This fake news goes all the way back to NY Slimes Pulitzer Prize winner Walter " I don't see no stinkin' starving kulaks in Stalin's Ukraine" Duranty (perhaps around 5 – 6 million were starved to death by Stalin in his Holodomor) to Lincoln "I have seen the future in Stalin's USSR, and it works" Steffens to fake Nobel Prize winner Rigoberta Menchu, accidentally outed by another leftist, to another NY Slimes wunderkind, fiction writer Jayson Blair, who resigned in 2003 after he was outed for stories—some front page—that were fabricated or plagiarized, to Dan "I found a memo!" Rather, to Brian "I was shot down in a helicopter in Iraq in 2003" Williams, and the list goes on and on and on... such as Walter Cronkite telling us (regardless of how you felt about its rightness) that the Viet Nam war was being lost during the Tet offensive, while at the same time North Viet General Giap admitted later on in his memoirs that all was lost unless the American public was lied to and told they were losing, to Mikey Isikoff /Newsweek’s infamous May 9, 2005 issue that cited some “unnamed source” saying the Qu’ran was trashed at Guantanamo – and was later proven false, but not after many were killed in the rioting that ensued overseas (“no matter if people die… as long as their political ends are met, right?).
And speaking of fake Pulitzer Prize winners, how about good old Janet Cook and here fake story in the Washington Post, Jimmy’s World. Duranty would be jealous! And speaking of 9/11, don’t forget the famous – and utterly idiotic – tweet from the NYT that said “Airplanes took aim and brought down the World Trade Center.” This tweet was so intellectually vapid it deleted it shortly after. (Reminiscent of “guns kill people” articles… as if guns grow legs and fingers, and run around shooting people with no human operators. Less well known but equally egregious is The New York Times’ completely discredited stating Russia was paying Taliban-linked fighters to kill US in Afghanistan, or the Guardian’s discredited report that enemy of the state Paul Manafort paid visits to Julian Assange at the Ecuadorian embassy. All done to advance a narrative.
In the early 1900s — literally a century ago — journalists like Upton Sinclair and George Seldes were discussing the corruption of the media, how they were owned by big business with a profit agenda, and how they were not dealing squarely with investigative reporters. This came alive to me while visiting the state capitol of Illinois, where there is a “Remember the Maine” plaque. Of course, the Spanish American (about which US ambassador to the UK called that “splendid little war”) war was pretty much made out of whole cloth by William Randolf Hearst, which even fake news purveyor PBS recognizes, stating “ The Spanish-American War is often referred to as the first "media war." During the 1890s, journalism that sensationalized—and sometimes even manufactured—dramatic events was a powerful force that helped propel the United States into war with Spain. Led by newspaper owners William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer, journalism of the 1890s used melodrama, romance, and hyperbole to sell millions of newspapers--a style that became known as yellow journalism… Hearst understood that a war with Cuba would not only sell his papers, but also move him into a position of national prominence. From Cuba, Hearst's star reporters wrote stories designed to tug at the heartstrings of Americans. Horrific tales described the situation in Cuba--female prisoners, executions, valiant rebels fighting, and starving women and children figured in many of the stories that filled the newspapers. But it was the sinking of the battleship Maine in Havana Harbor that gave Hearst his big story--war. After the sinking of the Maine, the Hearst newspapers, with no evidence, unequivocally blamed the Spanish, and soon U.S. public opinion demanded intervention. Today, historians point to the Spanish-American War as the first press-driven war. Although it may be an exaggeration to claim that Hearst and the other yellow journalists started the war, it is fair to say that the press fueled the public's passion for war. Without sensational headlines and stories about Cuban affairs, the mood for Cuban intervention may have been very different.” Would that PBS and its ilk recognize that they, themselves, are continuing in the un-fine tradition of Hearst, et al.
This fake news goes all the way back to NY Slimes Pulitzer Prize winner Walter " I don't see no stinkin' starving kulaks in Stalin's Ukraine" Duranty (perhaps around 5 – 6 million were starved to death by Stalin in his Holodomor) to Lincoln "I have seen the future in Stalin's USSR, and it works" Steffens to fake Nobel Prize winner Rigoberta Menchu, accidentally outed by another leftist, to another NY Slimes wunderkind, fiction writer Jayson Blair, who resigned in 2003 after he was outed for stories—some front page—that were fabricated or plagiarized, to Dan "I found a memo!" Rather, to Brian "I was shot down in a helicopter in Iraq in 2003" Williams, and the list goes on and on and on... such as Walter Cronkite telling us (regardless of how you felt about its rightness) that the Viet Nam war was being lost during the Tet offensive, while at the same time North Viet General Giap admitted later on in his memoirs that all was lost unless the American public was lied to and told they were losing, to Mikey Isikoff /Newsweek’s infamous May 9, 2005 issue that cited some “unnamed source” saying the Qu’ran was trashed at Guantanamo – and was later proven false, but not after many were killed in the rioting that ensued overseas (“no matter if people die… as long as their political ends are met, right?).
And speaking of fake Pulitzer Prize winners, how about good old Janet Cook and here fake story in the Washington Post, Jimmy’s World. Duranty would be jealous! And speaking of 9/11, don’t forget the famous – and utterly idiotic – tweet from the NYT that said “Airplanes took aim and brought down the World Trade Center.” This tweet was so intellectually vapid it deleted it shortly after. (Reminiscent of “guns kill people” articles… as if guns grow legs and fingers, and run around shooting people with no human operators. Less well known but equally egregious is The New York Times’ completely discredited stating Russia was paying Taliban-linked fighters to kill US in Afghanistan, or the Guardian’s discredited report that enemy of the state Paul Manafort paid visits to Julian Assange at the Ecuadorian embassy. All done to advance a narrative.
In the early 1900s — literally a century ago — journalists like Upton Sinclair and George Seldes were discussing the corruption of the media, how they were owned by big business with a profit agenda, and how they were not dealing squarely with investigative reporters. This came alive to me while visiting the state capitol of Illinois, where there is a “Remember the Maine” plaque. Of course, the Spanish American (about which US ambassador to the UK called that “splendid little war”) war was pretty much made out of whole cloth by William Randolf Hearst, which even fake news purveyor PBS recognizes, stating “ The Spanish-American War is often referred to as the first "media war." During the 1890s, journalism that sensationalized—and sometimes even manufactured—dramatic events was a powerful force that helped propel the United States into war with Spain. Led by newspaper owners William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer, journalism of the 1890s used melodrama, romance, and hyperbole to sell millions of newspapers--a style that became known as yellow journalism… Hearst understood that a war with Cuba would not only sell his papers, but also move him into a position of national prominence. From Cuba, Hearst's star reporters wrote stories designed to tug at the heartstrings of Americans. Horrific tales described the situation in Cuba--female prisoners, executions, valiant rebels fighting, and starving women and children figured in many of the stories that filled the newspapers. But it was the sinking of the battleship Maine in Havana Harbor that gave Hearst his big story--war. After the sinking of the Maine, the Hearst newspapers, with no evidence, unequivocally blamed the Spanish, and soon U.S. public opinion demanded intervention. Today, historians point to the Spanish-American War as the first press-driven war. Although it may be an exaggeration to claim that Hearst and the other yellow journalists started the war, it is fair to say that the press fueled the public's passion for war. Without sensational headlines and stories about Cuban affairs, the mood for Cuban intervention may have been very different.” Would that PBS and its ilk recognize that they, themselves, are continuing in the un-fine tradition of Hearst, et al.