New York Times: Enemy of Truth

New York Times: Enemy of Truth

by Stephen Lendman

The Times is America’s leading establishment publication. Its longstanding history is unprincipled. 

Supporting wealth, power and privilege. At the expense of populist interests.

Functioning as a quasi-official propaganda ministry. Offering a daily diet of managed news misinformation rubbish. On issues mattering most.

It bears repeating what other articles stressed. All the new it claims fit to print isn’t fit to read.

No nation in world history committed more high crimes against humanity than America. The Times supports its worst policies.

Ignoring rule of law principles. Supporting might over right. When America goes to war or plans one, it marches in lockstep.

When sitting governments are opposed, it vilifies them supportively. Backing numerous ruthless regimes Washington supports. Including ones installed by rigged elections, coups or  US wars.

Throughout his tenure, The Times vilified Hugo Chavez. After his 1998 election, its Latin American correspondent, Larry Roher, lied calling him a “populist demagogue. (A)n authoritarian. (A) caudillo (strongman).” 

On April 13, 2002, a Times editorial headlined “Hugo Chavez Departs,” saying:

“With yesterday’s resignation of President Hugo Chavez, Venezuelan democracy is no longer threatened by a would-be dictator.” 

“Mr. Chavez, a ruinous demagogue, stepped down after the military intervened and handed power to a respected business leader, Pedro Carmona.”

Carmona represented business interests. Corporate predators. Chavez established model democracy. Bolivarian fairness.

Removing him was short-lived. Lasting two days. Overwhelming public support returned him to office. Including from Venezuela’s military.

Times editors endorsed his ouster. Consistent bashing followed throughout his tenure. 

Continuing against current President Nicholas Maduro. Carrying Chavez’s torch. Honorably. Serving all Venezuelans responsibly.

After Washington toppled democratically elected Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in February 2004, The Times lied.

Claiming he resigned. Sending in Marines to abduct him was “the right thing to do,” it said. Arriving after “Mr. Aristide yielded power.”

Blaming him for “contribut(ing) significantly to his own downfall.” Because of his “increasingly autocratic and lawless rule.”

Accusing him of manipulating 2000 elections. Not “deliver(ing) the democracy he promised.”

Aristide’s tenure was Haiti’s only democratic governance since its short-lived 1804 independence. Times editors didn’t explain. Substituting Big Lies for hard truths.

Discredited correspondent Judith Miller represented one of the most deplorable chapters in Times history. In the run-up to Bush’s Iraq war. 

Functioning as weapon of mass deception. Writing daily propaganda rubbish. 

Pentagon press releases masquerading as real news and information. Featuring a Noah’s Ark of scam artists.

The late Gore Vidal called The Times the “Typhoid Mary of American journalism” for good reason.

Currently bashing Russia relentlessly. Targeting Putin irresponsibly. Practically labeling him public enemy number one.

Backing fascists running Ukraine. Ones Washington lawlessly installed. The most brazen European coup since Mussolini’s 1922 march on Rome.

Supports Obama’s war on Syria. His Iraq war. His 2011 Libya war. Bush I’s Iraq war. Years of illegal sanctions. Responsible for killing around 5,000 Iraqi children monthly.

Bush II’s Afghanistan and Iraq wars. Homeland force-fed austerity when vital stimulus is needed. 

During protracted Main Street Depression conditions. Pretending phony numbers claiming otherwise are real.

“Magic growth numbers,” according to Paul Craig Roberts. Manufactured. Not real. “Not from rising real consumer incomes,” he explained.

Or growing consumer credit. Or higher retail sales. Or an improving housing sector.

Economist John Williams reengineers phony government data. Offering a true picture of economic conditions. Calling recent US growth numbers “nonsense.” 

Misleading garbage. Not according to The Times. Citing the “fastest” economic growth “in over a decade.”

Providing “the strongest evidence to date that the recovery is finally gaining sustained power…” Despite hard truths proving otherwise.

Including sharply lower commodity prices. A key indicator of economic weakness. At a time “30% of 30-year old Americans and almost 50% of 25-year olds liv(e) with parents,” said Roberts.

Because of unemployment or underemployment. After six years of fake economic recovery, Eurozone countries face deflation and recession.

Economist Jack Rasmus calls Japan’s economy “a spent force since the late 1990s.” China’s economy is slowing. 

So are emerging markets. Real US growth is subpar. Global debt levels are unprecedented. Leaving world economies vulnerable to financial crisis.

Roberts calls America’s economy “a house of cards.” Don’t expect the Times to explain. Or promote healthy eating.

Last February, it gave agricultural economist Jayson Lusk and right-wing Hoover Institution fellow Henry I. Miller op-ed space. They took full advantage.

Headlining “We Need GMO Wheat.” Saying “not a single acre of genetically engineered wheat being grown commercially in the United States.”

Claiming wheat farmers and consumers lack “the benefits of (so-called) newer molecular techniques of genetic engineering.”

A litany of misinformation followed. Touting nonexistent benefits of GMO crops. Ignoring their hazards to human health.

Vandana Shiva calls genetically transformed seeds “food totalitarianism.” Waging war on human health. By corporate giants like Monsanto.

“We would have no hunger in the world if” ordinary farmers controlled their own seeds and land, she maintains.

Calling enormous sums the Bill and Linda Gates Foundation spends on agricultural research and assistance “the greatest threat to farmers in the developing world.”

“If you look at the graph of the growth of GMOs, the growth of application of glyphosate and autism, it’s literally a one-to-one correspondence,” she explains. 

“And you could make (the same) graph for kidney failure…for diabetes…for Alzheimer’s.” For other diseases.

Clear evidence shows GMO foods and ingredients are toxic. Unsafe to eat. Harmful to human health. 

Producing hazardous intestinal bacteria. Responsible for numerous illnesses. infertility. Immune problems. Accelerated aging.

Faulty insulin regulation. Gastrointestinal abnormalities. Major organ changes. Lower life expectancy.

Roundup pesticide used for GM crops causes birth defects. GM soy causes sterility.

Americans don’t know what they’re eating. Labeling is prohibited. Violating First Amendment rights.

The Center for Food Safety (CFS) calls GM plants and animals “one of the greatest and most intractable environmental challenges of the 21st century.”

Over 90% of US soybeans are genetically engineered. Around 85% of corn. About 88% of cotton. Cottonseed oil commonly used in processed foods.

Over 80% of them contain GM ingredients. From soda pop to soup to salad dressings. Crackers to condiments. Potatoes to “super” pigs. Bananas to baked beans.

Despite known harm to human health, no congressional legislation regulates GM foods and ingredients.

Americans are human guinea pigs without knowing it. Part of an unregulated mass experiment, Entailing enormous risks.

Once GM seeds are planted, nothing known to science can reverse their contamination. Over two-thirds of arable US farmland is affected.

Despite known human health risks. US politics trumps science. Unsafe foods and ingredients are declared fit to eat. 

So far, wheat is GMO free. For how long remains to be seen. It’s one of America’s three major crops. Along with corn and soybeans.

GMO crops are toxic. Poison. Hazardous to human health. Banning them should be mandated. Don’t expect The Times to explain.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. 

His new book as editor and contributor is titled “Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.”

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com. 

Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network.

It airs three times weekly: live on Sundays at 1PM Central time plus two prerecorded archived programs.

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New York Times: Enemy of Truth