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A blockbuster story propelled by descriptive writing

September 28, 2020 by jimmycsays

I’m sure most of you have read, or at least read about, The Times’ latest expose on President Trump’s tax scam and how the bills are fast coming due on hundreds of millions in tax liabilities.

The Times posted the story Sunday afternoon, and in today’s print edition it starts on Page 1 and jumps inside, where it consumes five pages.

The Washington Post, The Times’ biggest competitor, called it a “blockbuster report” and has run several stories about it…Which shows that when one paper has a story this big, even the competition bows in acknowledgment.

What I really admire about this story, in addition to further exposing Trump as a con man and shyster, is the compelling writing that propels the story along and makes it seem shorter than it is.

The story contains a waterfall of facts and figures, which, without good writing, would prompt many readers to give up. But the three main reporters — Russ Buettner, Susanne Craig and Mike McIntire — and their editors packaged and wrote it in such a way that a majority of readers, I suspect, will read it all the way through.

Let me give you some examples of the outstanding writing…

:: What the complex web of numbers and other data mean:

Ultimately, Mr. Trump has been more successful playing a business mogul than being one in real life.

:: How his faltering finances may have influenced his entry into politics:

Indeed, his financial condition when he announced his run for president in 2015 lends some credence to the notion that his long-shot campaign was at least in part a gambit to reanimate the marketability of his name.

:: On the president’s actual and potential conflicts of interest:

His properties have become bazaars for collecting money directly from lobbyists, foreign officials and others seeking face time, access or favor.

:: On his practice of carrying forward leftover losses to reduce taxes in future years:

That provision has been the background music to Mr. Trump’s life.

:: The main takeaway:

The picture that perhaps emerges most starkly from the mountain of figures and tax schedules…is of a businessman-president in a tightening financial vise.

**

That the story is beautifully written should not be a surprise. The Times has the best writers in the business, and many have won major awards.

In 2019, for example, Buettner and Craig were part of a three-member team that won a Pulitzer Prize for their investigation that shattered the myth that Trump was a self-made billionaire. The third member of the team that produced yesterday’s story, Mike McIntire, also has a Pulitzer on his resume.

Here are thumbnail bios of the three:

Buettner

Buettner is an investigative reporter whose work has focused, since 2016, on Trump’s finances. He has produced notable articles exploring Trump’s record of failure in Atlantic City and overstating revenues from his businesses. Buettner joined The Times in 2006 after working on investigative teams at The New York Daily News and New York Newsday. He got his undergraduate degree from California State University-Sacramento, and he attended the University of Missouri Graduate School of Journalism.

Craig

Craig joined The Times in 2010 and since then has produced investigative articles on a wide range of subjects, including presidential politics and state-house corruption. Previously, she was a reporter at the Wall Street Journal and worked at The Globe and Mail, Canada’s national newspaper. At The Journal, she was the lead reporter on a team of writers who were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize for their coverage of the fall of Lehman Brothers and the financial crisis. She graduated from the University of Calgary.

McIntire is an investigative reporter, author and editor. He joined The Times in 2003 and shared the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for reporting on covert Russian interference in the U.S. presidential election. Earlier in his career, he was an investigative editor at The Hartford Courant, where he was part of a team that won a Pulitzer for breaking news reporting and was a Pulitzer finalist for investigative reporting on medical malpractice.

McIntire

He has also been a national writer at the Associated Press in New York and a reporter and editor at several Connecticut newspapers. He graduated from Hartwick College in Oneonta, NY, in 1985 with a bachelor’s degree in political science and government.

**

Finally, another element that makes this story so riveting is the main photo that accompanies it on The Times’ home page. (The photo is also on Page A16 in the print edition.) The photo, by Doug Mills, one of The Times’ best photographers, is a black-and-white image of a menacing-looking Trump sitting in the back seat of his presidential limo. The reader’s eye goes first to Trump and then to the presidential seal, directly below Trump, on the side of the car. The photo leaves the impression Trump is hermetically sealed in a black, steel cocoon.

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Posted in Uncategorized | 12 Comments

12 Responses

  1. on September 28, 2020 at 9:59 pm Kaler Bole

    The Emperor has no clothes.


  2. on September 29, 2020 at 7:30 am BigDogKC

    Unfortunately, this story will have no effect on the support of Trump acolytes. And, I’m not talking about his inevitable claim of “fake news.” The truth: Trump cultists have always known that he’s a liar, a cheat, morally and intellectually deficient. They don’t care because he gives them what they want. Acceptance of their own shortcomings & grievances against a world that’s becoming less white, better educated, more diverse in skills, thoughts and deeds. . . and unfortunately for many of them, locked in unappreciated obscurity and declining economic security because of their own lack of abilities to cope with these changes.


    • on September 29, 2020 at 8:52 am jimmycsays

      It’s not the Trump acolytes, Big Dog, the Dems are looking to convert; it’s Latinos, suburban women and the Catholic/right-to-lifers who are clinging tentatively to Trump for just that issue but realize he’s a crook and an asshole and are feeling tempted to leap. These NYT stories (there’s another one today) are going to cost him a lot of votes. Listen and watch, the wind is shifting, and tonight, I expect, it will turn into a gale.


      • on September 29, 2020 at 9:41 am BigDogKC

        Jim, I sure hope the conversion of the convertible is successful….and that the gale turns into a freaking hurricane with sustained winds that obliterate Cadet Bone Spur, his Cabinet cronies and his spineless enablers in Congress.


    • on September 29, 2020 at 10:57 am Bill Hirt

      I follow the Lincoln Project and the Never Trumpers to see what they think. The former GOP strategists say they have seen in the past few polls that Trump’s support is beginning to crumble among white non-college males who have been rock solid for Trump for nearly the past 4 years. The increasing amount of virus and drop off in financial support due to the virus impact is what they attribute that too.

      If Biden is halfway competent in the debate tonight, the tax issues could nudge enough voters away from Trump that the results of the election will be clear on Election Night even there are still millions of votes to count.


      • on September 29, 2020 at 12:46 pm jimmycsays

        Good information, Bill…Very interesting about some of the non-college, white males turning away.


  3. on September 29, 2020 at 8:03 am kansas karl

    Trump’s former campaign manager Brad Parscale tried to commit suicide and was put under observation, his behavior of the last weeks has been concerning. Could it be his success on getting his dear leader elected has weighed upon his mind and the thought of 4 more years drove him to this point in his life.


    • on September 29, 2020 at 8:56 am jimmycsays

      Mental instability and having “multiple firearms” in your house are not a good combination.

      https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/27/politics/brad-parscale-hospitalized/index.html


  4. on September 29, 2020 at 8:22 am Midtown Browne

    Agree Jim. Great journalism by the NYT.


  5. on September 29, 2020 at 9:53 am Bob

    I read the entire 2019 NYT piece, no doubt the longest newspaper article I have ever tackled. And then this one…whew. My takeaways: 1. Trump’s dad gave him his fortune, period. The Donald could have put all that money into a S&P 500 fund and very likely would have as big (or bigger) a fortune today with no effort. But heck no, this would not have served his needs for attention and “winning”. 2. The IRS rules are f….d. I was amazed that tax dodges of this magnitude are commonplace. Do take time to read today’s NYT editorial The Picture of a Broken Tax System. Trump is only one magnificent example of the completely unfair tax rules we have created. I am not in favor of taxing the wealthy to death. But please, God, let’s at least tax them! Trump is a symptom, not the entire disease.

    Thanks for your post, Jim.


    • on September 29, 2020 at 12:45 pm jimmycsays

      I saw that editorial. Haven’t read it yet but certainly will…Thanks for the comment, Bob.


  6. on September 29, 2020 at 10:24 am Rick Nichols

    Trump is merely a symptom of a much greater problem in this country, and that problem will still be there regardless of who is sitting in the Oval Office when Jan. 20, 2021 comes to an end.



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