Mendacious New York Times' warning about Censorship

 https://rwmalonemd.substack.com/p/mendacious-new-york-times-warning

Guest Editorial

In a bold but clearly disingenuous statement from its famed Editorial Board, “a group of opinion journalists whose views are informed by expertise, research, debate, and certain longstanding values,” the New York Times issued a cautionary statement:

“For all the tolerance and enlightenment that modern society claims, Americans are losing hold of a fundamental right as citizens of a free country: the right to speak their minds and voice their opinions in public without fear of being shamed or shunned.”

The Editorial Board pounded the point home:

“People should be able to put forward viewpoints, ask questions and make mistakes, and take unpopular but good-faith positions on issues that society is still working through—all without fearing cancellation…Freedom of speech requires not just a commitment to openness and tolerance in the abstract. It demands conscientiousness…We believe it isn’t enough for Americans to just believe in the rights of others to speak freely; they should also find ways to actively support and protect those rights.”

Of course, the New York Times should be teaching by example. In fact, it has not supported free speech, protected the First Amendment, or allowed honest debate. It has not allowed competing perspectives about the most important issues of the day. It has been a mouthpiece for greedy corporations and corrupt government officials.

In support of their interests, and at the expense of those of American citizens, it censored The Real Anthony Fauci by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in every conceivable way. It ranked the book #7 on its non-fiction bestseller list even though Kennedy’s book outsold any other book in America that week by thousands of copies. Then it refused to allow Skyhorse Publishing to place an advertisement for the book because it’s censorship division, ironically called “Standards Management,” decided that the book itself constituted misinformation, despite their stated policy that “Standards” only looks into whether an ad itself is “non-defamatory and accurate.”

The New York Times followed up with a scathing hit piece targeting Kennedy as “a leading voice in the campaign to discredit coronavirus vaccines and other measures being advanced by the Biden White House to battle a pandemic that was…killing close to 1,900 people a day.” It accused him of circulating “false information,” without indicating what that information is or explaining why it’s false, and of comparing the government pandemic response to the Holocaust, even though he clearly didn’t do that.

Finally, they refused to review The Real Anthony Fauci or so much as comment on its historic grassroots success, even though it’s become a cult classic, selling over 1,000,000 copies, and launching a worldwide movement against government corruption and corporate greed.

“Despite all the lying, or maybe in reaction to it,” Tucker Carlson wrote, “Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is becoming a legitimate folk hero.”

He is a folk hero because he stood up, grabbed a bullhorn, and spoke truth to power. He’s risked everything and lost a lot. He’s realized that you either care about justice or you care about personal consequences. And for him there have been many.

After suppressing freedom of speech for two years, after defending a specific, myopic and harmful narrative, the Editorial Board of the New York Times decided it was the perfect time to take a strong stance against censorship and cancel culture.