On Monday, Jon Favreau, former speechwriter for former President Barack Obama and currently a co-host for Pod Save America, decided to attack Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) for his criticism of The New York Times. He should have known better; Cruz calmly took him apart as easily as a surgeon doing a simple operation.
Last Sunday, Cruz (R-TX) fired off a series of tweets lambasting The New York Times after a leaked transcript of a speech from New York Times executive editor Dean Baquet was published by Slate. As The Daily Wire reported, “The transcript showed the editor explaining that since the claim that President Donald Trump colluded with Russia to steal the 2016 election fell apart, the paper will now publish stories claiming Trump is a racist for the rest of his presidency.”
Cruz tweeted, “There was a time when journalists covered ‘news.’ The NYT has given up on even pretending anymore. Today, they are Pravda, a propaganda outlet by liberals, for liberals. These remarks at their ‘town hall’ are a scandal & would be a firing offense at any real journalistic outlet.” He added, “The Editor says (in effect) ‘for 2 yrs, we covered ‘Russia, Russia, Russia,’ facts be damned; now we’ll scream ‘racism, racism, racism’ for 18 mos, and the rest of the media follow us.’ That’s not journalism.”
Cruz continued by slamming the Times’ 1619 Project, tweeting and quoting Baquet as he did so: “E.g., NYT: ‘One reason we all signed off on The 1619 Project [explained below] and made it so ambitious and expansive was TO TEACH OUR READERS TO THINK A LITTLE BIT MORE LIKE THAT.’ Does that sound like news? Or editorial? (Remember, this was the ‘News’ Editor.)”
He added, “What is the 1619 project? In NYT’s words: ‘It aims to REFRAME OUR COUNTRY’S HISTORY, understanding 1619 as OUR TRUE FOUNDING, and placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of the STORY WE TELL ourselves about who we are.”
That prompted Favreau to take the opportunity to rip Cruz for his criticism of the Times, a left-wing bastion, tweeting, “Ted Cruz picking a bad faith media bias fight with the New York Times and then retweeting all of the glowing coverage from right-wing propaganda sites is literally everything you need to know about @tedcruz.”
But Favreau should have known that getting into a debate with Cruz, who among other things, has argued cases before the Supreme Court, is not a good idea. Cruz calmly picked Favreau apart, responding on Twitter, “Obama’s speechwriter demonstrates the problem. (1) He attacks, impugning motives, and ignores the substance. (2) With Dems (esp Obama), the media adoringly amplifies every word they say. (3) They refuse to cover any facts that conflict with their chosen Left-wing narrative.”
Cruz then finished the job, concluding, “So of course I retweet stories about the NYT scandal (from Fox, Wash Times, Daily Wire, etc.) BECAUSE THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA REFUSES TO COVER IT. As best I can tell, ZERO stories in NYT, WaPo, ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN. Like you, they ignore the actual transcript of the NYT town hall.”