{"id":157540,"date":"2025-11-10T07:34:26","date_gmt":"2025-11-10T07:34:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/steelcityscribblings.uk\/wp\/?p=157540"},"modified":"2025-11-12T22:18:04","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T22:18:04","slug":"the-new-york-times-a-party-to-genocide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/steelcityscribblings.uk\/wp\/2025\/11\/10\/the-new-york-times-a-party-to-genocide\/","title":{"rendered":"The New York Times: a party to genocide"},"content":{"rendered":"

I refer often to corporate media as systemically corrupt<\/em>. This from Britain decides! <\/strong><\/a>in May 2021:<\/p>\n

Media barons like Murdoch, Rothermere and Barclay Brothers are the visible tip of an iceberg. More insidious \u2013 less obvious hence more toxic \u2013 is the 200 year old business model of media dependency on advertising. As Noam Chomsky put it:<\/h6>\n
\n
Media are large corporations selling privileged audiences to other large corporations. Now the question is: what pictures of the world would a rational person expect from this set up?<\/h6>\n<\/blockquote>\n
On matters of real import to our rulers \u2013 think Assange<\/a><\/span>, Corbyn<\/span><\/a>, Putin and Xi<\/span><\/a> \u2013 media not owned by oligarchs do vital service. The liberal intelligentsia would never have bought the character assassinations of Assange or Corbyn from the Mail, Sun or Telegraph, yet lapped up the vilest trashings of both men in the Guardian.<\/h6>\n

Liberal ‘quality’ media play a distinct role. Increasingly reliant on super rich sponsors<\/strong><\/a> like Bill Gates and George Soros (advertising revenues having failed to transfer from print to web in the volumes initially projected) theirs is a balancing act. Yes, they must signal independence even at cost of embarrassing or pressurising high office widely mistaken for power. <\/span>1<\/sup><\/a><\/span> <\/span>Not only does long term ability to shape opinion by filtering reality, as implied by Chomsky’s question, rely on this. So too, on pain of losing market share, do their business models. But the trust so gained serves to mislead us, more by omission than commission<\/strong><\/a>, on matters critical \u2013 above all the vilifying of those in the way of empire designs \u2013 to the interests they ultimately serve<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0…<\/h6>\n

… even when such disinformation, in this case of commission rather than omission, makes them a party to genocide. <\/span>2<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Why writers must boycott the New York Times<\/a><\/h2>\n
October 8, 2025<\/span><\/h6>\n
The New York Times is the paper of record and has played a key role in enabling the Gaza genocide. To hold the newspaper accountable, we must sever our ties \u2014not only as subscribers or advertisers, but also as writers who lend the paper legitimacy.<\/span><\/h5>\n

In light of the current phase of ceasefire in Gaza \u2014 itself a misnomer given the many<\/span> hundreds<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>of Palestinians martyred since its formalization \u2014\u00a0 it is all the more important for those of us in the West to make sure institutions complicit in the genocide in Gaza cannot evade accountability for their actions. Such a holistic program of accountability, which includes countering denialism and the isolation of perpetrators, is not just an ethical obligation but a strategy for combating a culture of impunity that directly enables the Israeli state in its occupation and depopulation campaigns in Palestine, Lebanon, and Syria. A key enabler of the Zionist genocide is\u00a0The New York Times<\/em>. Hossam Shabat, one of at least 276 Palestinian journalists killed by Israel for exposing its crimes, put it best: \u201cA reason we are still being bombed\u2026 is because of\u00a0The New York Times<\/em>\u00a0and most Western media\u2026\u00a0The New York Times<\/em>\u00a0is complicit in this genocide.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The so-called \u201cpaper of record\u201d played a critical role in manufacturing consent for this genocide. Its coverage erased Palestinian resistance to decades of occupation and siege,\u00a0 legimitated a debunked myth of systematic sexual violence on October 7th, sowed uncertainty around the Israeli military\u2019s targeting of hospitals, bent syntax to avoid ascribing culpability for targeted assassinations, and helped establish the conditions for famine by undermining the Palestinian aid organization UNWRA and downplaying Israel\u2019s continued siege of Gaza. Post-ceasefire, the paper is rushing to try to rehabilitate Israel\u2019s image, just as it did back in 1982.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Sabra and Shatila massacre damaged Israel\u2019s reputation in the West much in the same way the intensified genocide of the last two years has. Israel slaughtered thousands of children and civilians in the Shatila refugee camp and the surrounding Sabra neighborhood of Beirut. The massacre threatened to break the Zionist narrative\u2019s stronghold and expose Israel\u2019s project of elimination. In its aftermath, Ronald Reagan called Sabra and Shatila \u201ca holocaust\u201d in a phone call with Menachem Begin, and demanded Israel end its campaign, echoing what Palestinians and Arabs had known for decades \u2014 that Zionism is Nazism. Terrified to lose their grip of their narrative in the West, Zionists rushed to establish media watchdog groups like the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA). Their mission was to paper over the truth of Israel\u2019s crimes by pressuring outlets to issue \u201ccorrections\u201d and adopt editorial standards that toe the Zionist line.<\/span><\/p>\n

The current executive editor of\u00a0The New York Times<\/em>, Joseph Kahn, learned to read and analyze the news with his father, Leo, who sat on the board of CAMERA for at least 18 years. Leo was still on the board when his son was first hired at the\u00a0Times in\u00a0<\/em>1998. Kahn, the highest-ranking journalist in the paper\u2019s newsroom, continues his father\u2019s legacy of propping up Zionist lies under the banner of objectivity.<\/span><\/p>\n

This is but one of the many material links that bind\u00a0The New York Times<\/em>\u00a0to the Zionist project \u2014 to apartheid, occupation, and genocide. Many of the\u00a0Times<\/em>\u2019s top-ranking editors, reporters, and executives who cover Palestine have served in the Israeli military and have close family members who have; have worked or still work directly for Israeli think tanks; or live in stolen Palestinian homes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As a groundswell rises in solidarity with the Palestinian people, more and more are coming to recognize the\u00a0Times<\/em>\u2019 narrative collusion with Israel and are joining our ongoing work to expose its revisionism, reveal its material ties to the Zionist entity, and ensure that there are consequences for its journalistic malpractice. Actionists have blockaded the\u00a0Times<\/em>\u2019 Long Island printing plant, hacked New York City subway ads in a d\u00e9tournement of its signature font, staged pickets outside Kahn\u2019s West Village apartment, occupied the lobby of its Manhattan headquarters, and doused its facade with red paint and the message \u201cNYT LIES GAZA DIES.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

How else can we hold such an institution accountable? Writers Against the War on Gaza launched our Boycott, Divest, Unsubscribe campaign in an effort to get writers and readers to break away from the\u00a0Times\u00a0<\/em>well over a year ago. While this campaign has undoubtedly changed perceptions of the paper, more is needed. To that end, we helped bring together a coalition of organizations in the Palestine solidarity movement with the aim of severing the economic relationships that the\u00a0Times<\/em>\u00a0depends on. That doesn\u2019t just mean subscribers or advertisers \u2014 but also the writers the\u00a0Times<\/em>\u00a0pays to lend the paper legitimacy.<\/span><\/p>\n

Our coalition has identified the key role that the\u00a0Times<\/em>\u2019 Opinion section, in particular, plays in laundering the paper\u2019s reputation, creating plausible deniability for its complicity in genocide. Though many celebrated the paper for publishing an opinion piece finally calling Israel\u2019s annihilatory campaign a genocide after two years, the news side of the operation kept denying it. It also uses the section to publish \u2014 and capture the clout of \u2014 young, especially Black and brown writers, that it would never bring into the newsroom as fulltime reporters. This blatant cynicism is not simple hypocrisy, but an attempt to curry favor with both Zionists and people of conscience.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Our coalition calls for anyone with a conscience \u2014 writers, academics, artists \u2014 to refuse any request to write for the\u00a0Times\u00a0<\/em>opinion pages until three essential demands are met. First, that \u201cScreams Without Words,\u201d the discredited article which bolstered the myth of mass sexual abuse, be retracted. Second, that the editorial board use its massive influence over liberal opinion to demand an arms embargo. And, finally, that the\u00a0Times<\/em>\u00a0reckon with deep anti-Palestinian bias in its newsroom by updating its style guide, methods of sourcing and citation, and hiring practices.<\/span><\/p>\n

Over 300 past and potential contributors to the\u00a0Times\u00a0<\/em>made this commitment before we launched publicly. Since then, another 200 former contributors or individuals covered by the paper have signed on, including Sara Ahmed, Julianne Escobedo Shepherd, and Eman Mohammed. We hope you will as well.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The\u00a0New York Times<\/em>\u00a0is the paper of record \u2014 and on the record we find decades of racist obfuscation and outright lies, a safeguard of Zionist violence. We must work together to undermine its prestige and legitimacy so that the\u00a0Times<\/em> no longer has the power to change the story. <\/span>3<\/sup><\/a><\/span> <\/span>4<\/sup><\/a><\/span> <\/span>5<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I refer often to corporate media as systemically corrupt. This from Britain decides! in May 2021: Media barons like Murdoch, Rothermere and Barclay Brothers are the visible tip of an iceberg. More insidious \u2013 less obvious hence more toxic \u2013 … Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-157540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media","category-politics-middle-east"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/steelcityscribblings.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/steelcityscribblings.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/steelcityscribblings.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steelcityscribblings.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steelcityscribblings.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157540"}],"version-history":[{"count":193,"href":"https:\/\/steelcityscribblings.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157540\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":157834,"href":"https:\/\/steelcityscribblings.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157540\/revisions\/157834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/steelcityscribblings.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steelcityscribblings.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steelcityscribblings.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}