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P2 Week One

Michelle Goldberg
He paid $1 million for an ambassadorship and bought himself disgrace.
The New York Times
October 18, 2019
In Michelle Goldberg’s latest article titled, “How did Gordon Sondland Think This Was Going To End?”, she analyzes Gordon Sondland’s recent controversy and the complexity of his political views. She begins the article by almost immediately degrading Trump. This is a perfect example of her prominent left-wing view as she describes Trump as a “malignant narcissist.” This is hugely different from my last pundit, Joanna Weiss. Even though Joanna is a democrat, she does not write with the shocking tone that Goldberg does. This exemplifies Goldberg’s bias, which has a severe effect on the reliability of her piece and the scope of her audience. I assume her audience is democratic with a hatred for Trump, considering Goldberg makes strongly pessimistic claims towards Trump. Goldberg introduces Gordon Sondland by explaining his complex political history. Sondland has initially been a Republican, but suddenly withdrew support for Trump. Yet, once Trump became president, Sondland donated $1 million to his inauguration so that he could become an ambassador. This shows the unreliability of Sondland, with his sudden change in political views and unloyalty to an organization. Goldberg mentions Sondland testifying before the House impeachment and essentially throwing Trump and Rudy Giuliani under the bus. Goldberg believes Sondland lied multiple times to Congress and shames him for getting into the scandal in the first place by associating with President Trump. Although the article has a focus on Sondland, Goldberg’s central message is that Trump runs a “crime-syndicate” government, and therefore others should be aware of the effects of working for Trump.

Comments

  1. LandryOctober 20, 2019 at 7:40 PM

    Comment for the author:
    Your piece was very well written, however, your arguments could be made stronger with clearer evidence. For example, you make claims about how Trump's administration is not to be trusted, yet you do not provide past events to support this idea. This leads your audience to not trust your claims and believe the piece is based purely on bias.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousOctober 20, 2019 at 9:37 PM

    Michelle Goldberg begins her article with a clear message in mind, to advocate her hatred for Trump. Although, as you stated above, Goldberg's piece wasn't fixated around Trump himself, she kept referring to him or his administration throughout. To appeal to a broader audience, she needs to take a more neutral stand when covering political issues like this one, since she tends to speak for a more liberal audience.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Jylliann HuffOctober 21, 2019 at 3:55 AM

    I find myself unwilling to listen to an article's message if the writer tends to be forceful and one-sided. In this case, Goldberg does so. Even though her article was difficult to read, I noticed her frequent use of quotes. In most articles like hers, they are filled to the brim with statistics. Her article mainly appeals to logic through the use of quotes. The reliability can be somewhat questioned with the lack of statistics, but every writer can make their own choices.

    ReplyDelete

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