New York Times Taken to Task for Misrepresenting Trump Supporters as ‘Swing Voters’

New York Times Taken to Task for Misrepresenting Trump Supporters as ‘Swing Voters’

The New York Times has bee criticized for an article about impeaching President Donald Trump where it presented the President’s supporters as swing voters or independents. One of the authors of the story, Sabrina Tavernise, tweeted that she had interviewed ‘six swing voters’ but was quickly called out.

Pollster Matt McDermott launched into a Twitter thread explaining that the NYT piece had misrepresented some of the voters they interviewed. Rather than being independents and swing voters, many of those in the article were dyed in the wool Trump fans.

“No, the New York Times did not talk to six “swing voters” about impeachment. The article quotes a handful of devout GOP voters who the NYT has repeatedly interviewed multiple times,” McDermott said, linking to Tavernise’s tweet. She has since deleted the tweet, however.

As McDermott explained, the journalists don’t seem to have done due diligence on their interviewees. In at least one case, a Trump supporter had already been interviewed by the newspaper.

“The NYT article also includes an interview with Trisha, who admits she’s been to 23 Trump campaign rallies. 23!” McDermott says. “She wrote a book about Trump! NYT has interviewed her at least twice in the past two years. She’s a Trump fanatic, not a swing voter.”

Another Trump supporter cited in the article was previously interviewed by the AP about ‘Trump country’. He also had a picture of Confederate General Robert E. Lee on his wall.

McDermott criticized the New York Times for what he sees as repeating the mistakes of the 2016 election, presenting a misleading narrative about swing voters and politics generally.

“The NYT is repeating its exact same 2016 reporting antics, presenting devout Trump supporters as some sort of forgotten swing constituency,” McDermott said. “Why does this keep happening, and why do they keep going back to the same individuals for interviews?”

The article is still live and does not appear to have been corrected or updated. It still calls some voters ‘independent’ who are clearly strong supporters of the President.

Darragh Roche

Darragh Roche is Political Media Editor

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