June 22, 2018
While the NYT insists that its policy is to not read people’s minds and attribute motives (therefore it will never say Donald Trump “lied”), for some reason it keep reading minds and attributing motives. A piece in today’s paper on Trump’s plan to reorganize the government told readers:
“The core of Mr. Trump’s safety net policy is an expansion of work requirements to foster self-sufficiency among recipients of food assistance, Medicaid and housing subsidies to reduce dependence on the government.”
The next paragraph told readers that,
“Its real purpose, advocates for poor people claim, is to kick hundreds of thousands of the needy off the federal rolls, to cut taxes for the rich.”
It’s good that the paper gave the view of advocates for the poor, but it had just asserted that the policy is “to foster self-sufficiency among recipients of food assistance.” In fact, research shows that work requirements do not increase self-sufficiency among the poor. Since the Trump administration is pursuing a policy that research indicates will not actually lead to greater self-sufficiency, it is reasonable to conclude that this is not actually the goal of the policy.
But again, there is no need for the paper to attribute motives. It should just tell readers that the Trump administration claims its goal is to increase self-sufficiency, but the evidence is that the policy will most likely have the opposite effect.
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