God knows mistakes happen when writing stories on a deadline. You really, really dont have to convince me that can happen. And yet, and yet
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Tuesday the Times published a story on President Trumps rally in Nashville. Author Julie Davis estimated the crowd size at the rally as a thousand people. Then, this morning, Trump complained about that aspect of the story:
Donald J. Trump@realDonaldTrumpThe Failing and Corrupt @nytimes estimated the crowd last night at 1000 people, when in fact it was many times that number - and the arena was rockin. This is the way they demean and disparage. They are very dishonest people who dont get me, and never did!
And a few hours later Julie Davis admitted Trump was right:
Julie Davis@juliehdavisPresident @realDonaldTrump is correct about his crowd last night. My estimate was way off, and we have corrected our story to reflect the fire marshals estimate of 5,500 people. When we get it wrong, we say so. https://nyti.ms/2H2ETXo https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/1001834394359877633
At Rally in Nashville, Trump Links Democrats to MS-13
President Trump invoked fears of crimes committed by illegal immigrants, particularly by MS-13, to argue for stricter border policies and charged that Democrats stood in the way.
nytimes.com
The story itself has been rewritten and now includes this correction near the end:
Donald J. Trump@realDonaldTrumpThe Failing and Corrupt @nytimes estimated the crowd last night at 1000 people, when in fact it was many times that number - and the arena was rockin. This is the way they demean and disparage. They are very dishonest people who dont get me, and never did!
NYTimes Communications@NYTimesPRWe have updated the article to reflect the fire marshals estimate of the crowd's size. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/29/us/politics/trump-rally-nashville-ms-13.html pic.twitter.com/iPynTX9NWV
Again, I get that mistakes happen but how in the world do you mistake 5,500 people for 1,000? Thats so far off that it looks less like an accident and more like one of two things a) complete incompetence or b) malign intent. I mean, if shed reported a few thousand and it was 5,500 that would be bad enough, but she somehow overlooked 82 percent of the audience.
And lets not pretend there isnt a partisan backstory here. Going back to the inauguration, the left and the media have had a field daymocking Trump over his crowd size. Everyone knows the president cares about the size of his crowds he draws. HuffPost published a video titled Trump Has An Obsession With Crowd Size. Just last week Jimmy Carter claimed his crowd at Liberty Universitys commencement was bigger than Trumps had been the year before. This is a well-known thing, not an obscure point.
So it cant possibly be news to the NY Times White House reporter that this would is an important element of any story on a Trump rally. How big was the crowd? Thats the most basic information any reporter covering this story would be expected to mention. So how did she get this, of all things, so wrong?
And heres the last point. The accidents and errors made by reporters appear to be systemic and partisan, i.e. they arise from bias built into the media system. We know that because these errors dont arise randomly without any consistent partisan thrust. Instead, they always occur in one direction. You never see a story like this that over-estimates Trumps crowd size by 80%. If Davis had overestimated the crowd by as much as she under-estimated it, shed have claimed there were 10,000 people there. In fact, thats pretty much what Trump himself did, suggesting the crowd may have been 12,000, which is more than the venue holds.
Its a given that Trump is a political partisan, especially about his own rallies. Whats the NY Times excuse?
The fact that Davis corrected the error is great, but this sort of thing wouldnt happen if the NY Times had even a few reporters who were mildly sympathetic to the President. Im not talking about die-hard Trump boosters, just someone who isnt quietly part of the resistance bubble. But of course, you dont have those people at the NY Times and so we get errors like this that always cut in one direction.
