Friel, Howard and Falk, Richard. The Record of the Paper: How the New York
Times Misreports US Foreign Policy. London: Verso, 2004. 304 pages.
It is often observed that when it comes to U.S. foreign policy, it's
impossible to tell the difference between U.S. conservatives and liberals.
The best proof of this is the reporting of the New York Times from the 1954
Geneva Accords on Vietnam to the invasion of Iraq. Other topics include the
Tonkin Gulf incident, Reagan's policy in Nicaragua, and the 2002 coup in
Venezuela. On May 26, 2004, for example, the New York Times apologized for
the lies it reported on the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, which were
provided mainly by their chief anti-Arab reporter, Judith Miller, through
her CIA cut-out, Ahmed Chalabi. But the problem was much broader than this.
In more than seventy NYT editorials prior to the invasion, the issue of
international law was never mentioned.
This disregard for perspectives that involve international law is
typical of the Times. The paper of record in the world's most powerful
country has its own elitist reporters and Ivy League op-ed writers who
schmooze with foreign-affairs policy makers. When the bandwagon gets rolling
for another U.S. invasion, they all jump aboard. The NYT can be counted on
to give them all the column inches they need to spread U.S. hegemony first,
and then later perhaps a tiny bit of human rights coverage or an apology --
just to make it look like they're trying to be objective.
ISBN 1-84467-019-8
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