Reality Bites

The New York Times has a very bad week

I’ve been trying to limit myself to one post a week. But this week, not only has the New York Times had to get real on three important issues, but three news bombshells have exposed the NYT’s less-than-intimate relationship with reality. How could I ignore all that?

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The War in Ukraine

After months of Ukraine-is-winning stories, the NYT editors must be getting nervous. Though it’s likely the Ukrainian army will only gradually cede territory over the coming weeks, there is now a non-trivial chance that there could be a major collapse of the Ukrainian front-lines and/or a collapse of the Ukrainian government at any time.

The NYT has clearly decided to hedge its bets with a story entitled Outnumbered and Worn Out, Ukrainians in the East Brace for Russian Assault - which gives a pretty solemn assessment of how bad things are in Bakhmut. Just in case.

Here’s a taste:

“Exhausted Ukrainian troops complain they are already outnumbered and outgunned, even before Russia has committed the bulk of its roughly 200,000 newly mobilized soldiers. And doctors at hospitals speak of mounting losses as they struggle to care for fighters with gruesome injuries.

(This post from Moonofalabama includes more from the NYT article for those who don’t have a NYT subscription.)

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Sanctions on Russia

After months of stories about how ‘sanctions have brought Russia to the brink of political and economic collapse’, the NYT editors have also decided to let a little reality into their coverage of the sanctions issue.

Using the vehicle of Ana Swanson’s op-ed “Russia Sidesteps Western Punishments, With Help From Friends”, the NYT grudgingly admits that Russia has found ways to minimize the damage associated with economic sanctions, even going so far as to quote IMF estimates that this year Russia’s economy will grow faster than that of the UK and Germany.

(Again, for those with paywall issues, Andrew Korybko, discusses this NYT piece at OrientalReview.org.)

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Non-COVID Excess Deaths During the Pandemic

The NYT managed to suppress this story for a very long time. (I first began writing about this issue almost 15 months ago in November of 2021.)

I’m sure what’s forced their hand now is that excess deaths is a hot topic in the UK, Europe, Israel, Australia, and New Zealand. When writers in all those countries talk about the issue, they typically include information about excess deaths in the US.

How do you talk about a story you’ve been ignoring for many months? Well, you can casually slip it into a science-interest op-ed. You title it “Why Are So Many Americans Dying Right Now?” as if this were a brand new problem.

Be very casual about it all: Oh, by the way, 350,000 Americans in excess of normal died during the pandemic of non-COVID causes. No big deal.

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Hamilton 68

Remember all those stories about how the Russians got Trump elected using thousands of Twitter bots? (I’m sure if you’re a regular NYT reader you’ll remember many such stories. (If your memory fails you, just search the NYT website with the keywords ‘Twitter Russia Election” )

That story also bit the dust this week, thanks to Matt Taibbi’s Twitter File investigations. Taibbi not only discovered that the claims were completely fraudulent, but that Twitter executives at the time knew they were fraudulent.

Zerohedge reports: ‘Taibbi reveals that Twitter was concerned enough about Hamilton 68's claims that they ordered a forensic analysis which found that of 644 accounts, just 36 were registered in Russia - many of which were associated with news outlet RT.’

Needless to say, the NYT hasn’t mentioned Taibbi’s findings to their readers.

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The Hunter Biden Laptop

Just when the NYT editors thought their bad week couldn’t get any worse, Hunter Biden announces to all the world that, yes, it was his laptop. Truly mortifying, given the great lengths the NYT had gone to portray the laptop story as “classic Russian dis-information.”

I searched the NYT site for ‘Hunter Biden Laptop,’ but it appears the NYT also isn’t in a rush to tell its readers about Hunter’s laptop confession.

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The Russiagate Hoax

After all that, in the journalist equivalent of a drop-kick to the crotch, Jeff Gerth, a Pulitzer-Prize winning former New York Times investigative reporter eviscerates his former employer with a damning expose of the Russiagate hoax.

Worse still, his thorough 4-part investigative report - The Press versus the President - was published in the Columbia Journalism Review - the in-house paper of one of America’s most prestigious journalism schools. Ouch.

Gerth shows in detail how the Russiagate story was a toxic mixture of sloppy journalism, Democratic Party dirty tricks, innuendo and outright fraud. It also reveals that many journalists in liberal media outlets knew at the time it was highly questionable. Gerth singles out the NYT as one of the worst offenders.

Gerth’s article is long -24,000 words- and meticulously thorough. Where Russiagate was all ‘unnamed Government sources,’ Gerth’s sources are named.

I can sympathize with those who hate Trump so much they still want to believe that Russiagate was real. If you are one of that group, I’d recommend you read Gerth’s entire essay, as a form of therapy, and, perhaps, penance.

I will offer the feedback that Gerth’s 4-part report is long, convoluted, and excrutiatingly detailed. The NYT gets special attention for providing biased coverage, refusing to make corrections, and a consistent failure to include any information in their stories which called that story into question.

Trump has demonized the Deep State, but former FBI agent Peter Stryzok ends up being one of his best defenders - despite hating Trump.

Gerth believes that young reporters’ desires to be the next Woodward and Bernstein bringing down a sitting President led them to be sloppy and insuffiently skeptical reporters.

Perhaps most damning in Gerth’s report is the number of the Russiagate journalists who refused to be interviewed for his series. It was almost like they were hoping that Russiagate would be quietly forgotten…

If you want a quick precis of Gerth’s report, there’s this from Matt Taibbi, a good podcast of Gerth himself, and this from Real Clear Politics.

Gerth expresses two major concerns regarding the long-running Russiagate hoax. First, that it has caused much of the American population to lose all trust in the mainstream media. And second, that the bifurcation of the American media into catering to either Democratic or Republican audiences has aggravated the polarization of American society.

I would add a third issue: Lies have consequences.

Without the ever-present shadow of Russiagate hanging over him, I suspect Donald Trump would have negotiated a security agreement with Russia in regards to Ukraine.

The Ukraine war could have been avoided. Ukraine’s economy and infrastructure would not now be in ruins and 150,000 dead Ukrainian soldiers would still be alive. Americans would be 100 billion dollars richer. And we would all be buying far fewer tickets in the Nuclear Armageddon Lottery.

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PS: When I do a search on ‘Jeff Gerth’ on the NYT website, all I get is Gerth’s old NYT articles. Even now, the New York Times doesn’t want is its readers to understand that Russiagate was all political theatre.