NY Times and Roger Cohen Promote War Again
TRANSCEND MEMBERS, 23 Jun 2025
Rick Sterling – TRANSCEND Media Service
The NY Times has been a major promoter of US “regime change” operations for decades. Today, while President Trump considers directly involving a US attack on Iran, the NYT is again performing this role despite many readers being skeptical or opposed.
A June 19 NYT news/analysis is titled “An Islamic Republic With Its Back Against the Wall” by Roger Cohen. It seems written to pave the way for yet another US backed or directed “regime change”. The first sentence asserts without providing evidence that the Tehran government is “an umpopular and repressive regime”. An “Iran expert” is quoted saying, “The Islamic Republic is a rotten tooth waiting to be plucked, like the Soviet Union in its latter years.”
When Israel bombed the Iranian TV broadcast station as a female news anchor was reading the news, Cohen writes that “Some Iranians were overjoyed”. Cohen uses Netanyahu’s description that Israel’s attacks on Iran are “pre-emptive” and designed to “stop Iran usings its enriched uranium to race for a bomb.” He does not mention that even the US intelligence agencies agree that Iran does NOT have a nuclear weapon program.
Cohen goes on to quote former Blackrock exectuve and now German Chancellor,Frederich Merz: “This mullah regime has brought death and destruction to the world.” Iran has invaded no countries while the US has invaded Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Syria while Israel has attacked Lebanon, Syria, Gaza, and now Iran.
After suggesting some causes for caution, Cohen closes with his core message: the Tehran government may fall like the Berlin Wall. He quotes the “Iran expert” again: “The Islamic Republic is a zombie regime.”
A Persistent War Promoter
Roger Cohen has been an influential participant in NYT distortions and lies. In 2002, he became NYT foreign editor during the crucial run up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. As stated at his Wikipedia page, “He supported the invasion.” The deceit about the non-existent “weapons of mass destruction” was under Cohen’s direction.
In early March, 2011, Roger Cohen said he was against Western intervention in Libya. Two weeks later, he urged the West to be “ruthless” and to kill the Libyan leader. This has turned out to be yet another disaster. The Libyan people are still paying the price while Roger Cohen has forgotten about it.
Roger Cohen, representative of the Times, consistently finds a few voices of opposition, claims without evidence they represent a large group or the civilian majority, then promotes intervention, violence and “regime change”. He did this with Iraq, then Libya, now Iran.
Many NY Times Readers are Critical
Judging from the most popular reader comments, many NYT readers are critical of this “news analysis”. The most popular comment has 1600 endorsements. Dr. Finn Majlergaard from France says, “What right do you (Americans) think you have to decide who should be in power in sovereign countries when you can’t even deal with your own domestic dictator and the US regime’s gestapo methods against foreigners?”
The second most popular comment is from Florence Massachussetts. The reader asks, “Will it be okay if a truly democratic nation bombs the United States in order to encourage regime change away from our current authoritarian rulers?”
The vast majority of reader comments are critical of the drive to attack and possibly overthrow yet another government. Apparently they have learned from past foreign policy failures while the NY Times and foreign policy establishment have not. Another disaster based on false assumptions and arrogance lays ahead.
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Rick Sterling is a member of the TRANSCEND Network and an investigative journalist who lives in the SF Bay Area, California. He can be contacted at rsterling1@gmail.com or rsterling1@protonmail.com
Tags: New York Times, Regime Change, USA, War Journalism, Yellow Journalism
This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 23 Jun 2025.
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