Zero_Destroyer posted... No, this was real. NYT loved to boost never-Trump Republicans.
https://www.vox.com/culture/360909/jd-vance-how-true-is-hillbilly-elegy-classism
At one time, liberal and conservative centrists alike hailed Vances bestselling 2016 memoir of making it out of rural, poverty-stricken Appalachia, transforming himself from a tempestuous teen into a successful Yale law school grad.
The Vox piece is a pretty good overview of the book, but it also has a link to the original Vox article where Ezra Klein had a sitdown with JD Vance and promoted him. Vox is probably the very best of the liberal media sites and even they kind of promoted the guy. But here are the other ones.
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/11/books/review-in-hillbilly-elegy-a-compassionate-analysis-of-the-poor-who-love-trump.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/hillbilly-elegy-made-jd-vance-the-voice-of-the-rust-belt-but-does-he-want-that-job/2017/02/06/fa6cd63c-e882-11e6-80c2-30e57e57e05d_story.html
Like, I'm honestly very surprised that everyone forgot what a phenomena his book was. You couldn't go anywhere on the internet without it being hailed by a liberal publication. I think some of the more honest ones like Vox very clearly had buyers remorse and look at the book differently now, but originally reviews for it were overwhelmingly positive. After the movie came out, everyone was kind of like, "Why was this even a thing?". Seeing more and more of Vance in right-wing politics certainly didn't help, it made the book look just like another grift.