Lying Machine NYT Russia Bashing

by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org - Home - Stephen Lendman)

The Times is obsessed over rising Sino/Russian influence on the world stage at the expense of steady US decline — its belligerent/bullying tactics making more enemies than friends.

As for the self-styled newspaper of record, it long ago abandoned what journalism is supposed to be, operating exclusively as a mouthpiece for wealth, power and privilege, a gatekeeper of the official narrative — publishing daily propaganda rubbish on major issues, especially geopolitical ones.

The Times never met a US war of aggression it didn't cheerlead or a sovereign state not controlled by imperial USA it didn't call for raping, destroying, colonizing and plundering.

Russia has been a longstanding target, notably post-WW II, especially under Vladimir Putin, a leader whose stature dwarfs his US and other Western counterparts.

According to a Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VTsIOM) poll, his public approval is around 65% — compared to Trump's at around 40%, Britain's Boris Johnson at 33%, and France's Macron at 34%.

Along with their Western counterparts, they're contemptuous of the rule of law, democratic values they revile, along with the rights and welfare of ordinary people everywhere they despise while pretending otherwise.

On all things Russia and Putin, Times managed news misinformation and disinformation substitute for truth and full disclosure — what's standard practice in most Times reports, especially on geopolitical issues.

Putin's successful dealings with other nations enrage Times editors, his peace offensive and drive for cooperative relations with other states polar opposite how his US and other Western counterparts operate.

His successful October 23 Russia/Africa summit was the first of its kind, more of the same planned. Moscow prioritizes good relations with the continent, Putin stressed, adding:

"African states are confidently gaining political and economic weight as one of the important pillars of the multipolar world system" — urging "African solutions to African problems." 

Russia seeks peace and mutual cooperation with all nations. US unipolar aims are all about conquest, colonization, and plundering other states, ones it doesn't control on its target list for regime change.

The Times turned truth on its head, accusing Putin of focusing Russia's "propaganda machine on Africa (sic)," adding:

Moscow's "infrastructure of political influence…bears echoes of the Kremlin's strategy in Europe and the United States."

Russia offers carrots in contrast to US sticks everywhere, demanding all nations bend to its will or face its wrath, what the scourge of imperialism is all about, what the Times wholeheartedly endorses.

Its editors falsely accused Putin of "meddling abroad (and) crack(ing) down at home" — a US specialty on both counts, not how Moscow operates.

Commenting on how "millions of Russians lost savings and jobs" during the neoliberal 90s, the Times ignored Boris Yeltsin's adoption of US shock therapy, creating a lost decade.

He let 80% of Russian farmers go bankrupt, closed 70,000 state factories, and presided over an unemployment epidemic.

Half or more of ordinary Russians became impoverished. A permanent underclass was created. Crime, suicides, mortality, alcoholism, drug abuse, and HIV/AIDS soared to intolerable levels.

US-style shock therapy (neoliberal harshness) produced economic genocide. GDP plunged 50%. Life expectancy fell sharply.

Democratic freedoms never had a chance on his watch. An oligarch class accumulated enormous wealth. Western interests profited at the expense of millions of exploited Russians — the Times loving it, urging more of the same against other nations so US monied interests could benefit at their expense.

Yeltsin let corruption and criminality flourish. One scandal followed others. Grand theft and money laundering were commonplace. Billions in stolen wealth were secreted in Western banks or offshore tax havens.

Western regimes and corporate interests cheered Yeltsin's free market gangsterism. They hate Putin for trying to undo the damage he caused and for defending Russia's sovereign rights.

Like numerous times before, the NYT falsely accused Putin of "seiz(ing) Crimea" and waging "proxy war" in Donbass, Ukraine — bald-faced Big Lies. 

The broadsheet denounced his defense of Syrian sovereignty and territorial integrity, supporting international law, ignoring US-led aggression in its 9th year.

The lying machine Times falsely accused truth-telling Russian media of "manipulat(ing)" news and information, along with falsely accusing Putin of crackdowns on critics — US and Western specialties, fantasy democracies, never the real thing. 

Chelsea Manning, Julian Assange, and numerous others like them bear testimony to police state USA viciousness — a rogue state masquerading as democratic, a notion it abhors, tolerating it nowhere, especially not at home.

The Times maliciously questioned whether democrat Putin will "cede power peacefully in 2024." 

Not a shred of evidence suggests otherwise by a leader respectful of the sovereign rights of all nations and democratic rights of Russian citizens — polar opposite how the US operates.

The Times provides press agent serves for its imperial agenda. It shamefully lied accusing Putin of "mucking around in foreign elections and allowing his goons to prey on harmless shamans and thoughtful reporters (sic)" — how the US operates at home and abroad, cheerled by the Times.

When it comes to truth-telling on major issues, the Times is AWOL. On all things mattering most, it's a lying machine, long ago abandoning journalism the way it should be for state-approved propaganda.

VISIT MY WEBSITE: stephenlendman.org (Home - Stephen Lendman). Contact at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

My newest book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html