Oops. Well, that backfired.
Intending to paint Jeff Sessions negatively, the Times accidentally paints a diligent and effective agency head who is achieving results over the objections of a large, entrenched, and politically extreme bureaucracy.
It’s a great article.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions is causing low morale and infighting among “rank-and-file employees” by doing his job of implementing Trump administration policies at the Justice Department, the New York Times’ Katie Benner claims, based on anonymous hearsay, in a recent article. Intending to paint him negatively, the Times accidentally paints a picture of a diligent and effective agency head who is achieving results over the objections of a large, entrenched, and politically extreme bureaucracy attempting to thwart constitutional accountability.
“During his 20 months in office, Attorney General Jeff Sessions has swept in perhaps the most dramatic political shift in memory at the Justice Department, from the civil rights-centered agenda of the Obama era to one that favors his hard-line conservative views on immigration, civil rights and social issues,” Benner opines.
Molly Hemingway gets to the heart of the matter:
Benner’s article is a great example of how so-called mainstream media come at the issue of governance from an entirely liberal political perspective. The liberal political views of bureaucrats are portrayed as neutral and beyond reproach. Political accountability of the bureaucracy, if at the hands of Republicans or conservatives, is considered suspect. The article is also a great example of journalism’s crisis of credibility.
It’s worth your taking the time to read it.
NYT: Jeff Sessions Is Doing A Great Job Fighting DOJ’s Bureaucracy
Attorney General Jeff Sessions is causing low morale and infighting among “rank-and-file employees” by doing his job of implementing Trump administration policies at the Justice Department, the New York Times’ Katie Benner claims, based on anonymous hearsay, in a recent article.