Op-ed views and opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of BizPac Review.

Trump has played the media all along in the presidential race—did he just hand the New York Times the sticks of dynamite to blow themselves up?

A mysterious letter arrived that was sent to the paper anonymously through the mail with a return address of Trump Tower. What was inside was part Trump’s fabled tax returns. Never mind they were from 20 years ago. It showed Trump, the businessman, took a bonafide loss on his taxes. An astronomical loss. And the New York Times couldn’t wait to print it.

And that’s where there is some real trouble on the table.

Trump did not explicitly give his permission to the paper to run it. And they know full well that doing so would be a violation of the law. Dean Baquet, the executive editor of the New York Times, admitted in a public forum in mid-September that he would absolutely go to jail to publish Trump’s tax returns, if given a chance to run them.

Executive editor Baquet’s public admission demonstrates clear knowledge of the law prior to breaking it, including this statement: “You know what your lawyers would tell you: if you publish them, you go to jail.”

Worse, Baquet is what is known as a “key employee,” not some beat reporters who stumbled on something in the trash cans behind Trump Towers and then convinced the press room to run it without the editor’s knowledge. That makes them even that much more culpable.

Remember, only two months ago, this is the same New York Times where one of their reporters floated the idea of abandoning their journalistic standards to attack Trump as some sort of civic, if not patriotic, duty.

But here’s an interesting question – did this all happen with Trump’s knowledge? Trump has been proven to be a master at manipulating the press. Using game theory, a staple of any business strategy course, he would know that dangling his own tax returns in front of the New York Times that they would absolutely blow up their journalistic credibility to run the story. Why would Trump do it? Perhaps Trump, the author of, Trump: The Art of the Comeback, is setting the stage to showcase his comeback.

So, with full knowledge of the law, knowing that he needed Trump’s explicit, written permission to run the story, Baquet instead went ahead with it.

One wonders if all that was missing was the shout of “Allahu akbar!” before hitting the print button.

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Mark Anderson

Mark Anderson is a business and political strategist, and the host of the I Spy Radio Show (www.ispyradio.com), Oregon’s 2nd largest radio network show. He has written for journals, newspapers, and Laura Ingraham’s LifeZette.

Latest posts by Mark Anderson (see all)

• Did Trump literally just game the New York Times into printing his tax returns? - October 3, 2016
• New York Times makes itself the first martyr in the media’s Holy War on Trump - October 3, 2016
• ‘You are a lawyer Mr Comey!’ Watch Comey face Congress about his sham immunity agreements - September 28, 2016

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