The New York Times has not always been so excited for historic presidential running-mate choices, though you would surely guess otherwise based on the front page of the paper’s Wednesday edition.
The New York Times is pleased as punch this week following presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s announcement that he has selected California Sen. Kamala Harris to be his running mate. But the newspaper had nothing but sneers and jeers in 2008 for when the late Sen. John McCain selected then-Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to join him on the GOP ticket, a first for any Republican presidential nominee.
“Harris Joins Biden Ticket, Achieving a First,” reads the headline to Wednesday’s New York Times front page, which was dominated entirely by news of Biden’s running mate.
A second headline featured above the fold says, “Political Warrior Shaped by Life in 2 Worlds.”
The accompanying story’s first lines read, “Kamala Harris’s first act as a political candidate was knocking out a former boxer: the progressive San Francisco district attorney who had been her boss.”
A third headling on the same front page reads, “Pick Seen as Safe But Energizing.”
“In naming Kamala Harris as his running mate, Joseph R. Biden Jr. made a groundbreaking decision, picking a woman of color to be vice president and, possibly, a successor in the White House someday,” the article’s lede states.
“Woman of Color in No. 2 Slot of Major Party,” reads the fourth and final headline splashed across the Aug. 12 print edition.
That report opens with this: “Joseph R. Biden Jr. selected Senator Kamala Harris of California as his vice-presidential running mate on Tuesday, embracing a former rival who sharply criticized him in the Democratic primaries but emerged after ending her campaign as a vocal supporter of Mr. Biden’s and a prominent advocate of racial-justice legislation after the killing of George Floyd in late May.”
The New York Times’s front page following Biden’s VP announcement. pic.twitter.com/C0v15trfaJ
— tsar becket adams (@BecketAdams) August 12, 2020
In contrast, the New York Times’s Aug. 30, 2008, front page was not dominated entirely by McCain’s announcement that he had chosen Palin to be his running mate. Rather, his pick for vice president shared space that day with a report about how natural gas helps Utah motorists save money.
The New York Times’s Aug. 30, 2008, front page following McCain’s VP announcement. pic.twitter.com/W5hwdf64kV
— tsar becket adams (@BecketAdams) August 12, 2020
That is not the only difference between the New York Times’s handling of the Harris and Palin announcements. The difference in tone is especially glaring.
“Alaskan Is McCain’s Choice; First Woman on G.O.P. Ticket” headlines the front page to an Aug. 30, 2008, report covering the senator’s announcement.
The accompanying article’s opening lines read, “Senator John McCain astonished the political world on Friday by naming Sarah Palin, a little-known governor of Alaska and self-described ‘hockey mom’ with almost no foreign policy experience, as his running mate on the Republican presidential ticket.”
The print edition also included a headline that reads, “A Bold Move, With Risks.”
Its opening lines read, “Senator John McCain spent the summer arguing that a 40-something candidate with four years in major office and no significant foreign policy experience was not ready to be president. And then on Friday he picked as his running mate a 40-something candidate with two years in major office and no significant foreign policy experience.”
“An Outsider Who Charms” is a second headline. Its subhead states, “Ms. Palin rose to prominence by impressing voters more with gumption and warmth than an established record.”
The press raked Palin over the coals in 2008 as an inexperienced yokel, and the New York Times led the charge. Harris, on the other hand, is on track to receive especially kind treatment from the media in the 2020 election, especially if the New York Times’s Aug. 12 front page is an indication of things to come.
Reporters and commentators for the New York Times were not wrong when they complained that Palin’s record was exceptionally thin when McCain asked her to be his running mate. But you know who does have an established record as a corrupt prosecutor and an authoritarian senator and is now on the Democratic ticket as Biden’s running mate? Kamala Harris. Just don’t expect to read anything about it in the New York Times.
