The Record of the Newspaper of Record (The NY Times)

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The Record of the Newspaper of Record

Thursday, 21 June 2007
by Stephen Lendman

Dictionaries define "yellow journalism" variously as irresponsible and
sensationalist reporting that distorts, exaggerates or misstates the
truth. It's misinformation or agitprop disinformation masquerading as
fact to boost circulation and readership or serve a larger purpose
like lying for state and corporate interests. The dominant US media
excel in it, producing a daily diet of fiction portrayed as real news
and information in their role as our national thought-control police
gatekeepers. In the lead among the print and electronic
corporate-controlled media is the New York Times publishing "All The
News That's Fit To Print" by its standards. Others wanting real
journalism won't find it on their pages allowing only the fake kind.
It's because this paper's primary mission is to be the lead instrument
of state propaganda making it the closest thing we have in the country
to an official ministry of information and propaganda.

Singlehandedly, the Times destroys "The Myth of the Liberal Media"
that's also the title of Edward Herman's 1999 book on "the illiberal
media," the market system, and what passes for democracy in America
Michael Parenti calls "Democracy For the Few," in his book with that
title out earlier this year in its 8th edition.

In his book, Herman writes about the "propaganda model" he and Noam
Chomsky introduced and developed 11 years earlier in their landmark
book titled "Manufacturing Consent." They explained how the dominant
media use this technique to program the public mind to go along with
whatever agenda best serves wealth and power interests. So imperial
wars of aggression are portrayed as liberating ones, humanitarian
intervention, and spreading democracy to nations without any. Never
mind they're really for new markets, resources like oil, and cheap
exploitable labor paid for with public tax dollars diverted from
essential social needs.

In "The Myth of the Liberal Media," Herman explains the "propaganda
model" focuses on "the inequality of wealth and power" and how those
with most of it can "filter out the news to print, marginalize dissent
(and assure) government and dominant private interests" control the
message and get it to the public. It's done through a set of "filters"
removing what's to be suppressed and "leaving only the cleansed
(acceptable) residue fit to print" or broadcast electronically.
Parenti's "Democracy For the Few" is democracy-US style the rest of us
are stuck with.

Books have been written on how, going back decades, the New York Times
betrayed the public trust serving elitist interests alone. It plays
the lead and most influential media role disseminating state and
corporate propaganda to the nation and world. In terms of media clout,
the Times is unmatched with its prominent front page being what media
critic Norman Solomon calls "the most valuable square inches of media
real estate in the USA" - more accurately, anywhere.


Examples of Times duplicity are endless showing up every day on its
pages. The shameless Judith Miller saga is just the latest episode of
how bad they can get, but she had her predecessors...


In Full: http://www.atlanticfreepress.com/content/view/1840/81/