Ward on Words

For year now, the New York Times, the "paper of record," has employed as its senior political editor someone who loves using the Trump frame for her stories about Trump. Maggie Haberman has worked long and hard to maintain her "access" status within the Trump campaign and the only way to keep that status is to present insider gossip as if it is factual news. She has a story in the paper today (Sunday, Oct. 27, 2024), co-written with Matt Flegenheimer (I rarely see her name as a solo byline) that uses Trump's rally at Madison Square Garden (MSG) as a "show of force." In the NY Times story, Haberman and Flegenheimer decide to pretend that only Democrats are noting the similarities between Trump MSG rally and the Nazi rally that took place in 1939.  But that's not true. Anne Applebaum, noted scholar of fascism, posted a picture on Threads that links Trump's MSG event with the 1939 Nazi Party event at that venue. Here's a link to the documen...

On June 27, 2024, the two presumptive presidential candidates engaged in a debate televised on CNN. Moderators Dana Bash and Jake Tapper asked questions and the candidates answered. Moderators provided no pushback on lies made by either candidate.  It was painfully obvious that Joe Biden was having a very bad night. For me, having watched his high-energy SOTU address, seeing his extemporaneous reactions to the GOP heckling, it was shocking to see Biden's performance at the debate. He had one big task with the debate - to prove he was not "too old" for the job of four more years, and his halting performance and slow response to questions unleashed a tsunami of articles about his age and fitness for the office.  And nearly a month after the debate, the focus of national news media remained on Biden's fitness for the job and who should replace him and also to replace Kamala Harris – apparently because being VP for four years isn't considered the right prep for the jo...

There is a curious story in the New York Times about "the complicated legacy of Betty Ford's breast cancer story."  As someone considered high risk for breast cancer due to family history of the disease, I have some thoughts on Betty Ford's legacy.  Betty Ford was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1974 and was one of the  first women to openly talk about her diagnosis and subsequent mastectomy. At that time, her role  as First Lady gave her an enormous platform to raise awareness about the disease.  I was curious about this New York Times essay because of the impact breast cancer has had on my family. In 1970, my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. She was 37 years old, a mother with three young daughters. When this happened, she was sedated for a biopsy and knew that if the cancer was found, they'd perform a mastectomy before she woke up. She woke up without a breast.  I n later years, when I thought about the brutality of this medical approach, I thou...