285 Comments

Misinformation IS protected by the First Amendment. How else would the NYT have survived all these years?

Expand full comment

NY Times:

Was ’newspaper of record ’ but now is

’firehose of propaganda from the Swamp’

Expand full comment

That is one of the best descriptions of anything this century

Expand full comment

Danno, wham!! Hammer meets nail.

Expand full comment

Well played & sadly true.

Expand full comment

Book ‘em, Danno!

Expand full comment

Yet the New York Times is now on the verge of endorsing government censorship, or at least saying that it shouldn’t be dismissed, that its value is a “thorny question.”

Does the Times even remember what business it is in?

----------

They do know. They're in the business of repeating whatever The Swamp wants them to say. The paper that just pretended to be part of #THERESISTANCE for four years can't possibly imagine an administration that doesn't view them so favorably........

Expand full comment

From 2016-2019 they wrote over 3,000 articles either outright declaring Trump had colluded with the Russians or implying so.

https://euphoricrecall.substack.com/p/how-the-mainstream-media-commodified

Expand full comment

Now imagine Trump had tried to censor their 'misinformation'.........

Expand full comment

I’ll bet it goes back further than 2016. Alex , how about a deeper dive on how far back the corruption goes, to the moment NYT lost its mind? What changed their mind to get out of the journalism business, and as always follow the money!

Expand full comment

As Mark Levine points out the NYT covered for Stalin and hid the holocaust for years. Their deception goes way back.

Expand full comment

That is truly disgusting.

Expand full comment

Yea, The New York Times sucks for saying Trump colluded with the Russians.

Extremely unprofessional. Suck ups.

Expand full comment

Please recall the August 2016 editorial by Rutenberg where he rationalized "throwing out the textbook" on objective reporting with regards to Donald Trump.

Expand full comment

They threw out the rulebook in every single way........(except the election, of course, that was obviously the cleanest election ever.)

Expand full comment

Amazing how the 2016 election was said to have been illegitimate due to shadowy russian interference and other phantoms of the liberal mind and then the electoral process in 2020 somehow regained its virginal purity.

Expand full comment
founding

Whatever they accuse the other side of, they are projecting their guilt already.

Expand full comment

Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner. They accused Trump of interfering in the 2016 election by colluding with the Russians, Biden and the FBI interfered in the 2020 election by claiming that Hunter's laptop was fake. Trump was impeached for a phone call to Ukraine to ask about corruption, Biden and Hunter were taking bribes from the corrupt government in Ukraine. Trump's kids were accused of making money from his presidency, Hunter made millions from China and Ukraine when his father was VP.

Expand full comment
founding

Thank you for taking the time to put into writing what I was expressing above.

Expand full comment

Notice, too, how hard Michigan prosecutors are going after 16 (mostly) elderly delegates who challenged the very questionable 2020 Presidential election results in that state. Looks an awful lot like intimidation tactics to me. Will they be convicted? Probably not. Message: "See what happens to anyone who publicly questioned that election? If you try that in '24, we can come after you, too."

Expand full comment

And everyone just conveniently forgets how the Left spent weeks pushing for delegates to "resist" Trump's election.

Expand full comment

...after we open giant integrity holes such as littering the cityscape with 'legal' ballots and putting drop boxes into play.

But you can only talk about 2016 being stolen.

Expand full comment

As the song goes, "81 million votes my ass." (Available on Apple Music.)

Expand full comment
Comment deleted
Expand full comment

It's from the Twitter Files, but not sure who exactly was involved in the exchange.

Expand full comment

Didn't the Times lie about Soviet Communism for decades?

Expand full comment

Won a Pulitzer Prize for those lies just like the Pulitzer it won for the Russiagate lies.

Expand full comment

were huge fans of Castro

Expand full comment

What Berenson has written about the NYT is not at all surprising to many of us.

He's finally been red-pilled.

Expand full comment

Let's ignore the fact that he's arrived to the party late and celebrate the fact that he showed up at all.

Expand full comment

Well written.

Expand full comment

Alex is tasting but hasn’t swallowed. But it’s a good start and I’m hopeful.

Expand full comment

This is not reporting, Alex. It is propaganda. I get it that it hurts - I used to work in pharma and believed in the veracity of clinical trials. I also used to believe doctors were smart, and I learned the hard way that most lawyers sell their soul to do their jobs. Trust lost is seldom restored easily. (Apologies for the generalizations, but you get the idea.)

Expand full comment

I’m so with you on this!! It hurts to learn that everything you believed in was false !!

But there IS a GOD/Creator who has a plan and He will make things right!!

Expand full comment

Alex, it seems your recent trials (so to speak) are conveying some painful but important truths. One of those is that leftism always leads to censorship. This makes sense because:

1. Human beings are naturally tyrannical. We don't need a reason to censor, we need a reason not to.

2. Leftism is simply raw, uncivilized human nature dressed up as a political philosophy. It always calls for greater indulgence; never restraint.

There is nothing in leftism that resists the temptation toward censorship. There's no principle that says I shouldn't censor someone whose message is inconvenient to my agenda. Without God (whom leftism denies), there is no moral law to curb my impulses; nor is there any basis for the belief that other people have inherent value that I am bound to respect.

The only reason censorship has a historically poor reputation in the West is because the West was founded on Judeo-Christian principles. But now that those have been cast aside, we are guaranteed to return to man's natural state of unmitigated oppression. Censorship is only the beginning.

Expand full comment

Absolutely insightful commentary, and totally true.

Expand full comment

I agree with most of your post but a non-religious philosophy of rational self-interest also supports free speech without government censorship. Much of our thought is in the form of speech, so that suppression of speech also limits free thought. Without free thought, there is no human progress.

Expand full comment

Hi, Bob. I completely agree that it's in our interest (and therefore rational) to permit freedom of speech. None of us is omniscient, so in order to progress within our universe we need to discover the truths that govern it. And the best way to do that is to continuously question, hypothesize, test, and conclude -- a process that requires freedom at every stage.

The problem isn't the process, however, it's the people. While most of us are able to think rationally, we are also driven by lusts that turn us away from entirely rational behavior. This is because we are moral disaster areas, at least as likely to use our reasoning for evil as for good. Reasoning, like any other asset such as power or money, will be invested in those causes we prioritize, and for most of us those come down to some combination of power, money, sex, fame, and pride. Nearly everyone wants to put on the Ring of Power; very few are willing to destroy it.

Expand full comment

I decided to cannibalize this for an article, which I am linking here in a tasteless act of self-promotion:

https://www.timothystephens.com/p/the-main-reasons-leftists-endorse

Granted, you've already read the lion's share of the content, so there's not much incentive to read it again. But I did include a stock photo of the New York Times building, so there's that.

Expand full comment
Comment deleted
Expand full comment

Hi, Helena. I don't think we're alone in these conclusions. It seems to me that most people have a sense that something is deeply wrong with the world, and that it's about to get much worse.

It's not just that material circumstances are rapidly trending downward or even that catastrophic world war seems inevitable; it's an understanding, deep in our souls, that a terrible evil has been unleashed, and that it's something far worse than can be explained by the usual spate of political "isms."

As much as many people don't want to hear it, we're in a spiritual battle. It's the only diagnosis that makes sense. We have political problems aplenty, of course, but those are merely symptoms of the underlying disease.

Expand full comment

The hearing yesterday was ridiculous. Anyone listening to the lockstep Democrat narrative who thinks they are on the right side of this needs their head examined. The Covid “vaccine” gaslighting really was disturbing, talk about lies, WTF.

Expand full comment

Well, we live in the early stages of an authoritarian society, so this is no surprise whatsoever. The only question concerning The New York Times and The Washington Post is which is Pravda and which is Izvestia?

Expand full comment

They are the Lügenpresse (the lying press)

Expand full comment

Exactly! That is the goal for them now. The same with mainstream religion. They are vying to be the dream interpreters, astrologers and diviners, for the régime.

Expand full comment
Jul 21, 2023·edited Jul 21, 2023

I spent 42 years in daily newspapers: The Washington Post and The Virginian-Pilot. I am horrified by what has happened to journalism. Alternative media is all we have left.

Expand full comment
Jul 21, 2023·edited Jul 21, 2023

I am grateful every day for all the wonderful alternative media that have arisen during this covid debacle. If you know where to look, you can read so many different perspectives. The tragedy is that a huge part of the population doesn't know where to look to find out the truth and what other people might be saying. The biggest tragedy is that they rely on a deceptive, lying mainstream media as they always have. So many think that because it's in the MSM and it's being said by so many different outlets, it must be the truth, it must be factual. I know more than a few people who think this way, sad to say.

Expand full comment

Typically when I share sources the response I get is "Oh, that's a conspiracy theory." Knee-jerk, no thought. I'll keep trying...

Expand full comment

I'm a former journalist too. Horrified! And, I might add, as far as the alternative media...It is all we have "right," not left.

Although, I am a blue who found my way towards red, I do not identify politically,

Where DO we fit in?

Expand full comment

It’s not about blue or red. It’s about freedom vs tyranny. You know that! We all must unite. TPTB love us all separated. Together, freedom wins...

Expand full comment

or good vs evil, plain and simple.

Expand full comment

That's what got Tucker Carlson fired. He said that there is evil in the world.

Expand full comment

Yes. I just attended the Braver Angels national convention. We all seemed committed to something beyond party lines!

Expand full comment

I think party lines have always been used to separate people. And it works, doesn’t it? As long as people can have open debate and listen to one another, I don’t have a problem. These days, there’s no common sense! I’m 59, so where I came from is much different than what I see today. I’m committed to God!😉

Expand full comment

In the mind of a commie...GOD must be removed as does the nuclear family.

Expand full comment

BIG TIME! I find that is the most egregious problem in the world right now. Believe in your Creator would solve so many problems. ✝️💕

Expand full comment

You fit in where many are coming, with truth and freedom.

Expand full comment

I was with NPR at what seems like forever ago.

What I'm hearing now, when I tune in, seems a parody.

Expand full comment

Alex, you need to get over this pronto. The NYT is evil. I worked in NY for 20 years and read and scanned the NYT daily on the train. The folks there have lost their minds. They have no idea what hard working lower, middle and upper class folks think about anything. The place is crawling with over educated elites who have no idea what it means to work hard to raise a family and help people in real need. Blessed to be a blessing. The NYT if it does not change will be relegated to readers who only live in the DC/NY bubble and globalists who believe there is no such thing as good and evil. I was in NYC on 9-11. I know evil is real.

I found you on tucker during Covid. Every day I looked at the data and listened to the news and the so-called reputable reporting organizations. I couldn’t understand why no one was talking about the delta between the predictions and the reality. In florida our hospital capacity was never threatened but you would never know it reading the Miami Herald. Then one night you appeared on Tucker and I said holy cow someone is looking at the data and comparing it to the reporting. You made your mark and we need you to stay after our lying and cheating government. Please take on climate change. This one has the potential to destroy America. The issue is whether man can really make a difference beyond marginal. As Marco Rubio says we don’t hurt people in the name of climate change. Energy independence and free and fair elections are the keys to saving our country. The American people have good sense and instincts. We can rely on them to make good decisions that will benefit America and mankind as long as we have keep and develop our extraordinary energy blessings and make sure our elections are free and fair.

Expand full comment

Climate change has nothing to do with climate. Broken windmills, used electric car batteries and used solar panels are bad for the environment. Lab created meat is worse for the environment than thousands of cows. Green energy does not produce much energy and it is not reliable. Anywhere green energy is used it is supplemented by other energy sources. In CA green energy produces about 4% of the energy needed. There are rolling blackouts when the demand for energy is higher than normal. Germany has been touted as green but has been using nuclear power to prop up their green energy production.

Another tell is how those in power pushing green energy have not changed their fossil fuel consumption. They still fly private. They still use chauffeured, large gas guzzling SUVs. They still live in huge homes. Mr. Energy Czar and Mr. Inconvenient Truth have not changed their carbon footprint while they harp on the public to give up fossil fuels and with it our standard of living.

Climate change is a power and control grab. The public will not have private vehicles, gas stoves, air conditioners, dishwashers or be able to travel by plane. At the same time, those in power will never change their use of fossil fuels.

Expand full comment

Making energy more expensive hurts the poor, especially in undeveloped and developing countries, but will not save the planet. We will have less energy and it will be undependable. One of the best selling products right now is the gas-powered generator because those who can afford one want to protect themselves from undependable green energy.

Expand full comment

I agree. Fossil fuels have lifted many out of poverty.

Expand full comment

Brilliant, Ctolley. Thank you.

Expand full comment

I gave up on the NYT almost a decade ago. The anti-ISRAEL and Antisemitic bent was too pervasive to ignore. The entire paper - including the Living section and the Sunday magazine are 100 percent OpEd. It was disorienting at first to release that they could not be in any way at trusted to tell an objective news story, but now it seems objective journalism almost doesn’t exist outside of a few substacks. Trust no one.

Expand full comment

Yesterday’s news (or rather last century’s news), but I certainly understand why you would be particularly stung by this betrayal -- of you, an accomplished former employee, as well as the nation as a whole. The NYT has been on the wrong side of history many times over its history.

Expand full comment

I, for one, am glad the NYT is finally openly declaring that they stand on the side of tyranny.

I stand for freedom.

Let the chips fall where they may.

Expand full comment

I so agree...they keep digging a bigger, and deeper hole, and it's looking more and more like a grave...good riddance to bad rubbish. I used to live in NYC, and loved the Arts Section on a lazy Sunday in Soho, but even that is tarnished....Alex, just be glad you left, and kept your integrity....that is something to be proud of. Some things are not meant to last forever....let the NYT determine their own demise. We have enough talented and ethical people in America to start something anew.

Expand full comment

I love your optimism, very refreshing. If true? It gives us all hope.

Expand full comment

Thank you....and yes, my optimism is true! There are many of us that are holding on to both truth and faith; things will turn around eventually as they always do. I hold onto that. Love being a part of Alex's readers, and commenters..such witty, ethical and compassionate humans! Onwards!

Expand full comment

All our institutions have been co-opted... I used to have politicians at the top of my worst people list. Now it’s the corporate “journalists” who enable politicians. :(

Expand full comment

I have many friends and family members who only read the NYT and so have no idea what is really going on. To them, there is no other side of the story.

Expand full comment

THAT is frightening. But, I understand. I met two people a couple days ago still wearing face masks outside, with Kamala/Biden/Obama bumper stickers on their car. They live in a world of non-reality with a large scoop of cognitive dissonance.

Expand full comment

I have at least one for whom if it’s not in the NYT, it isn’t true. Like agenda 2021/30 for example.

Expand full comment

And the NYT is more or less the "mother ship" of information that is dished out for all the others to copy.

Expand full comment

Alex, I am a conservative who signed up as a paid subscriber when they censored you. I do not agree with all of your positions but this is America dammit and we should all be piling in to defend the right to freedom of speech and the free marketplace of ideas.

Expand full comment

Oh Alex. Just swallow the red pill already. If you still can’t do it after watching yesterdays hearing, I may lose hope in you altogether!!! Democrats are literally mad. And I don’t mean mad as the synonym for angry.

Expand full comment

Please, stop calling it the New York Times. I prefer to refer to it as the CIA Newsletter. Thats all it is.

Expand full comment