The president and the paper of record are involved in an ongoing alimony battle, according to a piece from Politico.

Eli Stokols writes:

According to interviews with two dozen people on both sides who were granted anonymity to discuss a sensitive subject, the relationship between the Democratic president and the country’s newspaper of record — for years the epitome of a liberal press in the eyes of conservatives — remains remarkably tense, beset by misunderstandings, grudges and a general lack of trust. Complaints that were long kept private are even spilling into public view, with campaign aides in Wilmington going further than their colleagues in the White House and routinely blasting the paper’s coverage in emails, posts on social media and memos.

You can read the whole thing here.

While the article looks at the rift between the Times and Biden as a therapist might, as one concerned for the welfare of the children (the Left’s electoral prospects), I can’t help but feel a bit queasy at the closeness of the relationship that left-wing media is expected to have with Democrats (the equivalent of a couple putting their hands in the other’s back pocket while walking at the county fair).

One passage, in particular, captures this expectation of ownership especially well: “Complaints about the paper’s Hunter Biden coverage dominated a late 2019 meeting at campaign headquarters in Philadelphia, where Bedingfield and other senior Biden operatives met with Times politics editor Patrick Healy and a few reporters to discuss the paper’s coverage.” What this sounds and looks like is a dressing down for not publishing what the White House likes to see.

If NR is meeting with candidates, it’s as a group, and the political figure has no say in what should be published because the writers would crucify him if he tried it (we are, to a man, jealous of our opinions and political autonomy). That the White House team expected a sidebar with specific segments of the Times, and that the Times would entertain such a thing, is wild. What a difference a few blocks in Midtown can make.

If this schism is as real as the reporting suggests, then good for the Gray Lady for taking a break from acting as a consort.