OPINION:
Once in a while, the bias of the legacy media becomes obvious and unavoidable, and you can only not see it if you choose to look the other way. I recently experienced one of those moments, and it crystallized how editorial and personal bias alter a story, cheat readers and corrode confidence in the legacy media.
After President-elect Donald Trump announced his intention to nominate former Rep. Lee Zeldin for administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (way back on Monday), the legacy media scrambled, as they sometimes do, to figure out who Mr. Zeldin is and what he is and what to expect in the event he winds up running the EPA.
As part of that, two reporters from The New York Times, which used to be described as the newspaper of record (whatever that means), called me and asked about the selection. That made some sense. I had met Mr. Zeldin during the Trump administration, had interviewed him at length when he ran for governor of New York and had written two columns for The Washington Times about that campaign.
Here is the entirety of what I offered the reporters (via text) in describing Mr. Zeldin:
“He’s a solid citizen. Won several elections in mostly blue Long Island. Great lawyer. Army Veteran who served (I think in Iraq), so he’s used to dealing with bureaucracies. He and the president are both native New Yorkers. I think that’ll help at EPA. They speak the same language.”
“The other thing to know about him is that he really works. In Albany he got Suffolk [County] exempted from a commuter tax by sheer hard work and against pretty steep odds.”
I also sent along the transcript of my May 2021 interview with him, all 2,000 or so words of it. I also sent along both columns I had written about him (an added 1,200 words).
From all of that, here’s what The New York Times ran (as the only quote in the article other than the statement from Mr. Zeldin): “Michael McKenna, who worked in the first Trump administration on energy issues, said as two New Yorkers, Mr. Trump and Mr. Zeldin ’speak the same language.’”
That’s it. That’s all.
I am fully prepared to accept blame for violating the first rule of dealing with the media, which is, unfortunately, stick to your talking points and only your talking points, because anything else will be used against you. Still, only the truly dense or the truly compromised can fail to see the bias.
Sadly, this sort of thing happens every single day, and every single person who deals with the media is conscious of it — but after a while, it becomes like wallpaper. The only reason I mention it in this instance is because I have rarely run across a more egregious example of bias, and because I think Lee Zeldin is a good and honorable man who has served and will serve his country well. I’m looking forward to him bringing his wisdom, character, experience and talent to the EPA.
The New York Times’ reporters should have made that clear. He deserves better, their readers deserve better and the American people deserve better.
• Michael McKenna is a contributing editor at The Washington Times.
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