“Here's why that's bad news for Biden”: A chat with NYT Pitchbot
The legend himself speaks to Public Notice.
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If you’re active on twitter — or were before Elon Musk started making everyone more progressive than Steve Bannon think about deleting their account — you’ve probably laughed out loud at tweets from the New York Times Pitchbot.
Since “DougJBaloon” (not his real name) assumed the Pitchbot moniker in 2019, he’s done the invaluable service of making us laugh about a demoralizing political and media environment. He’s popularized a number of joke formats that have transcended liberal twitter, including “Here’s why that’s bad news for Biden” …
… “I was a lifelong liberal Democrat” …
… “Who I do not support” …
… “So we talked to” …
… And “in this Ohio diner.”
Tweeting is just a hobby for the man behind Pitchbot, a 50-something math professor living in Rochester, New York. (We agreed to not disclose his identity. A CJR profile from 2022 contains a few more biographical details.) But he has a big following because his tweets, as absurdist as they can be, speak to the real shortcomings of news media in the age of Trumpism.
“My tweets critique how the media frames things,” he told us. “They help get to the bottom of all the both sidesing and ridiculous framing that goes on at places like the New York Times.”
Public Notice contributor Thor Benson connected with “Doug” for a chat about the inspiration for the New York Times Pitchbot and its evolution over time. A transcript of their conversation, lightly edited for length and clarity, follows.
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Thor Benson
Tell me about how the New York Times Pitchbot got started.
New York Times Pitchbot
I had been blogging on this site called Balloon Juice for a while, and when I had kids, blogging or writing anything long form became kind of impossible. So I got interested in Twitter, and I really liked these accounts called the Federalist Pitchbot and Reason Pitchbot. I thought they were really funny.
I decided I’d like to do something like that, so I did New York Times Pitchbot. I did it for a couple weeks — kind of intermittently — and then a conservative journalist friend of mine told me, “This is a great bit. You should really stick with it.” A few weeks later, another journalist who’s a friend of mine told me that he really liked the bit, too, so that’s how I got into it.
Thor Benson
When did it start taking off?
New York Times Pitchbot
It changed a lot. I started off trying to sound like the New York Times with the stilted headline style and old time, inside baseball jokes. Then I did one making fun of Jared and Ivanka — “Sources close to Jared and Ivanka say that privately the couple opposes the pandemic.”
That one got retweeted all over the place, and suddenly I had a non-trivial number of followers.
I was like, “Hey, this really seems to work,” so I gradually got more and more into it, and it kept growing and growing. But I think like everybody else it kind of stopped growing when Elon took over and the traffic went down.
Thor Benson
Is it fair to say your jokes became more political over time?
New York Times Pitchbot
Initially, I thought it would be fun to make fun of all of the sheet pan articles and other ridiculous things the Times does, like when they visit a neighborhood and write about how hip it is. But I noticed people like the political tweets the best.
My tweets critique how the media frames things. They help get to the bottom of all the both sidesing and ridiculous framing that goes on at places like the New York Times. I originally didn’t really mean for it to be that but to be just a little fun and jokey, but then gradually the ironic critique thing seemed to be what people really liked.
At first I thought it’d be fun to just make up completely new, crazy headlines, but I realized people like a template. They do eventually get old to people, but it takes a long time. In a lot of ways, with these templates, people like the joke the tenth time in more than they liked it the first time.
The template ones do sound more like the New York Times, because they clearly use a template for their headlines.
Eventually I drifted into making fun of The Atlantic and these Substack and New York Magazine people who take themselves very seriously. Certain parts of what I do now are New York Times-specific, but a lot of it is more making fun of that whole adjacent group of self-important jackasses.
Thor Benson
Yeah, I’ve noticed you like to target people like Glenn Greenwald.
New York Times Pitchbot
The Glenn stuff — I just can’t help myself. People like it too. His feed is so ridiculous. With the New York Times, sometimes I’d go on the opinion page looking for something to make fun of, and I’d go through it and say, “Meh.” Unless it was a Pamela Paul day or a Bret Stephens day, I’d be like, “There’s really nothing here that gets my creative juices going.” Maybe it’s a little milquetoasty, but it’s not that bad.
I like Glenn because you can go on Glenn’s feed pretty much at any time, and within his last 10 or 12 tweets he has something completely ridiculous. Somehow he’s attacking Neera Tanden. It doesn’t make any sense at all. They’re just funny to me.
The other thing I like about writing the Glenn ones is that people who read his account read what I’m making fun of, and then they say, “You know, what Glenn actually said was much worse.” Like Glenn was defending Assad or something this morning. All I have him doing here is attacking Neera Tanden or Rachel Maddow.
Making fun of Glenn just became its own kind of fun thing. The “who I do not support” really took off, which I didn’t make up myself. It was created by a guy who runs an account called “Glem Greenwald.”
Thor Benson
Have you ever had someone from the New York Times tell you they like your work?
New York Times Pitchbot
Yeah, a couple times, actually, but not often. What I’ve noticed is a lot of people from the Washington Post and other journalists follow me, but only like one or two people from the New York Times. I kind of wonder if they’re not supposed to.
I used a lede from a sports article to do a “bad news for Joe Biden” one, and the writer said he was honored that I used it, so I’ve had a couple interactions with New York Times people. Not very many, though.
Thor Benson
People love to tag you when they see something they think you’ll like. Do you get overwhelmed by that?
New York Times Pitchbot
I miss most of them, probably. At first, I would see them all. I still like to go into my mentions, because that’s where I find a lot of my best stuff. Most of the really crazy things I find and riff on, they’re usually something somebody found for me. They either DM’d me or they tagged me on it. I miss a lot of them. I get a lot of tags.
Thor Benson
Is it hard to keep up with the account?
New York Times Pitchbot
It is. I probably don’t spend as much time on it as you might think given how many tweets I write. I tend to do it during certain down times in the day. I’ll be waiting for coffee somewhere, or rocking my kid to sleep but she’s not quite ready for the crib. Things like that. I’ll just write like a million of them. I do it a lot during work breaks. I don’t think I waste that much time on it.
Thor Benson
Do you intentionally try to remain anonymous?
New York Times Pitchbot
Yeah. I don’t know how strong my rationale is for remaining anonymous anymore. Initially, I did it because I thought if conservatives read it, they might get mad. I have conservative students and colleagues. What I’ve found is that conservative people who are high information enough to be reading this account usually like it for whatever reason.
These days I’m a little more worried about the horseshoe left people. I find they really, really hate the account. Maybe it’s because I make fun of Glenn so much. I teach at a university, and if I have any really big Glenn fans in my classes, I don’t want them to know about it.
That’s it for today
We’ll be back with more tomorrow. Thanks as always for your support.
Old Twitter used to be like a fabulous party, filled with fascinating people from all over the world having conversations you could float around to, learn something, laugh, nod your head in agreement or engage in disagreement (and learn something in the discourse), chime in, make new acquaintances. I miss that. The first time I read DougJBalloon I had to double check that it was parody as he was so spot on - with a twist. Thanks for the interview.
YASS! Thank you for this. Not only is that account fun, it's nice to hear about the man behind the legend. It's also a good pick me up to the doom and gloom we have to deal with daily.