8-16-14
The
NYT is America's leading establishment publication. It represents wealth,
power and privilege. It largely scorns populist interests.
It
functions as a quasi-official ministry of propaganda. It offers a
daily diet of managed news misinformation.
Its
front page has global reach. It's the most valued media space
anywhere. Times editors use it irresponsibly.
It
bears repeating what previous articles stressed. All the news they
claim fit to print isn't fit to read.
A
January 2013 open
letter to NYT editors
was this writer's most widely ever read article by far. It touched
the right nerve at the right time.
It
accused Times editors of suppressing truth, substituting lies,
distortions and deception, supporting wrong over right, and betraying
their readers in the process.
Longstanding
Times policy is consistent. It violates fundamental journalistic
standards.
The
Society of Professional Journalists' Code of Ethics Preamble states:
"...public
enlightenment is the forerunner of justice and the foundation of
democracy."
"The
duty of the journalist is to further those ends by seeking truth and
providing a fair and comprehensive account of events and issues."
"Conscientious
journalists from all media and specialties strive to serve the public
with thoroughness and honesty."
"Professional
integrity is the cornerstone of a journalist's credibility."
The
Times violates its own "Company Policy on Ethics in Journalism."
It does so without apology or explanation. It states in part:
"In
keeping with its solemn responsibilities under the First Amendment,
our company strives to maintain the highest standard of journalistic
ethics."
"(W)e
tell our audiences the complete, unvarnished truth as best we can
learn it."
"(I)t
is essential that we preserve professional detachment, free from any
hint of bias."
The
longstanding record of "the newspaper of record" belies its
high-minded rhetoric. It's deplorable and then some.
Popular
interests are spurned. Corporate ones matter more. When America goes
to war or plans one, Times editors march in lockstep.
Rule
of law principles and democratic values don't matter. Privileged
interests alone are served.
The
divine right of capital matters most. The Times agenda wreaks of
hypocrisy. It defends the indefensible. Its war on truth belies the
notion of a free press.
Promoting
war on Iraq, discredited reporter Judith Miller wrote daily front
page propaganda. She functioned as a de facto Pentagon press agent.
Times
editors never properly apologized for the influential role she played
in promoting premeditated war on a nation posing no threat to America
and violating fundamental international, constitutional and US
statute laws in the process.
The
same holds for all US post-WW II wars. None were justifiable. All
were lawless wars of aggression - from Korea to Obama's war on Iraq.
Waging
them reflects Wshington's longstanding quest for unchallenged global
dominance. Millions of corpses attest to America's barbarity.
Don't
expect Times editors to explain. They support the worst of imperial
US policies.
Their
pro-Israeli agenda is longstanding. Mass murder and destruction is
considered self-defense.
Their
Russia bashing is intense. It exceeds the worst of Cold War rhetoric.
It's been ongoing for months.
Shameless
propaganda substitutes for accuracy and honest analysis. Putschist
Kiev neo-Nazi fascists are considered democrats.
Freedom
fighting Southeastern Ukrainians are called terrorists. Kiev's war
without mercy against its own citizens is considered a liberating
struggle.
Howling
contradictions go unexplained. Times editors support Washington's
right to ravage and destroy one nation after another.
To
eliminate their sovereignty. To turn them to rubble. To transform
them into dystopian wastelands.
To
murder millions of their people. To steal their resources. To exploit
their people. To wage permanent wars for unchallenged global
dominance.
Times
editors back subservient, pro-Western, illegitimate stooge regimes in
Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Ukraine and elsewhere.
They
support Obama's proxy war on Syria and regime change in Venezuela.
They ignore his homeland war on freedom and social justice.
Fundamental
rights don't matter. Police state lawlessness goes unmentioned.
Monied interests alone benefit.
Conditions
go from bad to worse. Equity and justice are fast disappearing.
America is on a fast track toward full-blown tyranny.
Obama
reserves the right to kill anyone extrajudicially for any reason or
none at all. He maintains a kill list to do it.
He
can order anyone arrested, imprisoned and held indefinitely without
charge or trial based solely on suspicions, baseless allegations or
none at all.
US
military personnel are authorized to arrest and indefinitely detain
anyone globally, including US citizens. No one anywhere is safe.
Due
process, civil protections, and judicial fairness are null and void.
Abuse of power replaced them. It's happening in real time.
Obama
disingenuously says one thing. He does another. He's a serial liar.
He broke every major promise made and then some.
His
war on humanity threatens its survival. Yet Times editors largely
support him. Their praise way outstrips their criticism.
"…Obama
is precisely the kind of foreign policy president most Americans and
their allies overseas wanted. He rejected the shoot-first tendencies
of George W. Bush."
"While
he has made mistakes, and can be frustratingly cautious, he has done
a better job than his detractors allow, starting with salvaging an
economy that is at the core of American power."
"He
has produced the first possibility of a deal on Iran’s nuclear
weapons."
Fact:
Obama's permanent war policy matches the worst of George Bush.
Fact:
Bush's Afghanistan war became Obama's. It rages. It's America's
longest war.
Fact:
As long as US forces remain in any numbers, it won't end.
Fact:
A new Amnesty International (AI) report details US-led NATO's
cold-blooded murder of Afghan civilians from 2009 - 2013.
Fact:
"None of the cases…were prosecuted by the US military,"
said AI.
Fact:
"Evidence of possible war crimes and unlawful killings has
seemingly been ignored."
Fact:
As US military commander-in chief, Obama bears full responsibility
for cold-blooded murder.
Fact:
He authorized lawless aggression on Iraq.
Fact:
It's America's third Iraq war since January 1991.
Fact:
Attacking a nation posing no threat to America violates fundamental
international, constitutional and US statute laws.
Fact:
Doing so adds another major crime to Obama's rap sheet.
Fact:
Reasons given for all US wars don't wash.
Fact:
They have nothing to do with protecting US security, humanitarian
intervention or promoting democracy.
Fact:
They have everything to do with serving wealth, power and privilege.
Fact:
Obama is a warrior president.
Fact:
He deplores peace and stability.
Fact:
He has lots more death and destruction in mind.
Fact:
His Libyan aggression transformed North Africa's most developed
nation into a raging cauldron of violence and instability.
Fact:
His lawless continuing proxy war on Syria left a wake of deaths,
destruction and millions internally and externally displaced.
Fact:
He supports Israel's killing machine.
Fact:
He scorns long denied Palestinian rights.
Fact:
He presides over a protracted Main Street Depression.
Fact:
It shows no signs of ending.
Fact:
Nearly one-fourth of working age Americans remain unemployed.
Fact:
Most others are underemployed.
Fact:
America's top 1% never had it better.
Fact:
The top 10% is doing fine.
Fact:
The vast majority of others suffer through little reported hard
times.
Fact:
Administration policy makes them harder.
Fact:
Vital benefits are being cut when most needed.
Fact:
Money saved goes for aggressive wars and corporate handouts.
Fact:
Ordinary Americans increasingly are on their own.
Fact:
Claiming an Iranian nuclear weapons program is a bald-faced lie.
Fact:
No evidence suggests one. It doesn't exist.
According
to Times editors, Obama was "right to avoid direct military
involvement in Syria." One Big Lie after another followed.
Fact:
Syria is Obama's war.
Fact:
America recruits, arms, funds, and trains extremist killers like ISIL
fighters.
Fact:
They're imported. They're invaders. They're proxy US fighters.
Fact:
At issue is ousting an independent leader supported by the vast
majority of his people.
Fact:
It's replacing him with another convenient pro-Western stooge.
Fact:
Saying Assad "den(ies) aid to starving people" is patently
false.
Fact:
So is spuriously claiming he used chemical weapons against civilians.
Fact:
Clear evidence shows US-recruited extremists bore full responsibility
for multiple chemical weapons attacks.
Fact:
Obama's Asia pivot risks serious confrontation with China.
Fact:
His support for Ukrainian neo-Nazi fascists risks another with
Russia.
Fact:
His unending war on humanity risks destroying it altogether.
According
to Times editors:
"Taken
as a whole and stripped as much as possible of ideological blinkers,
Mr. Obama's record on foreign policy is not as bad as his critics
say."
It's
worse, much worse. Don't expect Times editors to explain.
His
critics say "he failed to stanch the rise of" ISIL. "He
left a vacuum in Iraq…(H)e signed weakness to" Putin.
He
"encourage(d) the Kremlin to think it could intervene in Ukraine
without fear of significant consequence."
Fact:
Washington uses Al Qaeda, ISIL and other extremist groups as both
allies and enemies in different war theaters.
Fact:
Washington's wars on Iraq transformed the cradle of civilization into
a violent dystopian wasteland.
Fact:
Obama's Putin bashing shows how far he'll go to denigrate a
legitimate leader of a sovereign country to serve US imperial
interests.
Fact:
Washington intervened lawlessly in Ukraine.
Fact:
It replaced a democratically elected government with illegitimate
neo-Nazi fascists.
Fact:
Putin continues going all-out for peaceful conflict resolution.
Fact:
Obama supports Kiev's war without mercy on its own citizens.
Fact:
He backs depriving Southeastern Ukrainians from receiving vitally
needed/Russian-supplied humanitarian food, water, medical supplies
and other aid.
According
to The Times, "Obama's policy (shows) restraint…"
Fact:
Multiple direct and proxy wars of aggression reveal otherwise.
Fact:
So does America's war on Muslims, Latino immigrants, people of color,
and ordinary people struggling during the worst economic times since
the Great Depression.
Fact:
The cold-blooded Mike Brown murder repeats multiple times in large
and small cities across America.
Fact:
Justice is virtually always denied.
Fact:
Militarized police kill with impunity.
Fact:
People of color are convenient targets.
Fact:
The new Jim Crow is like the old one.
Fact:
It's a modern-day racial cast system against people of color.
Fact:
It's a symbol of racist hate.
Fact:
It's homeland war without mercy against society's most vulnerable.
Fact:
It incarcerates hundreds of thousands of political prisoners.
Fact:
Racist drug laws permit it.
Fact:
So does police state lawlessness.
Don't
expect Times editors to explain.
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