Vogue's fawning profile of Gavin Newsom

Conservatives have complained about media bias for decades. But there is bias and then there is bias. Lots of major media institutions — the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN and many others — are filled with everyday examples of slanted stories. But some, like the still-popular fashion magazines, are on a different level altogether. Consider the new issue of Vogue and its profile of California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom. The article, by Maya Singer with photos by the renowned celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz, begins with Newsom's final State of the State address. Watching Newsom speak, Singer is awed. "Let's get this out of the way," she writes. "He is embarrassingly handsome, his hair seasoned with silver, at ease with his own eminence..." As Newsom bashes President Donald Trump, he "shakes his head, seeming more mournful than angry. Seeming, yes, presidential." Singer says that Newsom's sheer magnetism "must drive Trump nuts." Why? Newsom is "lithe, ardent, energetic, a glimmer of optimism in his eye; Kennedy-esque. Add to that his stunning wife and four adorable kids, and the executive strut of a self-made millionaire who has spent the past seven years at the helm of a state big, complex, and rich enough to be a nation of its own." Kennedy-esque! It has been 65 years since John F. Kennedy entered the White House on Jan. 20, 1961. Vogue is still excited. It's as if fashion and cultural arbiters in Kennedy's day were still gushing over William McKinley and the glories of 1896. As with everything else in today's politics, the animating force behind Vogue's Newsom profile is Trump. Singer thrills to the thought of Newsom standing up to the Big Bad President. "There's a photo that does the online rounds now and then, a shot of the governor on the tarmac at LAX, aiming his finger at the president's chest," she writes. "Bouncer body language, like 'Hey buddy, not so fast.' It has seemed at times, this past year, that the only thing standing athwart Donald Trump's will to power is Gavin Newsom." By the way, the Vogue piece is an advertisement — not just for Newsom the presumptive 2028 Democratic candidate, but for his new memoir, "Young Man in a Hurry." Singer, who has a fondness for italics, writes, "The book sets him up as someone who fights, someone who dreams big, someone who sweats the details, someone with a desire to serve." Singer interviewed Newsom at his office in Sacramento. It was enchanting, apparently. "As he spoke, late-summer sun slanted in through the windows, bathing Newsom in an oh so California magic-hour glow," Singer writes. "I'd prepared for this sit-down by consuming the spectacle of Gavin Newsom — tweets, TV hits, interviews, umpteen episodes of his podcast, 'This is Gavin Newsom' — and was having a hard time taking in the man. His actual molecular reality. Immaculate. Fantastic at gab, like a windup doll." Newsom keeps his molecular reality trim and fit by keeping to a somewhat ascetic routine, at least when he is not enjoying fabulous French restaurants during California's COVID lockdown. "Every day starts with lemon water, and he consumes nothing but fruit until noon," writes Singer. Newsom also has has an "artistic temperament," she says, and she is quite taken when, in the book, Newsom writes of a semester spent studying art in Rome, where he was deeply affected by "the frescoes of Giotto from the dawn of the Renaissance, the intense dark and light from the angry hand of Caravaggio." For all its love of Newsom, the Vogue piece ends on an oddly ambiguous note. It mentions that in his book Newsom discusses loving a 1980s TV show called "Remington Steele." "Starring Pierce Brosnan and Stephanie Zimbalist, the show was about a female detective who, struggling to be taken seriously, hires a suave con man as her front," Singer writes. Brosnan, playing Remington Steele, "was always impeccably turned out," Singer continues. "Newsom began emulating him, coiffing his hair, wearing a suit to school." In the book, Newsom writes that some of his schoolmates started calling him "El Presidente," whereupon Singer concluded that, "It also struck me, reading — Gavin Newsom is still that guy." But wait. If Newsom is still that guy, then he's a suave, perfectly coiffed con man, isn't he? Is that the best image for a 2028 contender? With that, Singer immediately backtracks. If Newsom is the slick Remington Steele, "he's the Zimbalist character too," she writes, "the one who dreamed up the showman in the first place, the one who's doing the work." You can be excused if you think Singer was right the first time. Byron York is chief political correspondent for The Washington Examiner. Email him at byork@washingtonexaminer.com.