Moon of Alabama Brecht quote
August 29, 2016

NYT Laments Of Allegedly False Russian News Stories - With A False U.S. News Story

The New York Times is desperate for new readers and therefore tries to branch into the realm of The Onion and other satirical sites. It attempts to show that allegedly Russia controlled media spread false stories for political purpose - by providing a false media story. The purpose of the NYT doing such is yours to guess.

The sourcing of that Page 1 story is as weak as its content. It starts with claiming that opponents of Sweden joining NATO must be somehow Russia related and are spreading false stories:

As often happens in such cases, Swedish officials were never able to pin down the source of the false reports.

Duh! But it must have been Russia. Because Swedish internal opposition to joining NATO would be incapable of opining against it. Right? Likewise anti-EU reports and opposition to the EU within the Czech Republic MUST be caused by Russian disinformation and can in now way be related to mismanagement of the EU project itself.

The sourcing for the whole long pamphlet is extremely weak:

But they, numerous analysts and experts in American and European intelligence point to Russia as the prime suspect, noting that preventing NATO expansion is a centerpiece of the foreign policy of President Vladimir V. Putin, who invaded Georgia in 2008 largely to forestall that possibility.

Whoa! "Experts in American and European intelligence" can of course be trusted not to ever spread false stories or rumors about Russia influencing "news". Such truth tellers they are and have always been.

Then follows, in a claim about false stories(!) spread by Russia, that factually false claim that Russia "invaded Georgia in 2008". It was obvious in the very first hours of the Georgia war, as we then noted, that Georgia started it. A European Union commission later confirmed that it was Georgia, incited by the Bush government, that started the war. The NYT itself found the same. All Russia did was to protect the areas of South Ossetia and Abchazia that it was officially designated to protect by the United Nations! No invasion of Georgia took place.

And what was the alleged reason that Russia "invaded" Georgia for? "Largely to forestall".."NATO expansion"? But it was NATO that rejected Georgia's membership in April 2008. Why then would Russia "invade" Georgia in August 2008 to prevent a membership that was surely not gonna happen?

Utter a-historic nonsense.

The who tale, written by Neil MacFarquhar, is a long list of hearsay where Russia is claimed to have influenced news but without ever showing any evidence.

Not mentioned in the story are:

  • the systematic, extensive U.S government slanting of news through the Broadcasting Board of Governors and Voice of America and RFE/RL as well as through dozens of U.S. military financed "news" sites and social media fakes
  • the extensive cooperation between the New York Times and the CIA with spying as well as with manipulating foreign news
  • the acknowledged spreading of false stories about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq an behalf of the Bush administration by the NY Times itself.

As Carl Bernstein described in his book about the CIA and the media:

Among the executives who lent their cooperation to the [Central Intelligence] Agency were Williarn Paley of the Columbia Broadcasting System, Henry Luce of Tirne Inc., Arthur Hays Sulzberger of the New York Times, Barry Bingham Sr. of the LouisviIle Courier‑Journal, and James Copley of the Copley News Service. Other organizations which cooperated with the CIA include the American Broadcasting Company, the National Broadcasting Company, the Associated Press, United Press International, Reuters, Hearst Newspapers, Scripps‑Howard, Newsweek magazine, the Mutual Broadcasting System, the Miami Herald and the old Saturday Evening Post and New York Herald‑Tribune.

By far the most valuable of these associations, according to CIA officials, have been with the New York Times, CBS and Time Inc.

Bernstein shows that the NYT cooperation with the U.S. government and its intelligence agencies was very extensive and continues uninterrupted up to today.

To lament about alleged Russian influence on some news outlets while writing a disinformation filled piece, based on "experts in American and European intelligence", for an outlet with proven CIA cooperation in faking news, is way beyond hypocrisy.

Through this piece the NYT becomes its own parody. Did the author and editors recognize that? Or are they too self-unconscious for even such simple insight?

Posted by b on August 29, 2016 at 15:04 UTC | Permalink

Comments

thanks b... people need to realize what they read is not the truth.. words can and are used to deceive... propaganda seems to be one of the central roles of all media at this point in time... folks need to beware of this..

Posted by: james | Aug 29 2016 15:48 utc | 1

Although, NYT, is bleeding and is losing audience, I am amazed that it is still in print. The Guardian is posting loss in millions of pounds, and that is what I expect NYT to be doing.

Posted by: Steve | Aug 29 2016 15:55 utc | 2

"Do not pay attention to the fact the emperor has no clothes. Just look at this other guy!" That seems to be the official US opinion on Russia as expressed by the Clinton campaign, the NYT, and the other usual suspects purveying official US propaganda.

Posted by: WorldBLee | Aug 29 2016 16:03 utc | 3

An amusing thing about the NYT's is the most-emailed/read lists, which are almost always well represented by articles such as "what to cook this weekend" and "48hrs in Tulsa." This is often despite the steady stream of heady world events. My take is that most readers of the Times want to be seen/known as Times readers, but would really prefer to be reading tabloids. The difference is becoming less obvious by the day.

Posted by: IhaveLittleToAdd | Aug 29 2016 16:11 utc | 4

The NYT is going the way of Commentary -- through the looking glass. A nice touch was the allegation that Yatsenyuk, turned out to be in reality a "puppet" of Yanukovich.

Posted by: Harold | Aug 29 2016 17:28 utc | 5

Steve says:

Although, NYT, is bleeding and is losing audience, I am amazed that it is still in print

well, digital subscribers are apparently soaring. for sure CEO Mark Thompson doesn't seem too miffed about it.

Posted by: john | Aug 29 2016 17:36 utc | 6

b reads the NYTimes so we don't have to. Thanks, b.

Posted by: jfl | Aug 29 2016 17:55 utc | 7

One small quibble with this: But it was NATO that rejected Georgia's membership in April 2008.. That April meeting did not really reject Georgia's membership. The discussion was just postponed to a later meeting. It wasn't until after Russia thrashed Georgia in August that the US took the membership issue off the table.

Posted by: ToivoS | Aug 29 2016 17:58 utc | 8

Mark Twain said that if you don't read the newspaper, you're uninformed. If you read the newspaper, you're misinformed.

Posted by: P Walker | Aug 29 2016 18:02 utc | 9

@3 wbl, "Do not pay attention to the fact the emperor has no clothes. Just look at this other guy!"

That's the answer isn't it?

Will we USAians ever wake up to 9/11 => Afghanistan => Iraq => Libya => Syria => Ukraine => Yemen ...

How many innocents have 'our' emperors - Bush XLI, Clinton XLII, Bush XLIII, Obama XLIV, coming soon? Clinton XLV - killed in the runup to and execution of series of criminal aggressions post-9/11? Two million? If Clinton sets the world on fire the numbers will rise by two orders of magnitude.

Don't look at Trump! Don't look at Me! Look at Vladimir, behind the tree!

Ya gotta wanna believe. How many USAians still wanna believe?

That is the question.

Posted by: jfl | Aug 29 2016 18:08 utc | 10

OT
It's been two years now. They don't know where Raqqa is on the map? It's not like the Boko Haram hideouts in the jungle I would say.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3404894/The-saddest-thing-remember-little-girl-12-years-old-raped-without-mercy-Dressed-traditional-wedding-gowns-Yazidi-sex-slaves-relive-torture-ISIS.html

Posted by: Mina | Aug 29 2016 18:10 utc | 11

@2

There have been rumours that the US government was helping to bankroll certain social media companies in return for access. I would say that the US government will step in and potentially rescue NYT and the like from being closed down. They serve an intrinsic and important service to the elite. They will not abandon it.

Posted by: P Walker | Aug 29 2016 18:18 utc | 12

It's been amusing to watch this electoral season as the Times has dropped all pretense of objectivity. While actual news accounts continue to lightly pepper the broadsheet, the headlines, article placement and, most importantly, what falls before and after the fold is so transparently partisan one is increasingly startled to find well reported and honest journalism.

I remember back in the first Intifada when Abe Rosenthal had Palestinian youth throwing soviet made rocks while he glossed Sabra and Shatila massacres. The Times was pretty "Onion"y then, but the political coverage this year makes me weep for my country as what little good left in it chokes on growing torrents of BS, obfuscation, prevarication and bombast.

Posted by: jsn | Aug 29 2016 18:21 utc | 13

@11 pw

The CIA has bankrolled many startups ... maybe they could take out ads for Raytheon and General Atomic products, run US military/CIA recruitment ads? Pay for placement of articles like Mark Sleboda's, 'The Turkish Invasion Of Syria As Path To "Regime Change"'?

The NYTimes going bellyup ... happened to the Washington Post and the WSJ. Maybe Eric Schmidt will buy it? Or Rupert Murdoch. I wonder if the CIA bankrolled Rupert Murdoch? The CIA took out a $500 million data storage contract with Amazon just before Bezos bought the WaPo. Come to think of it, having control of the WaPo, WSJ, and NYTimes archives would be just what Dr. Orwell ordered. Mark Sleboda could then work for the MiniTrue, revising the past as required.

Posted by: jfl | Aug 29 2016 18:33 utc | 14

jsn@12: do you really think that objectivity of NYT exhibits seasonal variation? Like neutral to positive stories about Russia between Easter and Passover, and a more usual dreck for the rest of the year?

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Aug 29 2016 19:00 utc | 15

There is still difference between NYT and tabloids. This is the most recent article in NY Post about Russia in NY Post:

Putin is gobbling up whatever he can – while Obama does nothing
By Benny Avni August 17, 2016 | 8:22pm.
As Americans focus on who’ll replace President Obama, Russian strongman Vladimir Putin marches around the globe unabated, rushing to gobble up anything and everything he can before the new president...

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Aug 29 2016 19:08 utc | 16

So turkey massacres Kurdish Syrian civilians:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/08/28/turkey-risks-all-out-war-with-kurds-in-syria-after-air-strike-ki/

And that massacre gets no report by B, but what we still get is an boring overdone propaganda piece from the Empire Times.

Posted by: tom | Aug 29 2016 19:22 utc | 17

Are we already in the second of the four stages to victory?

I don't know much about the MSM, and even less about H. Clinton, but what was that all about with the speech she made concerning the "alt-right"? Who in their right mind would bring to the mainstream attention the existence of a body of contradictory writing?

Is it the same thing here with NYT? Is the sheer prevalence of opposing opinion from its readers forcing the MSM - led by flagship NYT - to turn and address the phenomenon?

I could not have dared to hope we could already be at stage 2:

First they ignore you.
Then they ridicule you.
Then they fight you.
Then you win.
--Gandhi

Posted by: Grieved | Aug 29 2016 19:26 utc | 18

Grieved@17 - I'm going to argue we're at stage 2.5, Grieved. DDOS attacks on RT and Sputnik, 'managed' Google search rankings, censored tweets, NSA on your desktop/cellphone. The powers that be and western MSM are having a conniption fit and they are very angry.

Like all psychopaths, they have a one-track mind that doesn't allow an effective strategy when it comes to bipedal meat units. Their answer to convincing you of their lies is to proffer more outrageous lies. It's kind of like the newspapers fighting declining advertising revenue by making the print smaller, stuffing the paper with more ads at higher rates and raising the price for a printed newspaper. Damn it, why won't you monkeys OBEY!

Posted by: PavewayIV | Aug 29 2016 20:53 utc | 19

tom #16,

your sour, nay putrid grapes become their own parody. Did neither you nor your editors recognize that or are you to self-absorbed in your agenda for even such simple insight.

Keep up your excellent, nay superior work b. It is an antidote to the disdainful uncle toms of the world.

Posted by: juannie | Aug 29 2016 20:54 utc | 20

Piotr@14,
The season to which I refer is, as I said, the electoral one!

The Times blows (or is it sucks?) very much with the political weather, though regretfully our elections now blow for long enough to constitute multiple seasons proper.

I've long suspected that light seasoning of truth they sprinkle beneath the fold or deep inside is there so that when the bogosity of one of their major narratives periodically explodes they can scrape thin truths from the back pages and later paragraphs to claim the've been reporting the truth all along!

Posted by: jsn | Aug 29 2016 21:06 utc | 21

That's an excellent point, b. I don't even remember the last time I've read anything truthful in any western MSM outlet. Almost everything is a spin of various degree.
NYT is one of worst offenders, so another lying piece is not at all surprising.

Posted by: telescope | Aug 29 2016 21:12 utc | 22

@ Grieved & PavewayIV

I am going to posit that we are in 3 somewhere. Not that the ridicule has stopped. It hasn't but is being applied as part of the war component.

I think we entered #3 in 2008 with the bailing out of private finance. It looks like some of my fellow Americans are waking up to being screwed by private finance. Think about how the rest of the world feels about private finance having been screwed since WWII and before.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Aug 29 2016 21:17 utc | 23

NYT slogan is "All The News That's Fit To Print"

Did good taste preclude "All The News That's Fit To Read"

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Aug 29 2016 21:22 utc | 24

Russia invading Georgia in 2008 fits the definition of factoid, as defined by Norman Mailer in 1973:

From the Wikipedia article Factoid:

The term was coined in 1973 by American writer Norman Mailer to mean a "piece of information that becomes accepted as a fact even though it’s not actually true, or an invented fact believed to be true because it appears in print."

This is a basic tool of Western mainstream propaganda. Sprinkle every article full of "factoids" or small lies. These lies are not about the core topic of article, so they are unlikely to be challenged. Their only purpose is to enforce the narrative and demonize the enemy. When small lies or "lielets" are repeated often enough, they become factoids, meaning that they are no longer recognized as lies.

Posted by: Petri Krohn | Aug 29 2016 21:37 utc | 25

The exceptional Nation, the Shining city on a hill and the indispensable nation exhibit the kind of insufferable Nationalism and downright lies propagated by the NYT George Orwell wrote about this in his essay 'Notes on Nationalism' http://orwell.ru/library/essays/nationalism/english/e_nat The "nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them".

Posted by: harrylaw | Aug 29 2016 22:49 utc | 26

@psychohistorian
Yeah, we're inside 3. 2008 was straight up financial terrorism... and the ransome was well paid. Take a bow Bill Clinton.

And the people are docile, just enough to go about losing another personal liberty every other week. Work...slave work.

Posted by: MadMax2 | Aug 29 2016 22:51 utc | 27

P Walker @ 8: Thanks for the Twain quote. My personal favorite..

"Always drink upstream from the herd."

Posted by: ben | Aug 29 2016 23:12 utc | 28

@15, least with NYPost you know what you're getting. The NYT is way more cunning. And more dangerous. Their lies don't just amuse; they drive people crazy.

Posted by: ruralito | Aug 29 2016 23:15 utc | 29

Although, NYT, is bleeding and is losing audience, I am amazed that it is still in print. The Guardian is posting loss in millions of pounds, and that is what I expect NYT to be doing.

Is anyone willing to bet that by the end of 2017, the New York Times and the Guardian will be speaking as one voice ... that is, they will have merged?

There doesn't really seem to be all that much difference between the two, especially between the NYT and Guardian America.

Posted by: Jen | Aug 29 2016 23:49 utc | 30

Seems the NY Times ought to have won the Flying Fickle Finger of Fate Award on a continuous basis, but I can't find any mention that it deserved it even once.

Posted by: karlof1 | Aug 30 2016 0:14 utc | 31

Not sure if it was NPR news this afternoon or PBS NewsHour, but it was reported that warnings are being given to states to carefully monitor their election programs. Seems that "Russians" have hacked two states' electronic voting programs....

No sourcing whatsoever as to who has proved and "knows": that Russia has (the use of Russia and Russians is interchangeable in these reports which try so hard to make Americans terrified of...Russia). It seems that lately every hack has all the electronic fingerprints necessary to prove it was the Russians doing it. Used to the North Korea or the Chinese got prime billing, but now it's Russia..

Posted by: jawbone | Aug 30 2016 0:16 utc | 32

Piotr@14,
The season to which I refer is, as I said, the electoral one!

The Times blows (or is it sucks?) very much with the political weather, though regretfully our elections now blow for long enough to constitute multiple seasons proper.

======

Honestly, there is always time for a negative story about Russia. Open season all year round. On other topic it varies, but much more from topic to topic.

By the way, Sweden has its own "military industrial complex", which makes me wonder if they truly want to join NATO. I mean, they produce assorted stuff domestically, and NATO could force them to standardize. One way or another, Russian theat is very important, much more so than in Finland (if you have a real threat, you consider such undignified options like non-confrontational foreign policy) and Denmark. One of the summer pastimes in Sweden is hunting for ever-elusive Russian submarines. Recently they even found one! Poor chaps from Russia who sank in 1915. However, extremely complicated shoreline is hard to control, allowing Russian U-boats to approach without detection and spread false stories. Superbly trained Russian submariners, blondes to the man, spread the stories while conversing with gullible natives without any detectable accent.

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Aug 30 2016 0:58 utc | 33

@31 jawbone... used to be ''putin did it'', but now it's ''russia did it''... take yer pick, lol... who needs evidence when you are an exceptional nation?

Posted by: james | Aug 30 2016 0:59 utc | 34

A Sunday NTY's crossword always includes yiddish, hebrew, judiac, etc., clues and words. Very annoying to say the least. The Sunday crossword and some $1.00 off grocery coupons are the only reason that I buy the Sunday print edition of my city's local paper. With AP stories the like of "Avoiding gender stereotypes in kids' clothing" and constant global warmin ... errr Climate Change pieces that are opinion not supported by any scientific data proffered as fact. Being 'exceptional' must be so, so tiring.

Posted by: ALberto | Aug 30 2016 1:49 utc | 35

I may have to give the NYT a little credit for this article. Mr Kanjo, if he exista, sums the situation up quite nicely....

"Mr. Kanjo seemed unsure of what was even happening in the operation, saying he at first mistook Turkish airstrikes for American. “I don’t know who is bombing who,” he acknowledged, adding that he felt that he and his men were being used by so many different interests that they felt like a highway.

“There are many different cars driving on us,” he said."

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/30/world/middleeast/syria-turkey-kurds-assad-isis-free-syrian-army.html?&_r=0

Posted by: dh | Aug 30 2016 2:34 utc | 36

@25, harrylaw, thanks for the link.

Posted by: spudski | Aug 30 2016 3:31 utc | 37

In the nineties, I had a full subscription to the NYT. Keeping up with the Times back then was a full time job.
That and the constant drivel ab the Clintons/Whitewater is what got me to cancel ... remember that?
Could never figure out why they were so hard on the Clintons... particularly since (in retrospect) they did everything the empire desired... Then came WMDs, Iraq war, and Judith Miller... Lost all credibility... Then there was an interview in Salon w Bill Keller, in which he clearly said that the Times promotes stories of/for 'national security.' Who represents national security was not defined... I saw the headline b mentions - shook head in disbelief - the paper has now become truly a parody of itself - even Onion cannot compete. Interesting times we live in...

Posted by: GoraDiva | Aug 30 2016 4:07 utc | 38

Interesting piece by Nicholas Kristof Sunday August 28, 2016 New York Times News Service. "Anne Frank today is a Syrian girl."

Why is irony always so ironic?

Posted by: ALberto | Aug 30 2016 4:35 utc | 39

Exploding the lies of the NYT could be a full time job. Keep up the good work.

Posted by: euclidcreek | Aug 30 2016 4:38 utc | 40

What is the issue?

We know we are lied to. We come here to see if maybe, just maybe, we'll read something that isn't a lie.

Revolution? Not Americans. Maybe the rest of the world will eventually revolt against the Americans. Of course if there was a real revolt, likely to succeed, the powers that be amongst the American oligarchy would rather obliterate life than continue to live in a world where they could not dominate.

Maybe it won't matter. We've had, world-wide, record high temperatures. Maybe that elusive tipping point forecast as long ago as the late 1800's is finally catching up with us. Sadly the rest of life on this planet may end with us. And, ultimately, no one will be around to laugh at what we thought was so important at the end ...

Posted by: rg the lg | Aug 30 2016 4:52 utc | 41

9

Pepe Escobar writes yet again another lazy-eye schmere against the Rising Red Star China-Russia, beìng careful to pay tribute to Zybig Brz for his lame-ass story idea, so he doesn't have to, you know, do any real reporting:

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-08-29/there-will-be-blood-whole-game-about-containing-russia-china

And this shall pass for all future western reportage, as the Fifth Cadre grafts itself firmly onto the ass of Mil.Gov.Fed.Biz, and the whole globe lurches forward quantitively easing their needs for psyop distractions.

Oh, look, 95,000,000 jobless and homeless sitting under that overpass!!

In ANY 3rd world country of peaceable citizens, every day you see video coverage of the starving or the roadkill or the random murder. You NEVER see anything like that on US-EU news, only pure pan-media propaganda, and the objurate squawk from Cramer: "The markets are at all-time highs! Shouldn't you get your cash off the sidelines! Buy!!?"

On to Crimea!!

Posted by: TheRealDonald | Aug 30 2016 5:24 utc | 42

Jesus christ do western propaganda ever stop?!
Russia blamed for hacking for the 9235th time this month
http://sputniknews.com/us/20160830/1044760234/us-russia-hacking-attack.html

Posted by: Reppz | Aug 30 2016 7:05 utc | 43

Seymour Hersh once worked for the NYT, and this interview is full of nuggets and covers the Sarin gas red line in detail. One thing that struck me was that he is extremely well connected has many inside sources and knows much more than he can possibly say publically. This is a must watch interview but why has it has been so heavily edited? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIBxGm08KY8

Posted by: Nobody | Aug 30 2016 7:33 utc | 44

25

All these little 'lielets' and 'factoids' (especially love the Interactive Brokers TV ad, two well-dressed White Fellahs meeting at your over-priced char-broiler, when one announces "The Russians have attacked EurAsia, and the global markets are off 20%, but it's after-hours trades, so excuse me while I hedge my positions") are just stress positioning the Slaves of the Electoral College for some inevitable War Congressional declaration schmere prelude with the $50 B looted by Kerry-Congress July 2015 for their wholly illegal, wholly unconstitutional 'backstop the verticals' for the non-NATO war criminal Israeli junta in Kiev, by transferring those public US Treasury funds to the private IMF/WB banks.

Stress positioning for war in EurAsia, like they're stress positioning for colored-on-white race wars after Donald-Hillary are in position to execute martial law, after the declaration of Fed interest rate increases, together with War in Crimea / War in Syria blowout to $TRILLION War Department, guts US health and human services funding, and another 95,000,000 USAryans find themselves herded into crematoriums for a nice shower and some urinal cake.

It's all stress-positioning! I finally understand Chomsky.

Expect every channel of Fall TV to include a zombie series and a street crime series, so that when Yellen pulls the green handle, and Donald-Hillary pushes the red button, the Skinnerian-conditioned American People will throw a YUUGE parade with lotsa flags, and plenty of fireworks bursting in the air, and Billy Graham shouting "Bomb the gooks for Jesus!" as SWAT teams fire teargas and peppergas into the BLM and OWS freedom fighters.

Kiss your SS, MC, VA goodbye. Pay your rent, pay your credit card, pay your taxes and pay your interest-only tithe to the Chosen. Forever. Learn to love Big Brother.

Posted by: TheRealDonald | Aug 30 2016 9:52 utc | 45

They can safely assume that most of their readers have no fucking idea what is going on in that part of the world, so they can print anything they fucking well feel like.

Posted by: ralphieboy | Aug 30 2016 10:46 utc | 46

harrylaw | Aug 29, 2016 6:49:54 PM | 25

Which is why any optimism from my end, flew the coop decades ago.
The sickest joke making the rounds now, is the 2016 "elections"; I'd thought they went the way of the Dodo bird in 2000...

Posted by: V. Arnold | Aug 30 2016 11:58 utc | 47

Maybe the Russians were looking up McCains electoral prospects re Arizona hack?(Wapoo):)
Right now America is consumed by the Kaepernick controversy,where the athlete refused to stand for the anthem at a football game.
The whole thing is kind of funny,as his walkback regarding militarism in the USA made him look like an idiot,out of touch with the reality,that no,they are not fighting for our freedom,and haven't since the CW,they are fighting for zions hegemony over its captive neighbors.
All lives matter,and the BLM movement is stupid to bring up selectivity in that approach.
A black pastor is on the hot seat(Wapoo)for putting the HB in blackface,as a minstrel fooling the black community.Good for him,and hopefully blacks will wake up to the fact she sucks.

Posted by: dahoit | Aug 30 2016 12:36 utc | 48

Who reads the NYT for for anything other than comedic relief? The times has become a close parody of Orwell's 'Ministry of Truth' complete with the re-writing of yesterday's history and no doubt a "Memory Hole" incinerator in the basement. Don't most people get their news from the alt media now?

Posted by: BRF | Aug 30 2016 14:21 utc | 49

There is a good article at Counterpunch regarding our psychopathic culture. (Go look it up if you actually give a s**t. The author is Hayase.) Here is a quote that resonated with me:

"At one point, sooner or later, the mask of the psychopath slips and the monster beneath reveals itself. Psychopathy has been running throughout the history of America, dragging people into a mission of Manifest Destiny. The indigenous of this country were terrorized and murdered, while blacks were enslaved and brutalized. The poor and people of color have been continuously abandoned and impoverished."

And, as always, there is denial.

Posted by: rg the lg | Aug 30 2016 14:44 utc | 50

I go with three, definitely. Some examples immediately above.

Posted by: juliania | Aug 30 2016 15:04 utc | 51

Amazing segment on NPR's Morning Edition which has Putin (not just Russia or Russians in this "report") behind virtually every death, other than those proven beyond a doubt natural causes, of any Russian or "enemy of Putin."

Well, to be fair, the report did include the assassination of Trotsky in 1940. It didn't pin that one on Putin; it was included to show that those Russians are always doing the assassinations thing.

I could barely believe my ears. And the report was so filled with "if's" and other weasel words it seemed to be, almost, Onion-like. Well, the Onion of old -- how's it doing after its sale?

NPR link (to transcript, I think):

http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2016/08/30/491898040/the-curious-deaths-of-kremlin-critics

Audio control is blue circle in upper left corner, 6:33 minutes.

Posted by: jawbone | Aug 30 2016 15:13 utc | 52

jawbone@49 He will have to go some to catch up with the Clinton's..90 SUSPICIOUS DEATHS OF INDIVIDUALS CLOSE TO THE CLINTON'S..http://www.freewebs.com/jeffhead/liberty/liberty/bdycount.txt

Posted by: harrylaw | Aug 30 2016 15:46 utc | 53

Speaking of false stories, many "alternative" sites have reported that the Soros leaks have been taken offline. Not so. Still available: http://soros.dcleaks.com

Posted by: Penelope | Aug 30 2016 15:47 utc | 54

Just a reminder that Judith Miller's coauthor for the Iraq war stories, Michael Gordon, still works for the NYT

Posted by: IhaveLittleToAdd | Aug 30 2016 16:06 utc | 55

Quoted:

As often happens in such cases, Swedish officials were never able to pin down the source of the false reports.

Orwell must be laughing (or crying) in his grave. Swedish officials are tracking down "false reports" involved in a political debate???? Imagine if this were re-written "The FBI and CIA are tracking down sources of false reports about the effects of the TPP trade agreement."

The EU has and is in the process of being reborn as group of totalitarian federated states using the veneer of faux liberalism.

Posted by: Erelis | Aug 30 2016 16:31 utc | 56

Microsoft apologizes for Daesh (ISIS) translating to 'Saudi Arabia' on Bing

https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/microsoft-apologizes-daesh-isis-translates-saudi-arabia-bing/

Posted by: Les | Aug 30 2016 16:53 utc | 57

And when the Bush Whitehouse via Condi Rice wanted to stop NYT from publishing Risen's story of Operation Merlin and CIA attempts to get a (defective) nuclear bomb design to the Iranians, NYT was more than happy to comply. It's still a story that stayed below the radar and only surfaced for a tiny bit in the trial of Sterling.

Posted by: Curtis | Aug 30 2016 19:06 utc | 58

benny 16. Thanks for the NYPost story. That's disgusting. Putin hasn't gobbled anything but they like to make him out to be Hitler while he does diplomatic stuff and moves troops within his own borders to offset NATO moves. While searching for the story, I noticed it copied at kyivpost, Yahoo, and foxnews. It's a shrill neocon echochamber of BS. I wonder what a true poll of Americans attitudes towards Russia and Putin would be considering all the invective against them.

Posted by: Curtis | Aug 30 2016 19:12 utc | 59

COPYEDIT

NYT Laments Of Allegedly False Russian News Stories - With A False U.S. News Story

...should read

NYT Laments Allegedly False Russian News Stories - With A False U.S. News Story

Posted by: Ronald | Aug 30 2016 20:56 utc | 61

Reading/ skimming the NYT is akin to Kremlinology, isn't it? What's rising on the power agenda, which arguments advanced, which dropped, who is up, who is down, where divisions in the factions of power, where/ how will public attention be misdirected, what issue, how many times, on what page, etc? Always interesting to note, if one has the print edition, when parts of a story drop later online, that appear in the print edition.
And still buried in the pages can be tidbits of actual reporting, which most putative news organizations no longer attempt to finance at all - but never fronting NYT, no freehand for reporters on the front page. Comical sometimes, when info reported in the jump, on an inside page, undermines headline or lede on front. Saturday edition is another location for NYT covering its bases with stories off the dominant narrative. Perhaps the editors want to be able to assert, at some much later date, that the paper did cover such-and-such aspect or story, should that story emerge later as important? Or perhaps the newsman editors still struggle to reconcile for themselves the contradictions between real news gathering/reporting and serving as a NatSec asset.
Then one always heads to the internet and a few key sites, like Moon, which can be relied on to sort through reports and media unavailable in US MSM, analysis and stories that make sense of what makes no sense as reported in the US.


Posted by: smoke | Aug 31 2016 0:04 utc | 62

I think what is going on is part of a larger strategy- to get people to buy into the idea that the Russians are actively manipulating our elections (the DNC emails, the false stories), then that they are hacking into vote results (Comey's latest).
Where all this is going, of course, is a pretext to dispute and/or invalidate the results of the election, should the wrong person win.

Posted by: ian | Aug 31 2016 0:18 utc | 63

Ronald @61

Despite some awkward wording or typos, b does a great job communicating in English. Since turnabout it fair play, I have the following nitpicks for you:

1) Your correction is actually minor. The headline would be more effective if the contrast that b brings to the reader's attention was stronger:

NYT Laments Allegedly False Russian News Stories - Using Demonstrably False information
This draws in more readers whose understanding is then deepened with the description of the NYT article's weak sourcing.

Note: I don't think b needs to worry much about how interesting his headlines are.

2) Copy editing happens before publication. Wikipedia clarifies (emphasis is mine):

In response to such high demands for fast-produced content, some online publications have started publishing articles first and then editing later, a process known as back-editing.

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Aug 31 2016 2:39 utc | 64

I have to defend my decision to subscribe to NYT. Stories on Russia are a bit monotone, a bit like Gondorian Times reporting on Mordor. If we want more "seasonally variable reporting", Israel is the topic. Today:

Israel Quietly Legalizes Pirate Outposts in the West Bank
By ISABEL KERSHNER
Unauthorized settlements dot hilltops in the West Bank, and anti-settlement groups and Palestinians say retroactively legalizing them is a methodical effort to change the region’s map.

At other occasions, detractors of Israel claimed that Ms. Kershner is an Israeli shill.

But the most value for my money I get from stories that I would not notice anywhere else. Today's issue did not disappoint.

August 31, 2016 - By KATIE ROGERS - U.S. - Print Headline: "Creepy Clown Sightings in South Carolina Cause a Frenzy"

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Aug 31 2016 3:20 utc | 65

65;That Kershner piece is obviously pushback for the readership who increasingly drop their subscriptions.
Even the comatose have moments of lucidity.

Posted by: dahoit | Aug 31 2016 16:42 utc | 66

Todays Graun had a Clinton article about Honduras and the HBs assistance in the coup there.
The articles BS were almost totally(a few tards)anti Clinton,and called out the Grauns mealy mouthed defense of her.

Posted by: dahoit | Aug 31 2016 16:47 utc | 67

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