Media


New Book: NY Times Misleads Readers With Distorted Stories


He insists he didn’t write the book


to tear down the Times. Instead, he says he strived to pursue the same mission to which the paper itself is dedicated — unearthing the truth. “For too long The New York


Times has been seen as the sole — or at least the primary — arbiter of truth in journalism. It lost sight of the clichéd but very effective idea that journalism is the ‘rough draft’ of his- tory and instead strove to present the crystallized final version,” he says. “Large swathes of the American


Author says the newspaper is so powerful, it doesn’t just cover the news, it creates it.


A sins:


Creation of “The 1619 Project,” which reframes U.S. history by focusing on slavery and the con- tributions of Black Americans —


50 NEWSMAX | OCTOBER 2021 BY BILL HOFFMANN


n explosive exposé claims the venerable New York Times — long hyped as the “newspaper of


record” — has misled its readers with distorted, manufactured reporting that has influenced wars and shaped economies. “This is a powerful organization,”


says Ashley Rindsberg, author of The Gray Lady Winked: How The New York Times’s Misreporting, Distortions, and Fabrications Radically Alter History. “It’s a company, it’s a corporate


business, it’s worth close to $10 bil- lion, and it’s owned and controlled by one family. And that is a lot of power to put in the hands of very few people. “When you do that, things tend


to go wrong. That’s what we’ve seen happen in The New York Times again and again and again.” Among the newspaper’s alleged


which Rindsberg calls “a cynical, ideologically driven attempt to revise American history by root- ing the nation’s birth in slavery instead of liberty.” Publishing an eerie celebration of the U.S. bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by a reporter who was under contract to the Pentagon. Giving Cuban dictator Fidel Cas- tro “rock-star treatment” as an ardent democrat. “Fierce cheerleading” for the coup that killed South Vietnam Presi- dent Ngo Dinh Diem, an operation that prolonged the war in Viet- nam.


Praising Germany for being great hosts at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, despite the fact it had banned Ger- man Jewish athlete Gretel Berg- mann from competing. Rindsberg says with its army of


reporters covering events from all corners of the globe, the Times has the power to influence wars, foment revolution, and shape economies, and that it “doesn’t just cover the news — it creates it.”


public, and in particular the coun- try’s elite, certainly believed this to be the case . . . The Times was not scrutinized the way any institution that serves a critical public function ought to be. No one was watching the watchdog.” Not that the Times is alone, espe-


cially in 2021 when newspapers are struggling to adapt to a new media world in which the internet now dominates and attention spans have shrunken. “The traditional news media is


in a state of crisis,” Rindsberg tells Newsmax. “They’re really looking for what’s


next, where can they go for hungry readers who are going to be will- ing to shell out the money in a time where we’re not used to paying for the news. “What that means is you’ve got


to really find that angle that you can dive into . . . even if it comes at the expense of the truth.” Rindsberg says getting The Gray


Lady Winked into print was not easy. “Over and over the decision mak-


ers in publishing told me explicit- ly, in no uncertain terms, that they could not support the project because The New York Times was simply too powerful,” he says.


GARY HERSHORN/GETTY IMAGES


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