For those who don't know, The Daily is a New York Times podcast that was
started when Trump took office. Interestingly, Trump's presidency was the
impetus for the start of several podcasts, Intercepted, among them. I
discovered The Daily, perhaps a year ago. Sometimes, I find the podcast
informative. Often, I find it irritating, to say the least and sometimes,
filled with information which seems counter to everything I think I know
about a particular subject. The Daily has a definite point of view and it
leads the listener along a path with facts laid out in such a way that you
will be led to specific conclusions. The manner of the host, who questions
the journalist reporting the story, is calculatedly naïve and questioning.
The journalist responds to questions and Michael then helps the listener
draw the appropriate conclusions from what the journalist says. I've been
waiting for several days for The Daily to get around to Julian Assenge,
wondering why this very important story for journalism, has been ignored. I
have heard a lot of knowledgeable people talk about it and I've read a lot
more about it than I've posted. And I've been following WikkiLeaks and
Assenge for years. So finally, today, The Daily got around to the story. I
have to admit that I didn't listen through to the very end because I was
becoming so furious at what they chose to do with the story. And when I
stopped listening, I unsubscribed from the podcast. What they did was to
emphasize Assenge's idyocyncracies, of which he has many, and the recent
unproven allegations of cooperation with Russia to ensure Trump's
presidency, which aren't part of the US government's stated case against
him. Yes, they admitted that The New York Times cooperated with WikkiLeaks
and printed all those documents in 2010, but they kept emphasizing how
respectable and cautious and traditional a journalistic enterprise the Times
is and how nontraditional WikkiLeaks is. Having just listened to Katie
Halper interviewing Ryan Grimm from The Intercept about Assenge during which
he was extremely informative and forthcoming about the charges against
Assenge and the ways in which WikkiLeaks functioned, the New York Times
Daily version really made me ill.
Miriam
