A Classic NYT Upside-Down Article

Why is Donald Trump talking about Willie Brown? Unenquiring minds (such as many Times subscribers) don't want to know.

As I’ve been pointing out for years, newspapers used to have a rule — The Five W’s — to cram as many of the most important answers to Who-What-Where-When-Why questions in the first sentence or at least first paragraph of each news story. That way, readers could quickly pick up the gist of the news and not be badly uninformed if they didn’t bother reading all the way to the end.

But the New York Times, under its current business model of pleasing its ample number of subscribers by protecting their worldviews from exposure to unpleasant realities, has turned this tradition upside down, and now buries crucial facts a dozen or even two dozen paragraphs deep in the paper.

Yes, Trump Was in a Scary Helicopter Ride. But Not With That Politician.

There was a helicopter. It did make an emergency landing. But a former California lawmaker says Donald Trump has mixed up one Black lawmaker for another.

By Shawn Hubler, Maggie Haberman, and Heather Knight

Aug. 10, 2024

Donald J. Trump was doubling down on Friday about his story of nearly crashing during a helicopter ride once with Willie Brown, the notable Black California politician.

He was so adamant that it had happened that he threatened to sue The New York Times for reporting that the story was untrue, then posted on his social media site that there were “‘Logs,’ Maintenance Records, and Witnesses” to back up his account.

“It was Willie Brown,” Mr. Trump, who spent much of the last year hoping to make gains with Black voters, posted. “But now Willie doesn’t remember?”

Trump appears to be confusing a ride he took decades ago with now 95-year-old retired black politician Nate Holden with another ride he took decades ago with now 90-year-old retired black politician Willie Brown. Holden, a tall man who is slightly less bald than Brown, is offended that Trump is confusing him with the short, squat Brown, who looks like a black Pepe the Frog, as we see in this recent photo of Willie with one of Kamala’s numerous successors:

“I said, ‘Willie, you know what? That’s me!’” Mr. Holden said. “And I told him, ‘You’re a short Black guy and I’m a tall Black guy — but we all look alike, right?’”

Mr. Holden gave his own height as 6-foot-1. “Willie has to be about 5-foot-6. Maybe 5-foot-5. He comes up to about my shoulders. And he’s bald. And I’m not bald.”…

Mr. Holden, summing up his assessment of Mr. Trump’s recollection, said: “I just think he makes things up. That’s what I think. He never thought anybody’s going to check.”

Actually, Nate (the bald man on the far right) looks pretty bald in this photo Trump autographed for him:

But Holden perhaps remembers a time in, say, 1970 when he had much more hair than Brown did.

Memories can be like that.

Of course, the NYT leaves unanswered until much later in the article the obvious Why question: why was Trump talking about 90-year-old Willie Brown? Why is the former San Francisco mayor in the headlines these days despite not having held elective office in over 20 years?