I have been very critical of The New York Times in the past, and I’m sure it will give me many reasons to do so in the future. Probably as soon as Krugman’s next column is published.
But when the Times is playing its A game, there might be no better newspaper in America. And Monday, August 7, saw the paper hit two home runs:
First, the paper revealed that despite some stiff competition from the Kennedys and the Trumps, the Cuomos remain the absolute worst political dynasty:
The menacing posts began cropping up on Twitter last September just hours after a former aide to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York sued him over sexual harassment claims.
The tweets attacked the aide, Charlotte Bennett, in starkly personal terms. “Your life will be dissected like a frog in a HS science class,” read one of the most threatening, which also featured a photo of Ms. Bennett dancing at a bar in lingerie.
The post was part of a thread written by Anna Vavare, a leader of a small but devoted group of mostly older women who banded together online to defend Mr. Cuomo from a cascade of sexual misconduct claims that led to his resignation in August 2021. But it turns out, her tweets had secretly been ordered up by someone even closer to the former governor’s cause: Madeline Cuomo, his sister.
In the hours before the posts went live that morning, Ms. Cuomo exchanged dozens of text messages with Ms. Vavare and another leader of the pro-Cuomo group We Decide New York, Inc., pushing the activists to target Ms. Bennett, one of the first women to accuse Mr. Cuomo of sexual harassment. She appeared to invoke her brother’s wishes.
“Good Morning Just spoke and he thinks a distraction could be helpful today,” Ms. Cuomo wrote in the private texts reviewed by The New York Times. She suggested posting “photos of Charlotte In her sex kitten straddle” taken from Ms. Bennett’s Instagram account, potentially alongside more “austere, professional” ones of loyal Cuomo aides.
(Hat tip: Chris Clizza.)
The Times is a liberal newspaper, but when there is a liberal ox to be gored - albeit one that’s been shunned by the rest of the herd since 2021 - it will go after it. That’s more than you can say for most partisan media outlets.1
That’s the main course, in which the Times reported on some of the worst Americans. For Monday’s dessert, the Times profiled the greatest American hero of our time:
If you aren’t already familiar with the legend that is Neil Breen, you’ve lived a sheltered life and I feel sorry for you. While other cult filmmakers like Tommy Wiseau (The Room) and James Nguyen (Birdemic) have become increasingly self-aware, Breen is either extremely committed to his art - such as it is - or is extremely committed to the joke.
His latest masterpiece, Cade: The Tortured Crossing, is being rolled out as we speak. It’s already earned rave reviews from critics like Neil Breen:
If you want to catch up on the Breen filmography before Cade comes to your town, Space Ice has you covered. Or you can watch my own report on his role in taking down corrupt Trump Administration officials:
The Wall Street Journal, with its conservative and disappointingly anti-anti-Trump editorial page but often groundbreaking reporting, is another.