Let's talk about the accusations that the legacy/'dead tree" media serves largely as stenographers for the Democrats.
Case in point: AOC's performance in Munich could be fairly called "disastrous" by people who pay attention to this sort of thing. Pretty much everyone's torn her the proverbial new one - not least among 'em Ed, solo and with friends, Generalissimo, and yours truly.
And as someone who's watched the pattern develop over time - especially with the particularly loathsome Minnesota Star Tribune - I've always imagined a scene more or less like this:
MSM JOURNALIST: (Phone rings - caller ID shows the familiar first name of a Democrat politician). "Hey, Binksy, what's up?"
DEMOCRAT POLITICIAN: "Hey. I really stepped in it that speech I gave yesterday. Social media is being the bejeebers out of me. I need you to fix it".
MSM JOURNALIST: "You got it. Do you need it immediately, or sooner?"
DEMOCRAT POLITICIAN: "Sooner than that. And if you could arf up a hit piece on my opponent, that'd be great"
MSM JOURNALIST: "On it!"
There's a part of me - particularly the part that worked as a reporter for some pretty old-school, "just the facts" news outlets - that wants to think it's not really like that.
But it's really like that - and we know this because Kellen Browning at the NYTimes showed us that it's literally really like that:
AOC came to Munich to warn about the far-right. Coverage focused on 2028 & verbal missteps.
— Kellen Browning (@Kellen_Browning) February 17, 2026
She gave me a call.
"Everyone’s got this story wrong, that this is about me running for president," she said. "Global democracies are on fire the world over."https://t.co/KBeT3kaBzj
It's just that the scope of the narrative got out of her control, y'see:
She said her meetings in Munich had been substantive. But what went viral was her flub on Taiwan and speculation about 2028.
— Kellen Browning (@Kellen_Browning) February 17, 2026
"Am I acting like someone who is trying to run? No! Because I’m there for a very different, specific purpose."https://t.co/KBeT3kaBzj
I might almost ask "which is the satire, and which was the actual exchange between a Democrat and an MSM "reporter".
Glenn Greenwald had about the same idea:
So anyway, last night I was sitting around, and a politician called me. She told me to get a pen and write down what she wants me to put in the NYT about her, in response to widespread criticism.
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) February 17, 2026
So I wrote it down and put it in the paper, while adding my own defenses of her. https://t.co/itiAjofjP4
Again - where does the satire end and Browning's tale begin?
Greenwald points out that it's worse than just a badly thought-out tweet. That happens all the time (Strommie?).
But Browning's article, after getting past the "layers and layers of gatekeepers" at the Times, is no better:
If you want to understand what stenography masquerading as reporting looks like, read the article. It's an AOC press release. She knew who to call:https://t.co/LXaggFsOcV
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) February 17, 2026
And: she didn't "stall" on the Taiwan question and then reflect "strategic ambiguity." She knew nothing: pic.twitter.com/8mCOcobhAd
And, by the way, her performance re Taiwan was not the only, er, unattended fire:
The flub on Taiwan was the only thing that went viral? Huh pic.twitter.com/0si0GHpTWu
— Snarknado ⚓️ 🇺🇸 (@ZannSuz) February 17, 2026
The TL:dr version comes from the essential Charles C.W. Cooke:
Sorry Kellen Browning, but that dog won't hunt. AOC's message wasn't "lost." What AOC said didn’t mean anything because AOC doesn’t know anything. https://t.co/KIQorbQ7zQ
— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) February 17, 2026
I seriously don't want to see anymore MSM reporters - regionally or nationally - complaining about being less respected in modern society than used car dealers or timeshare salesmen until they can come up with an explanation for this that doesn't lead back to "the MSM are basically clerical staff for Democrats".
I'm waiting.
