THIS TIME IS DIFFERENT

Headline in The New York Times a little more than a week before the 2016 election:



Headline in the Times on March 24 of this year, after the release of the attorney general's summary of the Mueller report:



Now compare the headlines at the Times, The Washington Post, and NPR at this moment, after the release of the White House transcript of President Trump's July 25 phone call with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky:







We live in an era when quite a few people get their news mostly from headlines. As I was reading the transcript, I realized that the major news outlets -- or at least the Times -- could have headlined the story more or less like this:

“Did the President of the United States suggest to Ukraine I will withhold money unless you go after my political rival? The answer is absolutely not.” -@LindseyGrahamSC pic.twitter.com/0sfJdOxXFi

— GOP (@GOP) September 25, 2019

Maybe it's because centrists and not just those awful progressives seem to be upset about this story, but the headlines from the major news outlets are unambiguously bad for the president. I can't blame Trump and his team for expecting better press -- at key moments, they've gotten it. They're not getting it now. This time is different.