I'm almost embarrassed for the NYT after 'exclusive' Trump interview

I had intended to write to you today about the cold-blooded murder of an innocent mother by masked U.S. government agents on a Minneapolis street Wednesday.

Instead, I want to circle back to the through-line that has enabled killings like this, and myriad other atrocities by the lawless, despicable Donald Trump: The sane-washing of this madman by our abominable and increasingly complicit legacy media.

Let me be as precise as possible with this next run-on sentence: Places like the New York Times can never again be trusted, because of their appalling inability and/or refusal to identify and cover the overthrow of our Democracy, the bludgeoning of decency by Donald Trump and his cowardice, complicit Republican Party, and the most dangerous and volatile times in the United States of America since the Civil War.

I realize I am not breaking any news to most of the readership in this space, but the legacy media’s shoddy treatment of the ongoing attack on America is unfortunately still news to too damn many. I argue their dereliction of duty must be a featured part of these scary times, and a meaty chapter of whatever is left of our historical record if and when this siege ends.

The legacy media have not only let us down, but have actively contributed to our fall from grace.

Today, my friends, the New York Times out-New York Times itself.

While our country burns as it hasn’t in nearly two centuries, we learned that the NYT was summoned to the Oval Office Wednesday night to willingly be used and abused by the appalling Trump, who knows things are so bad for him right now that the free press he clearly loathes might be his only way out of this mess.

In this case, you can’t blame the guy, because it has worked for him before.

Thanks to the New York Times’ heroic telling, we learned that four of their reporters packed up their notebooks and sat down with Trump for what they say was a “nearly two hour conversation.”

“A conversation.” Interesting choice of words there …

Not only did the NYT run tongues-wagging to Trump after his whistle, they decided to treat their “conversation” with top-of-the-fold treatment, and deemed it the most important news of the day.

Take a look at the screen grab that leads this piece. There was not one, but two stories that teased this conversation.

While the world burns, the NYT thought this was the most important thing you needed to know today.

No kidding, this is the second piece in its entirety:

“The New York Times sat down with President Trump in the Oval Office on Wednesday evening for an exclusive and wide-ranging interview.
During a nearly two-hour conversation with the Times reporters Zolan Kanno-Youngs, Tyler Pager, Katie Rogers and David E. Sanger, the president talked about subjects including the fatal ICE shooting in Minneapolis, immigration, the U.S. strategy toward Venezuela, the Russia-Ukraine war, Greenland and NATO, his health, and his plans for further White House renovations.
At one point, he took a lengthy call from Gustavo Petro, the president of Colombia, the contents of which were off the record. At the end of the interview, he walked the reporters through the White House residence.
The Times’s coverage of the president’s remarks will include stories, newsletters and videos over the coming days, as well as an episode of The Daily on Friday. A transcript of the interview will be published.”

An exclusive and wide-ranging interview! Wow! A walk through our White House! Do tell!!! There will be stories, newsletters and videos!!

Yippee!!!!

Holy you-know-what.

Literally the only thing that even smells like news from this pathetic sit-down — the alleged call from Petro — couldn’t be reported.

Try cleverly telling us there was no news made in this conversation, without telling us there was no news made in this conversation, you dummies.

Because if there was any significant news from their meaty conservation that its paying readership needed to know about, I’ll take it the NYT would have broken that out prominently today and not just sat on it for their “stories, newsletters and videos” that will be coming later.

Anything coming later IS NOT NEWS.

News by definition is NEW.

Oh, and what about the failure to discuss the Epstein Files? Or is the NYT just not bothered that there is a better-then-average chance the guy they were summoned to sit down with is a pedophile.

Or worse, was not discussing Epstein a condition for their big conversation?

I’m almost embarrassed for the NYT and the alleged journalists who work there, but really as an old man who gave his life to daily newspapering, I am absolutely furious by this shoddy treatment of what used to be an important vocation.

Rather than give top-of-the-page treatment to covering all the hell that is going on around us right now, like the shooting by masked government agents of an innocent woman, the NYT decided to make THEMSELVES the top story today by trumpeting they had a conversation with the devil himself where no news was broken, but he was able to pull the release valve on his already blown mind.

For instance, it looks like Trump huffed and puffed and said “only time will tell” when asked how long he will play the role of President of Venezuela.

“Only time will tell …”

Let me tell you something, if a reporter ever came back to the newsroom and told me the only thing he/she got that looked like news from a sit down with the president was that “only time would tell” how long it would be before he exited a country he seized illegally … “only time would tell” how long it would be before I kicked that reporter’s ass out of the newsroom for good.

Instead, the NYT editors treated the whole thing like they got the exclusive of the year.

This is classic NYT where you can read 73 headlines a week that say something approximating this:

“TRUMP SAID THIS!”

“THEN TRUMP SAID THAT!”

“TRUMP DID THIS!”

“THEN TRUMP DID THAT!”

“TRUMP WANTS THIS!”

“NOW TRUMP WANTS THAT!”

The guy could pass gas, and the NYT would dutifully report it, but never dare tell you it smelled.

The NYT is not an organization reporting on the White House, it is a collection of stenographers reporting for the White House.

And there’s something else I want to touch on here, and underline for emphasis before I go back to banging my head against the wall:

In today’s scant offering teasing these coming “stories, newsletters and videos,” there is no mention that the man they sat down to interview is a lifetime stranger to the truth, and in fact, has told a documented tens of thousands of lies and mistruths since entering public life a decade ago.

He is also the author of the Big Lie, which has done catastrophic damage to America.

This means he cannot be trusted, which means their readership needed to be reminded of this. This is vitally important context, and I have argued for years should appear in every story in which Trump is quoted, because it is not only important background, it is a goddamn FACT, and facts are hard to find these days in our crumbling legacy media.

Tell me: In your day-to-day life do you trust anybody you know who regularly lies to you, or are you bare minimum highly skeptical of anything that comes out of their mouth?

There is also no mention that Trump spearheaded a violent coup five years ago yesterday. There is also no mention that Trump is a convicted felon. There is also no mention of his repeated physical and verbal abuse of women. There is also no mention that Trump is an overt racist.

And on and on …

This is all incredibly important background information, especially when we are somehow talking about the President of the United States of America.

All of these things and more — much more — have been sandblasted and smoothed over by our legacy media, so that in 2026 America they are all just perfectly normal behavior from a president.

Except these things aren’t normal, and can never be normal, or we really are done for good.

In fact, and we must never forget this: They ARE the story.

D. Earl Stephens is the author of “Toxic Tales: A Caustic Collection of Donald J. Trump’s Very Important Letters” and finished up a 30-year career in journalism as the Managing Editor of Stars and Stripes. You can find all his work here.