I don’t contemplate myself a masochist. But once in a while, I nonetheless learn a New York Occasions article.
Final week, Vice President Vance delivered a brutally frank speech in Germany, castigating European leaders who’ve regularly assaulted the notion of free speech throughout the continent—arresting individuals for delicate insults and even nullifying an election in Romania over allegations of “misinformation.”
It was critical stuff. But within the midst of an article about worldwide politics, the Occasions simply needed to remind us: “His first days as a vice-presidential candidate have been consumed by his criticism of ‘childless cat girls.’”
There it was once more—that throwaway comment from a 2021 interview, apparently enshrined within the Occasions’ type information as obligatory background. 4 years later, they’re nonetheless clutching these pearls.
Interested by their fixation, I searched their archives. The Occasions has managed to work that remark into 204 totally different tales. (Seriously, 204 times.) They’ve squeezed it into political evaluation, abortion debates, and opinion items—anyplace they might wedge in a reference.
The Occasions’ artistic division labored extra time, exploring each angle. Usha Vance defends him! Former feminine mates trash him! “JD Vance: Purr-fectly Dreadful.”
However they didn’t cease at journalism-by-keyword. In addition they tried a cultural counterattack, roping in Eminem to battle Vance’s supposed misogyny, working within the cat quote as soon as once more. They sidestepped that the rapper constructed his profession singing about beating ladies.
The paper additionally bought professorial. One notably grandiloquent suppose piece traced “the lengthy historical past of bias in opposition to cosmopolitan cat-owning ladies” all the way in which again to the Salem Witch Trials of 1692, full with a breathless comparability: “as ladies have been writhing and convulsing their option to persecution.”
And, after all, no media circus is full with out celeb endorsements. Fading liberal icons realized the method: invoke the magic phrase and—poof!—a New York Occasions article. Hi there, Candace Bergen! Linda Ronstadt continues to be related! Jennifer Aniston, we see you! It was like a retirement house for progressive stars, with cat girls because the admission ticket.
Then Taylor Swift, ever the advertising and marketing genius, trumped all of them by signing her Instagram endorsement of Kamala Harris as “Childless Cat Woman.” That single stroke of social media genius earned her mentions in 21 separate Occasions tales.
The absurdity hit its peak when the Occasions dragged Doug Emhoff’s daughter, Ella, into the fray, furiously insisting that Kamala wasn’t actually childless: “How are you going to be ‘childless’ when you could have cutie-pie children like Cole and Ella?”
Kamala almost had three step-children, after all. In his first marriage, Doug impregnated Ella and Cole’s nanny, spurring his divorce.
How did the Occasions cope with that scandal? Considerably totally different.
Seems, they did do some reporting on the difficulty. They wrote he had a “beforehand undisclosed relationship” which ended his marriage, however passed over the messy nanny and being pregnant angle. Had there solely been a cat concerned.
The paper’s obsession with Vance’s cat comment is an ideal case research not of journalism, however in politics.
The Occasions isn’t informing the general public; it’s curating a actuality the place conservatives are at all times villains and liberals at all times victims. On this world, a flippant comment from 2021 is a nationwide disaster, however a vp’s husband impregnating the assistance? That’s simply messy and greatest left unsaid.
The irony? Whereas they’ve been obsessing over cat girls, Vance’s recognition has really grown. Seems, voters who see him unfiltered by the media’s fog machine discover one thing totally different: a considerate chief tackling critical points.
In the meantime, someplace in Manhattan, an editor is already assigning story quantity 205.
Ken LaCorte writes about censorship, media malfeasance, uncomfortable questions, and trustworthy perception for individuals curious how the world actually works. Follow Ken on Substack
