Another day, another liberal Democrat the New York Times has disguised as a moderate. On Tuesday, the so-called paper of record gushed over the “homespun” “centrist” Jon Tester, who is struggling to hold onto his Senate seat in Montana. This comes a day after the Times hailed the “centrist,” “moderate” Joe Donnelly in Indiana.
The print headline for the Tester story fretted, “Dizzying Attacks By President Threaten a Homespun Senator.” Journalist Matt Flegenheimer touted “the senator who looks least like a senator.” He sarcastically contrasted the Democrat with “the president who behaves least like a president.”
Later in the article, the reporter said of a campaign event: “Mr. Tester deployed the full homespun charm offensive.” Again, this is supposedly a straight news story.
Flegenheimer offered this inaccurate description of Tester: “Still, for months, Mr. Tester had seemed uniquely positioned to hang on, leaning on the centrist reputation and lunch-pail political brand that first carried him to the Senate in 2006.”
Despite what the Times appears to think, you don’t become a moderate simply because you live away from the coasts. Tester’s American Conservative Union score in 2017 was 4. His lifetime score is 11. The National Rifle Association gives the Democrat a D. Planned Parenthood awarded Tester a perfect 100 percent. (To his credit, Flegenheimer at least mentioned the NRA score. But not the others.)
Does any of this sound “centrist?” Well, as long as Tester is “homespun.”
On Monday, the Times attempted to save the “centrist,” “moderate” Senator Donnelly in Indiana. The Democrat’s ACU score in 2017 was 0. In 2016, it was 12. It’s true that his lifetime score over 11 years is a higher 23. But the Democrat has been drifting leftward. His grade from the left-wing National Education Association is an A. His grade from the NRA is a D.
Sound familiar? Perhaps the hard-left New York Times is in no position to judge whether someone is a “centrist,” a “moderate” or a liberal.
