New York Times Faces Huge Backlash for Media Bias
The New York Times faced a massive amount of online backlash over what people saw as “blatant media bias.” The controversy came because of the description the paper used of the GOP candidate in the Wisconsin Senate race.
The Times was making a report on the debate this past Thursday between Republican Senator Ron Johnson, the incumbent, and Mandela Barnes, his Democratic opponent for Wisconsin’s United States Senate seat.
Senator Johnson and Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes of Wisconsin had what everyone considered to be a respectful first debate. They both met again on Sunday night, but this debate would feature the opportunity for rebuttals making the interaction much more lively.
The New York Times wrote a tweet that described Johnson as a “leading peddler of misinformation” while describing Barnes as a “liberal Democrat who has been touted as one of the party’s rising stars.”
Critics immediately made their feelings known to The Times on social media.
“I’m sensing a mild leaning towards one of the candidates over the other. It’s subtle, but if you look closely, I think you’ll be able to see what I found,” one person tweeted.
“Not even making a show of pretense anymore,” replied Jon Levine of the New York Post.
“This has to be one of the most jaw dropping examples of blatant media bias in existence,” another tweet read.
“NYT at least isn’t trying to hide its extreme partisanship, bias and electioneering,” read another response.
“It’s subtle, but if you really look closely, you can detect ways in which the media inserts its bias,” joked one commenter.
“Ron Johnson, a big smelly buttface, will debate Mandela Barnes, awesome person and rising Democratic star, a Black man and descendant of slaves, for the Wisconsin Senate seat, where Jacob Blake was brutally shot in the back,” noted another critic.
In the most recent polls on this race, Johnson had a fairly large lead over Barnes. The separation between the candidates was 52% to 46%. Most experts believe that Republicans will win enough seats in the midterms to get control of the House of Representatives, but the Senate will stay in control of the Democrats.
After a respectful first debate, Senator Ron Johnson and Lt. Gov Mandela Barnes of Wisconsin will debate again tonight at 7 p.m. ET. This time, the candidates will be allowed to offer rebuttals, which may result in a more lively hour. https://t.co/AtiOWnd87M pic.twitter.com/0RTzmbpAhp
— The New York Times (@nytimes) October 13, 2022
