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.