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In a recent interview with Semafor's Ben Smith, New York Times executive editor Joe Kahn offered a laughable defense of the paper's coverage of the looming threat that Donald Trump poses to American democracy.
When asked why the Times doesn't see its job as trying to "stop Trump," Kahn completely missed the point and said journalism's role is to provide "impartial information" rather than becoming a "propaganda arm."
Kahn seems to have confused fair reporting with sticking your head in the sand while fascism takes root.
He was simply asking why the Times is so reluctant to offer coverage that properly conveys the severity of the threat Trump represents through smarter framing and proportional emphasis.
And Kahn's dismissal of worries over the Times giving wildly disproportionate attention to Biden's age as just demanding they "downplay" legitimate issues is "absurdly evasive."
If they don't, then perhaps democracy was never more than a quaint little fad in the Times' view – easily discarded in favor of juicier stories about Biden's age and how polite neo-Nazi are.