{"id":136552,"date":"2019-07-01T12:00:19","date_gmt":"2019-07-01T11:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=136552"},"modified":"2019-06-29T10:23:07","modified_gmt":"2019-06-29T09:23:07","slug":"ny-times-admits-it-sends-stories-to-us-government-for-approval-before-publication","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2019\/07\/ny-times-admits-it-sends-stories-to-us-government-for-approval-before-publication\/","title":{"rendered":"NY Times Admits It Sends Stories to US Government for Approval before Publication"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><p><em>The New York Times casually acknowledged that it sends major scoops to the US government before publication, to make sure \u201cnational security officials\u201d have \u201cno concerns.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/new-york-times-building.jpg\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-136553\" src=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/new-york-times-building.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"213\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/new-york-times-building.jpg 845w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/new-york-times-building-300x160.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/new-york-times-building-768x409.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>24 Jun 2019 &#8211; <\/em>The New York Times has publicly acknowledged that it sends some of its stories to the US government for approval from \u201cnational security officials\u201d before publication.<\/p>\n<p>This confirms what veteran New York Times correspondents like James Risen have said: The American newspaper of record regularly collaborates with the US government, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.democracynow.org\/2018\/1\/5\/how_the_ny_times_us_government\" >suppressing reporting<\/a> that top officials don\u2019t want made public.<\/p>\n<p>On June 15, the Times reported that the US government is escalating its <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/06\/15\/us\/politics\/trump-cyber-russia-grid.html\" >cyber attacks on Russia\u2019s power grid<\/a>. According to the article, \u201cthe Trump administration is using new authorities to deploy cybertools more aggressively,\u201d as part of a larger \u201cdigital Cold War between Washington and Moscow.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In response to the report, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/realDonaldTrump\/status\/1140065300186128384\" >Donald Trump<\/a> attacked the Times on Twitter, calling the article \u201ca virtual act of Treason.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The New York Times PR office replied to Trump from its official Twitter account, defending the story and noting that it had, in fact, been cleared with the US government before being printed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAccusing the press of treason is dangerous,\u201d the Times communications team said. \u201cWe described the article to the government before publication.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs our story notes, President Trump\u2019s own national security officials said there were no concerns,\u201d the Times added.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Accusing the press of treason is dangerous.<br \/>We described the article to the government before publication. As our story notes, President Trump\u2019s own national security officials said there were no concerns. <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/MU020hxwdc\" >https:\/\/t.co\/MU020hxwdc<\/a> <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/4CIfcqKoEl\" >pic.twitter.com\/4CIfcqKoEl<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; NYTimes Communications (@NYTimesPR) <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NYTimesPR\/status\/1140091848255578112?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" >June 16, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Indeed, the Times report on the escalating American cyber attacks against Russia is attributed to \u201ccurrent and former [US] government officials.\u201d The scoop in fact came from these apparatchiks, not from a leak or the dogged investigation of an intrepid reporter.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u2018Real\u2019 journalists get approval from \u2018national security\u2019 officials<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The neoliberal self-declared \u201c<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ericgarland\/status\/1140241109786013696\" >Resistance<\/a>\u201d jumped on Trump\u2019s reckless accusation of <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/brianklaas\/status\/1140638004802924544\" >treason<\/a> (the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TheDemCoalition\/status\/1140556027047403522\" >Democratic Coalition<\/a>, which boasts, \u201cWe help run #TheResistance,\u201d responded by calling Trump \u201cPutin\u2019s puppet\u201d). The <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AP\/status\/1140350736628211712\" >rest<\/a> of the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/thehill\/status\/1140370481968766977\" >corporate<\/a> <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TIME\/status\/1140623918992101381\" >media<\/a> went wild.<\/p>\n<p>But what was entirely overlooked was the most revealing thing in the New York Times\u2019 statement: The newspaper of record was essentially admitting that it has a symbiotic relationship with the US government.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, some prominent American pundits have gone so far as to insist that this symbiotic relationship is precisely what makes someone a journalist.<\/p>\n<p>In May, neoconservative <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/opinions\/2019\/05\/28\/justice-department-is-right-indict-julian-assange\/\" >Washington Post<\/a> columnist <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/rightweb.irc-online.org\/profile\/marc-thiessen\/\" >Marc Thiessen<\/a> \u2014 a former speechwriter for President George W. Bush \u2014 declared that WikiLeaks publisher and <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/thegrayzone.com\/2019\/05\/24\/trump-charges-assange-press-freedoms-media-obama\/\" >political prisoner Julian Assange<\/a> is \u201cnot a journalist\u201d; rather, he is a \u201cspy\u201d who \u201cdeserves prison.\u201d (Thiessen also once called Assange \u201c<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/marcthiessen\/status\/790670208356712448\" >the devil<\/a>.\u201d)<\/p>\n<p>What was the Post columnist\u2019s rationale for revoking Assange\u2019s journalistic credentials?<\/p>\n<p>Unlike \u201creputable news organizations, Assange did not give the U.S. government an opportunity to review the classified information WikiLeaks was planning to release so they could raise national security objections,\u201d Thiessen wrote. \u201cSo responsible journalists have nothing to fear.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In other words, this former US government speechwriter turned corporate media pundit insists that collaborating with the government, and censoring your reporting to protect so-called \u201cnational security,\u201d is definitionally what makes you a journalist.<\/p>\n<p>This is the express ideology of the American commentariat.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Julian Assange is no hero. He is the devil. <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/LCXdRlTLKG\" >https:\/\/t.co\/LCXdRlTLKG<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Marc Thiessen \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8\u2764\ufe0f\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6\ud83c\uddf9\ud83c\uddfc\ud83c\uddee\ud83c\uddf1 (@marcthiessen) <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/marcthiessen\/status\/790670208356712448?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" >October 24, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><strong>NY Times editors \u2018quite willing to cooperate with the government\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The symbiotic relationship between the US corporate media and the government has been known for some time. American intelligence agencies play the press like a musical instrument, using it it to selectively leak information at opportune moments to push US soft power and advance Washington\u2019s interests.<\/p>\n<p>But rarely is this symbiotic relationship so casually and publicly acknowledged.<\/p>\n<p>In 2018, former New York Times reporter James Risen published a 15,000-word article in <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2018\/01\/03\/my-life-as-a-new-york-times-reporter-in-the-shadow-of-the-war-on-terror\/\" >The Intercept<\/a> providing further insight into how this unspoken alliance operates.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">1. <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/JamesRisen?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" >#JamesRisen<\/a>: &quot;A top CIA official once told me that his rule of thumb for whether a  covert operation should be approved was, \u201cHow will this look on the  front page of the New York Times?\u201d <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/YIUtpTthe8\" >https:\/\/t.co\/YIUtpTthe8<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Stefania Maurizi (@SMaurizi) <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SMaurizi\/status\/993863963250225152?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" >May 8, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Risen detailed how his editors had been \u201cquite willing to cooperate with the government.\u201d In fact, a top CIA official even told Risen that his rule of thumb for approving a covert operation was, \u201cHow will this look on the front page of the New York Times?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There is an \u201cinformal arrangement\u201d between the state and the press, Risen explained, where US government officials \u201cregularly engaged in quiet negotiations with the press to try to stop the publication of sensitive national security stories.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt the time, I usually went along with these negotiations,\u201d the former New York Times reported said. He recalled an example of a story he was writing on Afghanistan just prior to the September 11, 2001 attacks. Then-CIA Director George Tenet called Risen personally and asked him to kill the story.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe told me the disclosure would threaten the safety of the CIA officers in Afghanistan,\u201d Risen said. \u201cI agreed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Risen said he later questioned whether or not this was the right decision. \u201cIf I had reported the story before 9\/11, the CIA would have been angry, but it might have led to a public debate about whether the United States was doing enough to capture or kill bin Laden,\u201d he wrote. \u201cThat public debate might have forced the CIA to take the effort to get bin Laden more seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This dilemma led Risen to reconsider responding to US government requests to censor stories. \u201cAnd that ultimately set me on a collision course with the editors at the New York Times,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAfter the 9\/11 attacks, the Bush administration began asking the press to kill stories more frequently,\u201d Risen continued. \u201cThey did it so often that I became convinced the administration was invoking national security to quash stories that were merely politically embarrassing.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">One year ago: Former New York Times national security reporter James Risen reveals how the paper repeatedly suppressed stories at the request of the Obama and Bush administrations <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/pJ2BAPluqH\" >https:\/\/t.co\/pJ2BAPluqH<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/wikileaks\/status\/1080630100574388224?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" >January 3, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>In the lead-up to the Iraq War, Risen frequently \u201cclashed\u201d with Times editors because he raised questions about the US government\u2019s lies. But his stories \u201cstories raising questions about the intelligence, particularly the administration\u2019s claims of a link between Iraq and Al Qaeda, were being cut, buried, or held out of the paper altogether.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Times\u2019 executive editor Howell Raines \u201cwas believed by many at the paper to prefer stories that supported the case for war,\u201d Risen said.<\/p>\n<p>In another anecdote, the former Times journalist recalled a scoop he had uncovered on a botched CIA plot. The Bush administration got wind of it and called him to the White House, where then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice ordered the Times to bury the story.<\/p>\n<p>Risen said Rice told him \u201cto forget about the story, destroy my notes, and never make another phone call to discuss the matter with anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Bush administration was successfully convincing the press to hold or kill national security stories,\u201d Risen wrote. And the Barack Obama administration subsequently accelerated the \u201cwar on the press.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>CIA media infiltration and manufacturing consent<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In their renowned study of US media, \u201c<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=7AVTUrJyFUwC&amp;printsec=frontcover&amp;source=gbs_ge_summary_r&amp;cad=0#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false\" >Manufacturing Consent<\/a>: The Political Economy of the Mass Media,\u201d Edward S. Herman and Chomsky articulated a\u00a0\u201cpropaganda model,\u201d showing how \u201cthe media serve, and propagandize on behalf of, the powerful societal interests that control and finance them,\u201d through \u201cthe selection of right-thinking personnel and by the editors\u2019 and working journalists\u2019 internalization of priorities and definitions of newsworthiness that conform to the institution\u2019s policy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But in some cases, the relationship between US intelligence agencies and the corporate media is not just one of mere ideological policing, indirect pressure, or friendship, but rather one of employment.<\/p>\n<p>In the 1950s, the CIA launched a covert operation called Project Mockingbird, in which it surveilled, influenced, and manipulated American journalists and media coverage, explicitly in order to direct public opinion against the Soviet Union, China, and the growing international communist movement.<\/p>\n<p>Legendary journalist Carl Bernstein, a former Washington Post reporter who helped uncover the Watergate scandal, published a major cover story for Rolling Stone in 1977 titled \u201c<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.carlbernstein.com\/magazine_cia_and_media.php\" >The CIA and the Media<\/a>: How America\u2019s Most Powerful News Media Worked Hand in Glove with the Central Intelligence Agency and Why the Church Committee Covered It Up.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bernstein obtained CIA documents that revealed that more than 400 American journalists in the previous 25 years had \u201csecretly carried out assignments for the Central Intelligence Agency.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bernstein wrote:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>\u201cSome of these journalists\u2019 relationships with the Agency were tacit; some were explicit. There was cooperation, accommodation and overlap. Journalists provided a full range of clandestine services\u2014from simple intelligence gathering to serving as go\u2011betweens with spies in Communist countries. Reporters shared their notebooks with the CIA. Editors shared their staffs. Some of the journalists were Pulitzer Prize winners, distinguished reporters who considered themselves ambassadors without\u2011portfolio for their country. Most were less exalted: foreign correspondents who found that their association with the Agency helped their work; stringers and freelancers who were as interested in the derring\u2011do of the spy business as in filing articles; and, the smallest category, full\u2011time CIA employees masquerading as journalists abroad. In many instances, CIA documents show, journalists were engaged to perform tasks for the CIA with the consent of the managements of America\u2019s leading news organizations.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Virtually all major US media outlets cooperated with the CIA, Bernstein revealed, including ABC, NBC, the AP, UPI, Reuters, Newsweek, Hearst newspapers, the Miami Herald, the Saturday Evening Post, and the New York Herald\u2011Tribune.<\/p>\n<p>However, he added, \u201cBy far the most valuable of these associations, according to CIA officials, have been with the\u00a0New York Times,\u00a0CBS and Time Inc.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>These layers of state manipulation, censorship, and even direct crafting of the news media show that, as much as they claim to be independent, The New York Times and other outlets effectively serve as de facto spokespeople for the government \u2014 or at least for the US national security state.<\/p>\n<p>______________________________________________________<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Ben-Norton.jpeg\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-136554\" src=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Ben-Norton.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>Ben Norton is a journalist and writer. He is a reporter for <\/em>The Grayzone, <em>and the producer of the <\/em><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/moderaterebelsradio.com\" >Moderate Rebels<\/a><em> podcast, which he co-hosts with Max Blumenthal. His website is <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/BenNorton.com\" >BenNorton.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/thegrayzone.com\/2019\/06\/24\/new-york-times-media-us-government-approval\/\" >Go to Original \u2013 thegrayzone.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>24 Jun 2019 &#8211; The New York Times has publicly acknowledged that it sends some of its stories to the US government for approval from \u201cnational security officials\u201d before publication. This confirms what veteran NYT correspondents like James Risen have said: The American newspaper of record regularly collaborates with the US government, suppressing reporting that top officials don\u2019t want made public.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":136553,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[910,378,234,1232,109,287,911,70,126],"class_list":["post-136552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-media","tag-big-brother","tag-journalism","tag-media","tag-new-york-times","tag-politics","tag-power","tag-surveillance","tag-usa","tag-violence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}