Rove Makes the NYT Lose Its Appetite

by emptywheel

Did you ever have the experience--in your wild days of college, perhaps--when you had such a bad experience at a party that you swore you'd never go back to that particular party again? Often as not, the bad experience had everything to do with the boy you were foolishly spending your time with at the party. Sure, the party itself stunk; it was too crowded, and served shitty beer. But add in the monumentally bad experience with one particular guy, and you swear off the party for life?

Well, I think that's what happened to the gray lady last weekend. Amid all the reports of Rove shying away from Sheryl Crow at the White House Correspondant's Dinner, there was the detail that Rove was sitting--nay, had been invited, and had accepted the invitiation to sit--at the NYT's table.

Just a few feet from the podium, Rove was found at The New York Times table, in discussions with the likes of D.C. Bureau Chief Dean Baquet and columnist Maureen Dowd. When asked why the paper, which often battles the White House, chose to invite Rove, Dowd said, “I don’t do the inviting anymore.”

Well, apparently the gray lady felt pretty darn violated by the experience, because she has sworn off the party for good.

Tucked inside Frank Rich's Sunday column in the New York Times is indication that the newspaper will no longer play ball with the annual White House Correspondents Association dinners in Washington, which he calls "a crystallization of the press's failures in the post-9/11 era." He writes that the event "illustrates how easily a propaganda-driven White House can enlist the Washington news media in its shows....

"After last weekend's correspondents' dinner, The Times decided to end its participation in such events," wrote Rich.

I guess the gray lady's friends weren't friend enough to warn her off of Karl Rove. No doubt that's because they all still think he's one of the cool kids. But the gray lady, at least, says she has learned her lesson.

 

 

Comments

[Robin]

You wrote what I was thinking. If Dowd doesn't do the inviting anymore it would be interesting to know who did. I can't make up my mind about the NYTimes, they seem to conflicted.

[marksb]

Yeah, until the next good-looking guy comes a-callin, with flowers in his hand, a promise of access, and sweet scoops from unattributed white house sources in his whisper...

[kvenlander]

They are just realigning the ship so they can start blasting at the next Democratic administration right out of the gate. See, they were always on the side of the People against the Powerful and the Special Interests!

[bmaz]

Off subject - In office today, got TV on while working. Former senior CIA man Ray McGovern was on idiot Tucker Carlson's show. McGovern just flat out stated that the so called "Italian" forgeries behind the Niger/Wilson/Plame saga had their genesis in the Vice-Presidents's Office-Dick Cheney. Something I think we have all suspected, but never heard anyone who might be in the know say so directly.

[Mickey]

Speaking of media, have you seen Sean Hannity's piece about Jane Hamsher? It's posted at Firedoglake...

[Kagro X]

Well, Gray Lady, that's just wonderful!

Now, go inside, take off that frock and get into some work clothes. Help me finish covering over these graves, and we'll talk about it.

[pseudonymous in nc]

EW to the red Murray Waas telephone, if you please...

[earlofhuntingdon]

I'll believe it when the NYT passes up their invite next year, not a promise to do so a year ahead of time.

The Dinner has morphed from being a gentle roast of the President by the public that should know his foibles more than most into an event that makes him a Golden Calf worshiped by celebrities newshounds. Time for it to revert to its roots.

[Neil]

"Where are the weapons of mass destruction? he he. Are they over here? He he. Are they over there? He he."

Big Joke, right?

The NYT owes the public a bit more than this symbolic act. If Cheney led the effort to fabricate WMD evidence for Congress' to assess the pre-war threat of Saddam and Iraq, then the least the NYT can do is the investigative work that puts Cheney on trial in the Senate.

[xxx]

I wondered what it would take to offend the NY Times

anybody else think this is a deliberate pose that was premeditated ???

maybe it's just time to change the old tin foil beanie

here's an off topic quote from the Guardian, via truthout, that will warm those cockles

House Appropriations Chairman David Obey (D-Wis.) has described his strategy as forcing Republicans to vote "again and again and again" to back the war until they tell Bush they've had enough.

A string of Iraq votes are planned from now to October that will put Republicans on the spot. In addition to the new war supplemental, the upcoming fiscal 2008 Defense authorization and Defense appropriations bills will hit the House floor by the end of June. "This is going to play out over the year," said Appropriations subcommittee on Defense Chairman John Murtha (D-Pa.).

Iraq ain't gonna get any better, and the Democrats intend to keep talking about it

[Jodi]

Rove---

I've got a whale of a tale to tell you lass,
a whale of a tale or two.
.
... just sit right upon my knee,
and I'll show you my tatoo.

[hauksdottir]

I suspect that Bush calls him Turdblossom because of his hemorrhoids. Pity that they wouldn't work his nickname into the song & dance!

And, no, this isn't more offensive than hunting for WMDs in the White House.

Inviting Rove to sit at table with them, to share bread and salt, just shows how familiar the liars are with each other.

The NYTimes is not The Gray Lady. Prostitutes are not ladies. Whether or not the paper attends any dinner is of no importance. Whether or not the editors apologize for pimping the President's war, and profiting from the increased sales, is of no matter. Whether or not they ever come clean from burying real news and trumpeting fallacies and lies is of no consequence. The NYTimes has sold its reputation.