I don’t take into account myself a masochist. But now and again, I nonetheless learn a New York Occasions article.
Final week, Vice President Vance delivered a brutally frank speech in Germany, castigating European leaders who’ve regularly assaulted the notion of free speech throughout the continent—arresting individuals for delicate insults and even nullifying an election in Romania over allegations of “misinformation.”
It was critical stuff. But within the midst of an article about worldwide politics, the Occasions simply needed to remind us: “His first days as a vice-presidential candidate have been consumed by his criticism of ‘childless cat women.’”
There it was once more—that throwaway comment from a 2021 interview, apparently enshrined within the Occasions’ type information as necessary background. 4 years later, they’re nonetheless clutching these pearls.
Interested in their fixation, I searched their archives. The Occasions has managed to work that remark into 204 completely different tales. (Severely, 204 occasions.) They’ve squeezed it into political evaluation, abortion debates, and opinion items—wherever they may wedge in a reference.
The Occasions’ inventive division labored extra time, exploring each angle. Usha Vance defends him! Former feminine mates trash him! “JD Vance: Purr-fectly Dreadful.”
However they didn’t cease at journalism-by-keyword. Additionally they tried a cultural counterattack, roping in Eminem to battle Vance’s supposed misogyny, working within the cat quote as soon as once more. They sidestepped that the rapper constructed his profession singing about beating girls.
The paper additionally obtained professorial. One notably grandiloquent suppose piece traced “the lengthy historical past of bias towards cosmopolitan cat-owning girls” all the way in which again to the Salem Witch Trials of 1692, full with a breathless comparability: “as ladies have been writhing and convulsing their approach to persecution.”
And, in fact, no media circus is full with out superstar endorsements. Fading liberal icons realized the formulation: invoke the magic phrase and—poof!—a New York Occasions article. Good day, Candace Bergen! Linda Ronstadt remains to be related! Jennifer Aniston, we see you! It was like a retirement dwelling for progressive stars, with cat women because the admission ticket.
Then Taylor Swift, ever the advertising genius, trumped all of them by signing her Instagram endorsement of Kamala Harris as “Childless Cat Girl.” That single stroke of social media genius earned her mentions in 21 separate Occasions tales.
The absurdity hit its peak when the Occasions dragged Doug Emhoff’s daughter, Ella, into the fray, furiously insisting that Kamala wasn’t actually childless: “How will you be ‘childless’ when you have got cutie-pie youngsters like Cole and Ella?”
Kamala practically had three step-children, in fact. In his first marriage, Doug impregnated Ella and Cole’s nanny, spurring his divorce.
How did the Occasions cope with that scandal? Considerably completely different.
Seems, they did do some reporting on the difficulty. They wrote he had a “beforehand undisclosed relationship” which ended his marriage, however omitted the messy nanny and being pregnant angle. Had there solely been a cat concerned.
The paper’s obsession with Vance’s cat comment is an ideal case examine not of journalism, however in politics.
The Occasions isn’t informing the general public; it’s curating a actuality the place conservatives are all the time villains and liberals all the time victims. On this world, a flippant comment from 2021 is a nationwide disaster, however a vp’s husband impregnating the assistance? That’s simply messy and finest left unsaid.
The irony? Whereas they’ve been obsessing over cat women, Vance’s recognition has really grown. Seems, voters who see him unfiltered by the media’s fog machine discover one thing completely different: a considerate chief tackling critical points.
In the meantime, someplace in Manhattan, an editor is already assigning story quantity 205.
Ken LaCorte writes about censorship, media malfeasance, uncomfortable questions, and sincere perception for individuals curious how the world actually works. Comply with Ken on Substack
