Trump reacts after New York Times CHANGED front-page headline to avoid praising ‘unity message’

President Donald Trump complained Wednesday after The New York Times changed a positive Page One headline about Monday’s speech following a pair of mass-shootings.

The switch was made to accommodate outraged reporters and Twitter pundits who objected to its cast of Trump’s speech in a flattering light.

‘”Trump Urges Unity Vs. Racism,” was the correct description in the first headline by the Failing New York Times, but it was quickly changed to, “Assailing Hate But Not Guns,” after the Radical Left Democrats went absolutely CRAZY!’ the president tweeted.

‘Fake News – That’s what we’re up against,’ he jabbed, adding: ‘After 3 years I almost got a good headline from the Times!’

Trump vented on Twitter that a mob of ‘radical left Democrats’ had forced The New York Times to change course and change a front-page headline to avoid praising him for a speech

The two versions of Tuesday’s New York Times front page are shown here, with the headline changing to reflect outrage amont liberal partisans on Twitter and reporters in the paper’s newsroom

Times Executive Editor Dean Baquet told the influential Columbia Journalism Review that the original headline wasn’t an effort to arrive at a result that ‘mollified Donald Trump.’

He also distanced himself from the decision to run it in the paper’s first print edition. The second edition carried the changed headline.

The first was factually accurate and reflected the story’s opening. 

The president said Monday that Americans should ‘set destructive partisanship aside’ find ‘the courage to answer hatred with unity, devotion, and love.’

Trump also quoted longtime former Bill Clinton pollster Mark Penn in a tweet Wednesday morning, saying: ‘This is an astounding development in journalism. I’ve never seen it happen before, I’ve just never seen anything like this! Is that journalism today? I don’t think so.’ 

Penn appeared Tuesday night on Fox News Channel host Tucker Carlson’s program, which Trump watches regularly.

‘It took The New York Times, a daily newspaper published in New York City, less than a day to end a bold new experiment yesterday running an objective headline,’ Carlson said. 

Trump was responding in Monday’s speech to Saturday’s shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio, which left 41 people dead.

He has drawn unusually intense criticism among liberal partisans for his past rhetoric condemning Central American drug gangsters and other illegal immigrants.

Sunday’s first shooter was a white supremacist who believed he was exacting vengeance against Mexicans for an ‘invasion’ of Texas, according to a four-page manifesto he published before his killing spree.

The Dayton gunman, however, appeared to have been a political liberal, expressing admiration for Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and advocating for a universal taxpayer-funded minimum income for all Americans.

The president is visiting the two cities on Wednesday amid complaints from Democrats in both places that his appearance will be divisive. Many have claimed he is himself a white supremacist. 

Prepared remarks for a Wednesday afterno speech have former Vice President Joe Biden, a 2020 Democratic front-runner, claiming Trump ‘has aligned himself with the darkest forces in this nation.’

‘In both clear language and in code, this president has fanned the flames of white supremacy in this nation.: 

One MSNBC anchor, Nicolle Wallace, apologized Tuesday night after saying on the air that Trump’s rhetoric could lead to the ‘extermination” of Hispanics in the U.S. 

Former Times political statistician Nete Silver sparked a social media firestorm Monday night by posting an image of the coming front page and opining, ‘Not sure “TRUMP URGES UNITY VS. RACISM” is how I would have framed the story.’

An hour later New York Magazine writer Yashar Ali, whose Twitter audience includes 434,000 people, wrote that he had ‘have never received more texts from furious NYT reporters/writers than I have tonight.’

The president said Monday that Americans should 'set destructive partisanship aside' find 'the courage to answer hatred with unity, devotion, and love'

The president said Monday that Americans should ‘set destructive partisanship aside’ find ‘the courage to answer hatred with unity, devotion, and love’

Fox News Channel host Tucker Carlson mocked the Times Tuesday night, in a monologue that Trump likely watched, for 'end[ing] a bold new experiment yesterday running an objective headline'

Fox News Channel host Tucker Carlson mocked the Times Tuesday night, in a monologue that Trump likely watched, for ‘end[ing] a bold new experiment yesterday running an objective headline’

Trump also quoted longtime former Bill Clinton pollster Mark Penn, who appeared on Carlson's show, saying: 'I’ve just never seen anything like this! Is that journalism today? I don’t think so'

Trump also quoted longtime former Bill Clinton pollster Mark Penn, who appeared on Carlson’s show, saying: ‘I’ve just never seen anything like this! Is that journalism today? I don’t think so’

‘They feel like their hard work is being sullied by a horrible headline. And they’re all blaming Dean Baquet.’

That characterization implies that the mood in the newsroom was critical of Trump to a degree that underscoring his call for national ‘unity’ in a headline wouldn’t permit.

The president has long been critical of the Times, calling it a ‘fake news’ outlet and a ‘failing’ newspaper.

He has predicted that unless he is elected to a second controversy-filled term in the White House the Times and other news outlets that routinely criticize him will ‘go out of business’ for lack of a piñata to swing at daily.

A Columbia Journalism Review writer summed up much of institutional journalism’s verdict on Tuesday, calling Trump’s Monday speech ‘ludicrous.’

‘Trump invoked “unity, devotion, and love,” concepts about which he demonstrates no knowledge. He failed to address the El Paso shooter’s online screed, which contained clear echoes of Trump’s racist rhetoric,’ wote Jon Allsop.

 

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk