Antiwar Activists Accuse NYT of ‘Manufacturing Consent’ for Genocide
The New York Times is the world’s most prestigious news organization and, for many on the left, one of the most vexing. It’s not as bad as Fox News or other rabidly right-wing outlets but there’s still so much to loathe — its smug, condescending tone; its obsession with the Ivy League and other cultural totems its upper-class readers care about; it’s deference to current and former government insiders; its tired defense of broken political institutions fobbed off as sagacious wisdom. We’ve seen it for decades. Still, The Times persists as the highly profitable, agenda-setting “paper of record” that is impossible to ignore.
However, it now finds itself embroiled in one of its worst journalism scandals in recent memory and it calls into question the paper’s top editors and their commitment to basic journalistic integrity.
In late December, The Times published a sensational but unsubstantiated front-page story alleging that Hamas had systematically raped Israeli women on Oct. 7. While Hamas committed many atrocities on Oct. 7, the article, “‘Screams Without Words’: How Hamas Weaponized Sexual Violence on Oct. 7,” has been criticized for its shoddy reporting since its publication and for shoring up support for Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza.
The Times’ top-rated podcast, The Daily, declined to do a show based on the article because it couldn’t verify its claims. In the past week, it’s been learned that one of the story’s three co-authors, Anat Schwartz, had liked a tweet calling for Gaza to be turned into a “slaughterhouse,” had no prior journalistic experience and was a former member of Israeli military intelligence. Her nephew, Adam Stella, a recent Harvard graduate with scant journalism experience, was another one of the story’s co-authors.
While it’s possible The Times will cut ties with Schwartz for her behavior on social media, the paper’s senior editors are defending Schwartz’s reporting and by extension themselves. On Thursday, Writers Against the War on Gaza and the Palestinian Youth Movement held a press conference in front of The New York Times building in mid-Manhattan.
The protesters called for everyone involved in the reporting, writing, editing and publishing of “Screams Without Words” to resign. They also called on Times readers to partake in a BDU campaign — boycott, divest and unsubscribe.
Here at The Indypendent, we can only shake our heads. We have only the tiniest fraction of The Times’ resources. But, we can look back on our coverage of this war from its earliest days, including special editions in November and December, the wide range of guests we’ve brought on our weekly radio show, breaking news updates from the streets on social media and more and we can hold our heads high. We don’t launder atrocity propaganda. We don’t claim the fake objectivity of the Times. We have a worldview. At the same time, we always strive to provide the most accurate understanding of events that our reporting and research leads us to.
One of The Times’ greates conceits is contained in its Page 1 slogan — “All the News That’s Fit to Print.” We beg to differ! There are whole worlds that exist outside the NYT’s’ omniscient gaze.
Whether you unsubscribe from The Times or not, we encourage you to start the new month by throwing some support to a fiercely independent, non-corporate media outlet like this one. You can make a one-time donation or become a monthly sustainer for $5, $10 or $20 per month. In doing so, you are making a statement about the kind of journalism you believe in, and you are helping bring it into existence.
Thank You.
John Tarleton
Editor-in-Chief
The Indypendent
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