Lying New York Times Does It Again

In their December 19^th editorial, “A Record Number of Journalists Jailed,” the NYT editors begin with a long list of countries (emphasizing China) which try to “rid themselves of meddlesome reporters.” This obliges them eventually to mention Julian Assange, claiming that there is a debate about whether he is actually a journalist – he certainly is, and the propaganda stenographers of the New York Times certainly are not – and that it is “unfortunate” that the U.S. government is pursuing Assange under the Espionage Act. It’s also unprecedented and completely repressive of free speech, and an indication of what our Deep State intends for the rest of us. The editors continue with a comparison between the U.S. effort to try Assange “in open court where he could contest the charges” and foreign authoritarian leaders who seek nothing more than unchallenged power. This is utterly false, since under the Espionage Act he would have no opportunity to contest the charges; he is automatically guilty since he did release classified materials (as did the New York Times), and if there is any government seeking unchallenged power, it is that of the United States. Finally, the editors close with the often-repeated and false claim that the documents were leaked without removing confidential sources, putting lives in danger, when in fact the documents released by Wikileaks were redacted, and even offered to the State Department for review, which the department declined to do.

This editorial is just the kind of blatant dishonesty we should all expect from the New York Times and its stable of current and former CIA employees. The newspaper is a piece of shit, and so is anyone who would write for them, in particular its editors.