Why does the New York Times keep calling the left ‘divisive’?
Why This Matters
Key context: <p>The newspaper often uses the word to describe elections with progressive contenders, implying a previous whole destroyed by the left</p><p>“El-Sayed and Stevens Project Party Unity After Divisive Race,” <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2026/08/05/us/michigan-election-results-primary">announced</a> the New York Times on 5 August, the day the democratic socialist Abdul El-Sayed beat out his centrist Democratic rival, Haley Stevens, in the Michigan senatorial primary. “Divisive” is now the Times’s favorite attack word, deployed repeatedly to disparage and try to undermine the astonishing recent advances by self-identified democratic socialists and other progressive candidates.</p><p>Four days after that first story, the Times again<em> </em><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/09/us/politics/obama-abdul-el-sayed-michigan-senate.html">landed</a> “divisive” under “Obama and El-Sayed Discuss Unity After Ugly Michigan Primary.” El-Sayed, it asserted, had “narrowly prevailed in a divisive primary after campaigning on a progressive and anti-establishment platform”.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/aug/24/new-york-times-divisive-progressives">Continue reading...</a> This development from The Guardian highlights ongoing changes in the sector.
The newspaper often uses the word to describe elections with progressive contenders, implying a previous whole destroyed by the left“El-Sayed and Stevens Project Party Unity After Divisive Race,” announced the New York Times on 5 August, the day the democratic socialist Abdul El-Sayed beat out his centrist Democratic rival, Haley Stevens, in the Michigan senatorial primary. “Divisive” is now the Times’s favorite attack word, deployed repeatedly to disparage and try to undermine the astonishing recent advances by self-identified democratic socialists and other progressive candidates.Four days after that first story, the Times again landed “divisive” under “Obama and El-Sayed Discuss Unity After Ugly Michigan Primary.” El-Sayed, it asserted, had “narrowly prevailed in a divisive primary after campaigning on a progressive and anti-establishment platform”. Continue reading...
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