Tag Archives: New York Times

Journalism – Denver Post 2024

4 January 2025 By in History, Journalism, Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , Leave a comment

I’ve been running a weekly post on the shortcomings and biases within the news media complex since April of 2024, starting with Walter Duranty of the New York Times covering for Stalin’s forced collectivization of Ukrainian farms in 1929. Duranty claimed in 1933 that no Ukrainian’s died of starvation even though estimates stated that up to 5 million did die from severe ‘food shortage’ in Timesman’s words.

I’ve attempted to cover just the most egregious and mendacious examples of media malpractice over the last 9 months amounting to about 30 posts spanning about 95 years of print and broadcast journalism. One thing that has become clear over that time is reporting hasn’t improved; fabrications, prevarications, and deceptions still appear to be the currency of the realm. Objective and factual journalism only appears when there are no winners or losers, a rare occurrence indeed.

So, let’s start off the new year with the Denver Post’s initial headline documenting the attempt on Trump’s life at his Butler rally on 13 July 2024: “Gunman Dies in Attack.” A major candidate for the presidency is almost killed and the paper’s concern is for the assassin.

After taking considerable flak for that headline the Post scrubbed the headline from their website and replaced it with “Trump is injured but ‘fine’…”

Graphic: Front Page Denver Post, via Charlie Kirk, 14 July 2024, X.

Journalism – New York Times 2008

14 December 2024 By in Journalism Tags: , , , , , , , Leave a comment

In February 2008, The New York Times published an anonymously sourced front-page story accusing Senator and Republican presidential candidate John McCain of having an improper relationship with telecommunications lobbyist Vicki Iseman. Both McCain and Iseman denied the allegations.

Critics blasted the paper for running a front-page story based on slender and anonymous sourcing. Steve Schmidt, McCain’s campaign advisor, sneered, “It was something that you would see in The National Enquirer.” A few days after the story ran, Times ombudsman Clark Hoyt criticized it for being short on facts, writing, “If you cannot provide readers with some independent evidence, I think it is wrong to report the suppositions or concerns of anonymous aides…“

Vicki Iseman sued The New York Times for defamation in December 2008. The case was settled a few months later, but the Times did not issue a retraction. They did, however, publish a clarifying note stating that they did not intend to imply an improper relationship between Iseman and McCain. John Dean, writing for Verdict, commented on the absurdity of the defamation agreement, stating, “Rather than apologize and/or retract, they [the Times] would merely say what they said is not what they meant, and that readers should not be fooled into understanding what they read as saying what everybody thought it said.”

Source: Times Hit Piece Dying on Media Vine by Clay Waters, 2008. Who Won…by John Dean, Verdict, 2013.

Journalism–Ken Dilanian

21 September 2024 By in Journalism Tags: , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Ken Dilanian was a CIA sycophant and government propagandist pretending to have been a reporter for the L.A Times and other news outlets. Dilanian, before publishing any national security stories, shared them with the CIA to obtain their approval to print. The spy agency instructed him in what he could and couldn’t publish, usually lies were approved while the truth languished in the discredited realm of the conspiracists.

After L.A. Times examined Dilanian’s emails, his government approved word smithing become known, and his work was disavowed by the paper in 2017. Dilanian is now working for NBC News as a justice and intelligence correspondent.

Through the years there have been rumors that the CIA had full-time employees seconded to all the major news outlets in the country. Carl Bernstein in 1977 said that upwards to 400 journalists were CIA plants and the most valuable employees or assets were at the New York Times, CBS, and Time.

Source: Muck Rack. The Intercept. CATO. Graphic: Ken Dilanian.

Journalism–Brian Williams

14 September 2024 By in Journalism, Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , Leave a comment

NBC journalist and anchor Brian Williams fraudulently and consistently inserted himself into his news reports.

He claimed he was flying in a helicopter in 2003 over Iraq that was hit by an RPG. He wasn’t. Washington Post called it a memory flub. The New York Times, Newsweek, and others suggested it was a false memory.

He claimed to have been at the Brandenburg Gate when the Berlin Wall came down. He wasn’t.

He claimed to have flown to Bagdad with Seal Team Six. He didn’t.

Source: CNN, Medium, New York Post. Graphic: New York Post cover.

Journalism — Dan Rather 2004

10 August 2024 By in Journalism Tags: , , , , , , , Leave a comment

In attempt to lower the odds of a sitting president’s re-election chances Dan Rather and his producer, Mary Mapes, aired a story on 60 Minutes Wednesday in 2004 critical of President George W. Bush’s National Guard service.

The documents used to support the story were quickly proven fabrications. The New York Times headline defending Rather’s reporting said ‘Memos on Bush Are Fake but Accurate, Typist Says’.

‘Fake but Accurate’ became the main defense of Rather/Mapes exposé leading to much critical derision and laughter.

The broadcast delved into whether the President had completed all his National Guard service requirements during the early 1970s. It was stated in the documents used to support the show’s story that Bush disobeyed a direct order to appear for a physical and that family friends squashed any investigation into his service.

The documents in question supposedly came from the files of Lt. Col. Jerry Killian, one of Bush’s Guard commanders. Killian died in 1984 so was unable to collaborate the documents’ contents when the story aired 20 years later. Killian’s typist claims she did not type the documents but said the fake documents accurately stated the issues related to Bush’s service. How a National Guard typist would know this wasn’t volunteered in the story.

The documents were quickly discovered to be fakes because the font, character spacing, and other computer generate text did not exist on 1970s era typewriters. The documents also appeared to have been generated on a word processor using Microsoft software. Microsoft word processing software was first released in 1983. It was also reported that Rather and Mapes were discussing the story with John Kerry’s campaign staff before the story aired which ran counter to all journalistic standards.

Mary Mapes was fired from CBS in January of 2005 and Rather was allowed to retire in March of 2005.

On the question of motive, Mapes had been researching the Bush National Guard story for 5 years before it was aired in 2004.

Source: Rather Relieved | Power Line (powerlineblog.com) by Hinderaker, 2004. A Look Back At The Controversy – CBS News by Chris Hawke, 2005. Graphic: Dan Rather, Marty Lederhandler, 1993—Caption added by author.