The tragic trajectory of The New York Times inches full throttle
towards the fate of the Pravda when the communist Soviet Union fell in
1991. Cracks in the iron curtain splashed a disinfecting dose of
sunlight on mother Russia. The propaganda agenda of the Pravda entered
the mainstream consciousness of this nation’s populace. The partial
collapse of this bogus broadsheet’s readership ensued.
In recent years, the adjective ‘fake news’ has entered the English
language lexicon. It is difficult to pin-point precisely when the
global mass media transformed from its heyday function as a
disseminator of current affairs and facts into a totalitarian machine
staffed by partisan ‘presstitute’ puppets.
There is safety in numbers. The Times spearheads a brutal brigade of hound dog
harlots. Corruption of mainstream Western media is endemic. This
wickedness pervades the oligopoly mockingbird media throughout America’s television, radio, print and
digital outlets.
Hope
This op-ed is not just another noxious narrative. It is the inverse. I
argue that The Times is uniquely placed to restore its noble
reputation of yesteryear as a fearless truth-teller. Like a phoenix
rising from the ashes, it may lead the way forward and recapture its
immaculate prestige.
The contemporary political climate offers hope that this post-truth
news era is an interim aberration that may disintegrate expeditiously.
For the first time in living memory, America has a bona fide leader.
An audacious bawler who shamelessly calls out mainstream media for
what it is: ‘fake news’.
There is sound reason to feel sanguine that media reform is achievable
beyond America’s shores. In recent months, the European Commission
threatened to prosecute Internet social media giants such as Twitter
if they wittingly spread falsehoods that violate the laws of their
social formation.
The willingness of Facebook and Alphabet-Google to cooperate with the
European Commission reminds humanity that no corporate colossus is
above the law of the land and the sea. No media baron is immortal. The
demise of the seemingly untouchable Hollinger press empire bears
testament to this claim. The will of We The People trumps the
political and economic influence of corrupt entities that trade in
public and private domains.
On September 5th this year, The Times entered the twilight zone when
it published an anonymous open-ed that it claims was authored by a
disgruntled senior White House staffer. Nameless, high-stakes
political editorials lack credibility. Period. Such treachery reeks of
last-gasp desperation. This unprofessionalism is counterproductive to
the long-term interests of The Times and their like-minded porky pies
allies. They awaken the masses to routine misinformation and
disinformation scheming that betray The Times’s glorious past.
Legend
History has judged the legacy of The Times favorably. Its victory in
The Sullivan Case (1964) bestows freedom of the press for America’s
journalists as enshrined by caselaw from this nation’s superior court.
Its daring role in leaking the Pentagon Papers in 1971 was congruent
with the national interest.
The deeply entrenched, elevated cultural status of The Times has
enabled it to survive numerous allegations of bias in the past. The
Jayson Blair affair (2003) and the Duke University Lacrosse case
reporting (2006) are examples of widespread claims that The Times
willfully replicates negative racial stereotypes and socially engineer
identity politics to divide and conquer. Such acts defy the natural
momentum towards human harmony.
In recent decades, the number of ink newspapers continues to decline
at a rapid pace in America and beyond. The readership of the surviving
papers is likewise nosediving as the number of open-source,
alternative online new media outlets rises proportionately. Retail
sales and advertising revenues of ink media are in freefall as they
lose market share to digital competitors.
Media audiences are becoming savvier and more selective. They are less
tolerant of establishment media that produce subpar content and aim to
suppress the human potential of the citizenry. There is a consensus
among seasoned media commentators that a handful of national and
global American print media formats will survive this online alt-media
onslaught over the long-term.
I foresee that The Times is not doomed to die a painful, humiliating
public execution by 1,000 lashes. The market for ink journalism is
unlikely to evaporate in the foreseeable future. Online media can
never satisfy traditional and nostalgic consumers who enjoy the
sensual experience of touching, seeing and smelling quality ink
publications from the palms of their fleshy paws. There are limits to
the high success of binary code broadcasters. Humans have not quite
yet transformed into soulless docile cyborgs.
The Times is suitably placed to survive the online revolution. This
institution is more than a relic of print press preeminence from a
bygone era. Iconic images of The Times chronicle America’s past in a
manner like no other. Alfred Eisenstaedt’s photograph of the sailor
and nurse war victory kiss at Times Square in 1945 is an example of
many that epitomize this sentimentality of The Times’s immortality.
The Times is the mirror of America’s complex, tentacled place in the
world. No individual or family is superior to pride-of-place enjoyed
by this national treasure. Caveat venditor.
Stop the Press!
For many, The Times captures the zeitgeist of the Land of the Free
from the collective intellectual vantage points of its citizens from
all walks of life. Its destiny is the barometer and symbolic metaphor
of the state-of-the-union. If The New York Times ceases to publish,
our nation’s soul may perish.
