Impressive work, for its content, and for its remarkable use of the Internet to distribute an innovative way to make an editorial point (“The GOP must stop Trump”), from the newspaper currently being lionized around the world for its pathbreaking work uncovering the Catholic church’s child sex abuse scandal in the Hub. A front page in Trump’s America.
Please share widely!
JimC says
It is an impressive statement, and Trump is (arguably) sui generis as far as potential political damage. Cruz is scarier, but Cruz works within the process.
But I thought of Spotlight too, and to me, what Spotlight celebrates is reporting. Great newspaper reporting. NOT editorializing.
It isn’t really news (pardon the expression) that the Globe opposes Trump. I wish they covered him better. I wish the entire political press covered the entire campaign better.
So in short, a paper whose opinion everyone knows decided to shout its opinion a little louder than usual. I can only be so impressed.
Christopher says
…between reporting and editorializing. Most legit news outlets understand the importance of keeping the two separate (Hear that, Fox News?). I think what the Globe has done here speaks to the moral imperative of opposing Trump early, loudly, and often that simply usually does not exist.
Peter Porcupine says
The Globe among others created this monster, by covering everything word he said, to the virtual exclusion of other candidates, by reporting tangential fluff and neglecting substantive statements from others. People who may never have voted before turned up, who hate Republicans as establishment weasels the same as Democrats, have captured the process. I find it telling that in polls, Trump voters say if he us not nominated they will vote for Sanders, and Sanders voters say they will vote for Trump. This isn’t the two party paradigm BMG is comfortable with.
I get that the Globe hates all Republicans, as does much of the media. They thought by giving 80% of coverage to Trump, they would drive voters to the Democrats. They guessed wrong, and now hysterically demand that the GOP ‘stop Trump’. But our nomination system, unlike the Democratic one they are more familiar with, actually depends on votes cast. We can’t ‘fix’ this with non-existent party enforcers.
And they helped
Christopher says
…determined by votes cast (FWIW Clinton IS ahead by 2.5 million popular votes AND leads the delegate count.), though I have to believe that the GOP might consider a superdelegate system after this year’s fiasco. I agree that Trump was a media creation. Even MSNBC was more likely to cut to his rallies live than to those of other candidates. I also wish news outlets hosting debates did not invite based on polls. I’m not sure the Globe’s strategy was to drive voters to Dems as it was to sell papers like everyone else.
Jasiu says
In a way, I agree with both of you. The media (including the Globe) helped create the Trump sensation, with the bottom line being the reason moreso than any ideology or intent to push voters in any way. Trump has drawn eyeballs. Eyeballs mean money.
Trickle up says
This was in the editorial section and the idea was clever. I was surprised however at the quality of the execution.
I could fake a Globe news story better than the Globe did. These just didn’t read right.
PS not to change the subject but who remembers this guy?
JimC says
Hilarious. Lampoon, right?
Trickle up says
a guy named Larry Durocher.
He did a NYT parody that I remember, and a WSJ one that I do not. At least one of these came out while the paper was on strike, adding to the impact.
bob-gardner says
. . . it’s that this time they were caught.
SomervilleTom says
I find the makeup of this parody interesting in what it does NOT include. For example, there is no below-the-fold piece, with large photo, discussing the number of dents in the Green Monster.
If the real Globe had the same news density as this parody, I might consider re-upping the subscription I stopped (after thirty+ years) after John Henry turned the paper into his all-Sox-all-the-time publicity vehicle.
thegreenmiles says
The cover is clever and the reaction of “why is the Globe doing things a new way instead of the same old way that’s watched subscriptions drop 30% in the last 20 years” says it all.
But the editorial is paternalistic nonsense. Why shouldn’t Republican voters nominate whoever they want? Why does the Globe editorial board get to override the will of those voters and annoint Romney or Ryan, two pledged servants of the 1% who’d be no better for America’s working class than Trump?
Let Republicans nominate whoever they like best, then vote for the candidate in the general election you like best. That’s how elections work.
edgarthearmenian says
but the this “satire” has only hardened support for Trump among his admirers and probably helped his campaign. Do I know this as fact? No, but that was the reaction I saw at the local health club yesterday.
shillelaghlaw says
Maybe the Globe is pulling a B’rer Rabbit and begging people not to vote for Trump as some kind of reverse psychology to ensure that Hillary or Bernie gets to face him as opposed to facing Romney or Ryan.
shillelaghlaw says
Why does the Globe call the mock front page “satire?”
Satire is funny. This would more accurately be described as “speculative fiction.”
Christopher says
…why they didn’t publish this on April Fool’s Day. Predictably, Trump is lashing out, calling the paper worthless and such.
dave-from-hvad says
have gone beyond even editorializing in this election, and feel it is somehow their job to become players and determine the outcome. For instance, I read somewhere that the Globe did the fake front page because they felt they had to take “extreme measures” in the face of extreme circumstances (a possible Trump presidency). But since when is it a newspaper’s role to try to determine the outcome of an election? The media’s role is to report news and provide us with their analysis and opinion on it, and let us make up our own minds.
We know what Trump has said about deportations etc. We don’t need a newspaper spelling it out for us as if we’re all dummies.
Christopher says
Maybe since the National Gazette duelled for readership with the Gazette of the United States back in the 1790s, or since Hearst told his Havana-based photographer to simply furnish the pictures and he would furnish the war in the 1890s. There is a moral imperative to stop Trump by any legal means that has not existed for other candidates.
dave-from-hvad says
for political or other coverage is setting the bar pretty low. Also, I disagree that the Globe has a moral imperative to stop Trump. The Globe is a newspaper, not a political party or machine, which they seem to have forgotten. Trump should be stopped by political opposition, not by a newspaper that considers itself a political player in the race.
Christopher says
…and if we happen to have the privilege of publishing or editing a newspaper we should use that means. We’re talking about a man whose election is seen as a danger to the world in the way no other candidate has been in a long time. Yes, the examples I used are low bars, but I could not help giving you grief (intended good-naturedly) about a comment that seemed to imply that papers were never intended to influence elections or other events with more than the daily house editorial, when that historically clearly isn’t the case. The notion that there are objective standards for journalism didn’t really materialize until the 20th century.
jconway says
The deportations have already begun in earnest, under this President. Despite being publicly committed to comprehensive immigration reform, the Obama administration has still deported over 2.5 million people during its time in office. A 25% increase from George W Bush and one of the highest records of any president.
I am not bashing the President, he is somewhat removed from these policies and the issue is complex, but it does show the white upper middle class bubble the Globe largely operates in that they didn’t know this was a problem in reality and not just a dystopian fantasy starting under a Trump presidency. There have been rallies in Holyoke, Lynn, and East Boston protesting these policies where families right here in Massachusetts have been torn apart. It would be nice if the Globe covered something real about those people in our own backyard, their families, and their plight.
hesterprynne says
…the local effects of Obama’s deportation policy in at least one powerful and effective story.
Agree that the editorial board’s decision to make “Deportations To Begin” the banner headline shows some insularity about the current state of affairs. It also manages to disparage the Globe’s news staff.