NYT's Trump-and-women exposé disputed by its own lead anecdote
The Times's investigation of Donald Trump's private conduct with women opened with former model Rowanne Brewer Lane's 1990 Mar-a-Lago pool-party story, presented as an example of Trump demeaning women.
The contested framing served the narrative of Trump as a mistreater of women during the general-election run-up.
What was reported
The Times's investigation of Donald Trump's private conduct with women opened with former model Rowanne Brewer Lane's 1990 Mar-a-Lago pool-party story, presented as an example of Trump demeaning women.
What actually happened
A day after publication, Brewer Lane said on television that the paper had spun her account and that she had never had a negative experience with Trump or felt offended by him. She did not dispute the basic facts of the bikini episode but said she saw it as flattering. The Times said it had quoted her fairly and accurately and did not change the story.
The proof
The article's lead source publicly rejected the characterization of her own experience; the paper stood by its quotes, leaving the framing contested.
The receipt. Copy this and paste it anywhere:
NYT's Trump-and-women exposé disputed by its own lead anecdote — Unproven. The article's lead source publicly rejected the characterization of her own experience; the paper stood by its quotes, leaving the framing contested. Full file: https://www.thepropagandafiles.com/case/nyt-trump-women-brewer-lane/
Original reporting
- TheWrap: 7 revelations from the NYT exposé (summary of the original; secondary)https://thewrap.com/7-revelations-about-donald-trumps-relationship-with-women-from-ny-times-expose
- Business Insider: The NYT interviewed 50 women about Trump (secondary)https://www.businessinsider.in/the-new-york-times-interviewed-50-women-about-how-trump-treated-them/articleshow/52272004.cms
Corrections, findings & records
- NBC News: Key source disputes Times story on Trump's behavior with womenhttps://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna574741
- TheWrap: Trump's ex-girlfriend says NYT put a negative spin on her quoteshttps://thewrap.com/donald-trump-new-york-times-girlfriend-rowanne-brewer-lane-women-interview-negative-connotation-never-offended
- CBS News: Trump's ex-girlfriend 'very upset' about NYT storyhttps://www.cbsnews.com/news/donald-trumps-ex-girlfriend-very-upset-about-new-york-times-story
Archived copies
Stories get edited after publication. These open the Internet Archive's earliest saved copy of each original.
- Archived copy: TheWrap: 7 revelations from the NYT exposé (summary of the original; secondary)https://web.archive.org/web/2/https://thewrap.com/7-revelations-about-donald-trumps-relationship-with-women-from-ny-times-expose
- Archived copy: Business Insider: The NYT interviewed 50 women about Trump (secondary)https://web.archive.org/web/2/https://www.businessinsider.in/the-new-york-times-interviewed-50-women-about-how-trump-treated-them/articleshow/52272004.cms