If New York Times Were Around in 1775
What it might have looked like had the New York Times been there at the Founding:
Created and/or sent by PowerLine reader Les Baitzer to Scott Johnson.
It’s pretty funny even though I’m closer in position to the NYT/SWIFT flap to Glenn Greenwald than the Power Liners.
Concur with JJ–I’m happy someone had too much free time & could concoct that.
If the Power Liners were around in 1776…
Since PowerLine just spent the weekend pretending that garden-variety real-estate porn was a plot to assassinate the Vice President and Secretary of Defense, the laughs from this gag are pointing in the wrong direction.
Actually, they said exactly the opposite. From the Power Line article:
You might want to start reading some of the stuff you reference, instead of just parrroting what you read somewhere else.
Of course, the administration in 1775 was the British occupation so the NYT would never have printed this. It would have printed the BRIT signals! As such it would have been hailed by all patriotic rebels and denounced as treasonous by the administration and its sympathizers.
So the Powerline crew would STILL have been cheerleading for a King George, it seems.
Someone needed to do a bit more thinking after they dreamed this one up, eh? The phrase “hoist by their own petard” comes to mind.
Regards, Cernig @ Newshog
Cernig
The NYT would have printed it since they are anti-American pro European not just anti-administration.
Sound like you would have been for King George as well and not for our founding fathers. Remember not everyone that lived in the colonies supported the revolution. Just living in the U.S. doesnâ??t make one a Patriot. It is oneâ??s action that make him or her a Patriot.
The NYT would have printed it since they are anti-American pro European not just anti-administration. I think that’s called “moving the goalposts”. The thrust of the current militant right’s criticism of the NYT has all been about their “Bush-hating”. I’ve certainly not seen an anti-American pro-European bias in their work although I will agree they are anti-Bush administration (and rightly so, in my view).
Actually, as a free-thinking Enlightenment Scotsman I would have been all for the rebels – I wrote a post last 4th July about how jealous I am of your Independence Day, and even more so now that I live in the US. We Scots knew all too well what its like to be occupied by the English and had to put up with it for a lot longer. Look up the Highland Clearances sometime. Maybe that’s why most of the thinkers and precedents that the Founders based America on were Scots.
I think its impossible to read the words of those thinkers or of the Founders and come away with the impression that they would have approved of Bush’s political philosophy or of his “ends justify the means” method of government. Just saying you are a patriot or believe in freedom and liberty doesn’t make it so – actions determine the truth or falsity of your claims.
If you really want that speculative front page to be realistic it should be headed “New York Post”.
Regards, Cernig
P.S. James, I apologize if it seems as if I’ve become a bit of a resident troll here recently. I simply find your blog one of the more rational conservative sites and it stimulates my thinking to hear counterarguments that are sanely stated, even where they may be utterly wrong.
James, I apologize if it seems as if Iâ??ve become a bit of a resident troll here recently
We liberal OTB trolls need the help, sir. Welcome to our odious brotherhood.!
(Actually, I don’t think either of us is a troll, but I guess it depends on the definition. To me, a troll hijacks *everything* into “Bush is evil” or “Clinton did it too” or whatever.)
That just goes to show how closed minded you liberals are. Now, we close minded conservatives have no problem thinking that the founding fathers would agree with Bush’s administration. How are dead people going to argue with me. Even if they wrote papers that disagree with some of Bush’s decisions or policies how can you assume that all of them would disagree with him now? These are different times. And I don’t mean just more modern, I mean different. Many Democrats voted to fund the war in Iraq and then changed their minds because the times are different. How can you assume that the Founding Fathers might not change their minds in today’s circumstances. Or maybe your interpretation of their writings is wrong and they would agree with Bush even now?
Steve
Actually … the Times may very well have had this sentiment. While the patriots controlled the land of the colonies there were quite a few Loyalists (remember them from history class?) and by 1776 (when the British controlled the city) they were largely refugees in from other areas.
In fact, one year (to the day) from the date of this fictional paper, local government officials are supplying the British ships still in the harbor.
If memory serves, General Washington and his contemporaries generally viewed NYC as a place deserving of their contempt for reasons of morality. See McCullough.
The NYT would be the worlds leading publisher of hard core “PORN” if they thought they could get away with it by using the “freedom of the Press” excuse. No doubt that Keller has a secret desire to be the worlds biggest PORN STAR. After all, he to is a “Bastard of America”
Steve,
That just goes to show how closed minded you liberals are.
So close minded that everywhere else on the planet, from India onward it was the liberals who opposed the British Empire and eventually brought independence. It was always the conservatives who were in tight with the Colonial power and were loyal to the status quo. Have a look back without blinkers – it was the same in America.
Regards, Cernig
The mock-up has a certain amusing quality to it, but underscores the remarkable over-reaction of some on this SWIFT/NYT business: where in that article was there anything analogous to publishing information like this? It is patently silly and all of these mock-ups (like the Malkin WWII posters) make the NYT article out to be something that it patently was not.
Cernig apologizes for being a troll, which he isn’t. His points, while not conservative, are civilly stated and, to this fellow traveller, well reasoned and good natured.
Herb, on the other hand, should apologize. The porn thing was uncivil and unfunny. It’s the kind of thing one would expect to find in much less respectable precincts.
Pug:
Stick it or shove it, whatever you chose
Cernig
You were the one trying to be slick. The NYT isnâ??t against the Bush administration just because they are in charge of the geographical area of New England. If he were a Dem the NYT would be supporting him. If the NYT didnâ??t like Washington then they would do all they could to hurt him even it hurt the cause, which was the birth of the U.S. That a problem with the Libs is they donâ??t align themselves to U.S. but to the International Community and will hurt the U.S. to prove it. The U.S. does try to be fair even when it hurts us at times but we shouldnâ??t forget to look after ourselves especially since no one else will unless they can get benefits from it.