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A bizarre Trump take in the New York Times shows the value of reporting
In the New York Times last week, the columnist and reliable generator of mirth David Brooks imagined a conversation between a Democrat and a Trump voter. The Democrat, whom he named “Urban Guy”, was trying to convert the Donald Trump supporter (“Flyover Man”) to his low view of the president. Flyover Man was resisting. Park for a moment any reservations you might have about entering the realm of Brooks’s imagination and praise the man for at least owning his column’s fictional status. Per the conventions of the genre, he could have put the quotes in the mouth of a “cab driver” and claimed the entire exercise as a piece of reporting.
Instead, boldly, Brooks let us in on his screenplay in progress. He is hardly a stranger to negative attention: think of the outcry over a column he wrote about class and sandwiches a few years ago, in which he pitied a poorly educated friend for freaking out in the face of the word “soppressata”. Continue reading...