interested in journalism, they’d say that Trump’s plan to lower food prices is to love rainbows and receive love from sunshine. You know, just stating the facts. The term “sane-washing” to me infers that the entity doing the sane-washing is a journalist and not a campaign staffer.
Making incoherent ramblings sound like campaign messages is the exact meaning of “sane-washing”.
Yeah I had a Facebook friend say “This will be unpopular, but I disagree with the two tax breaks being proposed by both candidates.”
It had me scratching my head. I’ve yet to hear Trump propose an actual policy about tax breaks. I heard him ramble about shit and then the media sane-washes it into a policy.
For example, not too long ago Trump said to some CEOs that he’d like to get the corporate tax rate to 20% because it sounded like a “nice, round number”. That is an absolutely insane way to set a tax rate.
But the media took it and ran with it and you saw headlines all over the place about Trump’s super serious tax policy. Saying “20% sounds nice” isn’t a fucking policy!! There was no thought or planning to see the impact of such a rate. Just “yeah that sounds nice”. Fuck this guy and people that cover up for his ramblings.
That definition goes with “spinning” the story. However this goes beyond just spinning and it’s much more than just whitewashing over a couple imperfections. This is completely rewriting his words and campaigning for the man.
This is taking spinning a story to a new level and “sane-washing” just doesn’t convey the weight of their actions. With these actions, the New York Times is more like Trump’s A-team campaign management. It’s almost like a reverse Dunning-Kruger Effect, where they attempt to make him look like he has ideas and substance when there isn’t any.