Putin, Trump, and the Inept New York Times

[Celerity]

Today on TAP: How could the Times so totally bungle the story of Russia’s latest peace plan and Trump’s capitulation?

https://prospect.org/2025/11/24/putin-trump-ukraine-inept-new-york-times/


Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Andriy Yermak, second from right, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio talk to the press as their consultations continue at the U.S. Mission to International Organizations in Geneva, November 23, 2025. Credit: Martial Trezzini/Keystone via AP

If you get your news on the Russia-Ukraine negotiations from The New York Times, here is what you read this morning. Headline: “Ukraine and U.S. Cite Progress in Talks on Ending War With Russia.” And the lead paragraph:



Just about everything in this framing is wrong, and the rest of the piece is worse. For starters, this is not a “U.S. plan.” It’s a Putin plan. Most of the story just quotes official, soothing statements. That’s not reporting; it’s stenography. Only in paragraphs 28 and 29, if you read that far, do you get a hint of the real story:



Right. And so …? The Times doesn’t tell us. To get the real story, you might have read The Wall Street Journal’s Saturday editorial, which points out that the 28-point plan is basically a Putin wish list, and a total capitulation. Or you could just read the plan, which somehow escaped the attention of the Times. It gives Putin all of the Donbas in the east, prohibits NATO defense of Ukraine, requires new elections in Ukraine within 100 days (how about free and fair elections in Russia?), ends all sanctions on Russia, and a great deal more, all favoring Putin and all undercutting Ukraine.

Or to get a proper explainer piece, you could have read Heather Cox Richardson. Her post early this morning scrupulously unpacked the infighting between Vice President JD Vance, who deceptively presented Putin’s leaked plan as a joint U.S.-Russian plan, and the hapless secretary of state, Marco Rubio. Richardson went into detail about how Rubio initially contradicted Vance, telling a group of Republican senators that the plan was in fact Putin’s, then ineptly tried to walk that back. Richardson deliciously quotes Sen. Mitch McConnell: “Putin has spent the entire year trying to play President Trump for a fool. Rewarding Russian butchery would be disastrous to America’s interests.”

snip

[stopdiggin]

1. a few more headlines today

from your 'bungling' and horribly inept NYT - that is so clearly just fluffing on anything to do with the story, background, or implication.

How Rubio Tried to Bring a Pro-Russia Peace Plan to Middle Ground
(While President Trump attacked the Ukrainians, Secretary of State Marco Rubio flew to Geneva to seize control of negotiations that were going off the rails.)

What to Know About Trump’s Peace Plan for Russia and Ukraine
(U.S. officials have responded to a storm of criticism about the plan by insisting that it is still a work in progress.)

As Ukraine Sets ‘Red Lines,’ a U.S. Peace Plan Is Slimmed Down

U.S. Army Secretary Travels to U.A.E. for Meetings With Russian Envoys
(The secretary, Daniel Driscoll, was in Geneva over the weekend for talks with a Ukrainian delegation.)

The Outrageous False Equivalences That Prop Up President Trump

[tanyev]

2. Ah, but if the real objective was to catapult propaganda, they didn't bungle it at all.

🤨

[stopdiggin]

3. landed like a turd in the punch bowl (across the entire F-ing world)

if this is winning - sure hate to see what losing looks like ....

[BlueTsunami2018]

4. They aren't inept at all, this is who they are.

They are a ruling class, fascist mouthpiece and have been for a long, long time.

“Inept” is giving them credit they do not deserve.

When the frig are we going to wake up?