Grammar and the party press

Shouldn't be a surprise that the lead story this afternoon at the Formerly Fair 'n' Balanced Network was another tweet from Massster. But we should be a little more careful with the syntax, don't you think?

Seems to me that in the Fox hed, both "failing" and "New York Times" are trying to modify "reporter." But that hardly seems to be where the tweet is going, nor yet the lede:

President Trump on Sunday criticized a New York Times story stating that he has failed to fulfill campaign promises on undoing key Obama administration policies, calling the newspaper “failing” and pointing to early successes like exiting the international Paris climate accord and getting conservative Judge Neil Gorsuch on the Supreme Court.

Fox, of course, has a bigger mission at hand:

... Baker is The Times’ chief White House correspondent and is billed as a straight-news reporter.

Last month, the newspaper published a Baker story titled, “A Divider, Not a Uniter, Trump Widens the Breach,” that reads like what could be considered an opinion piece.

Baker referred to  Trump as an “apostle of anger” and “deacon of divisiveness,” before noting that the president’s recent comments about athletes protesting the national anthem “distract from other matters, particularly Congress’ efforts on health care reform."

When reached by Fox News, Baker defended his comments as “analysis rather than opinion,” referring to it as “an observation” based on covering Trump for the past eight months.

The Times did not respond when Fox News asked if Baker is still considered a straight-news reporter.

... Trump has previously referred to the Times as “failing,” and many media watchdogs feel liberal bias is showing.

There's a shirttail for Brian Flood, who appears to be the new hand on the Bias Alert beat. He certainly seems to be developing a distinctive style.