The Evolution Of Dumb Defenses

A long time ago, reporters at your local newspapers would get angry emails and calls about how BIASED THEIR NEWSPAPER IS. And they'd explain that, well, actually, the callers was complaining about the OPINION section and that was separate from the news section and did not reflect on the broader coverage of NEWS by the JOURNALISTS.

Fair enough, to a point, but somehow that evolved into a belief that every section of the paper is on its own  individual plane of existence that cannot in any way be connected to each other despite being identically branded and on the same damn website.

Nonsense. The Wall Street Journal news side is not the One True Wall Street Journal. Referring to the opinion side as the WSJ is 100% as valid as referring to the news side as such.

As usual the “lol rubes you don’t understand journalism” scolds are the ones who are wrong. https://t.co/ExgvqSTatz

— Jamison Foser (@jamisonfoser) March 14, 2023

"Wow, the New York Times is bad, they publish all those horrible columnists." SIR, you FOOL, that is not actually THE NEW YORK TIMES, but the OPINION SECTION. That kind of thing.

Anyway, big national newspapers are products that contain a lot of bits. The News section. The Arts section. The Real Estate section. The Opinion section. The Automobile section. The Style section.

They're all part of the product.

I recognize that any individual reporter is not personally responsible for everything that gets printed in the newspaper, but it's still all the same newspaper.