The best way to approach the media at this point in time is by treating it like a congenital liar or a Nigerian scammer, an utterly soulless source of narratives untethered from anything except its political agenda. That’s to say it lies. Always.
Without shame, regret or any kind of reality checks.
How the Right Shaped the Debate Over the Sydney Sweeney Ads – Right-wing commentators suggested there was widespread criticism of Ms. Sweeney over her new ad campaign. There wasn’t, at least at first. – NYT Aug 7th
There’s enough hedging in that headline to make a nice maze. The New York Times itself ran an article a week ago claiming denouncing Sweeney as “controversial” which is media-speak for “we don’t like it, but we can’t quite spell it out in a way our readership will go along with.”
The latter arrived a week ago in the form of an American Eagle campaign for jeans that makes a pun on the notion that Ms. Sweeney won the genetic lottery. The ad, which quickly took off online, set off controversy when some social media users felt it veered uncomfortably close to promotion of eugenics and the glorification of whiteness. It has also been decried for its sexually suggestive nature and for catering to the “male gaze.”
Again, more weasel words in which the NYT columnist expresses her opinion while attributing it to others, and then the paper denies it or its media cohort ever said what everyone saw them say.
“In reality, most progressives weren’t worked up much at all,” the paper claims. “Criticism of the ad campaign had come almost entirely from a smattering of accounts with relatively few followers, according to an analysis of social media data by The New York Times.”
Umm would that include the New York Times? Or the Washington Post?
How American Eagle’s Sydney Sweeney ‘good jeans’ ad went wrong – WaPo
Or USA Today?
Sydney Sweeney’s American Eagle jeans ad sparks controversy – USA Today
The same media that was amplifying those voices to manufacture the controversy now blames the ‘right-wing’ for the controversy.
They lie, then they lie some more and then they lie even more.