On Thursday, The New York Times launched a new marketing campaign by releasing a TV ad set to air during Sunday’s Academy Awards with the tag line, “The truth is more important than ever,” seemingly taking a jab at President Donald Trump. Given the paper’s blatant liberal bias and willingness to report fake news stories, the notion of the Times being the arbiter of the “truth” is laughable.
During a briefing on January 31, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer called out NBC News and the Times for false reporting: “...your network was one of the people that just hours ago told people [Homeland Security Secretary] General [John] Kelly was unaware of what's going on and a moment later he gets on air saying, ‘Here's how many times I've been briefed.’” Reporter Kristen Welker quickly pointed a finger at the real culprit: “I think it was – a New York Times report was cited.” Spicer replied: “I apologize. NBC News reporting is based on The New York Times false reporting.”
On February 14, the Times was so eager to hype any news regarding the resignation National Security Adviser Michael Flynn that the so-called “paper of record” fell for a bogus Twitter account purporting to be Flynn. Times journalist David Sanger touted the fake news on CBS This Morning: “[Flynn] said himself in a Tweet this morning, that while he was responsible, there are others who are responsible, too.” Co-host Norah O’Donnell corrected him: “That tweet has not yet been verified. Not from a verified account.”
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Just on Sunday, White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus was forced to shoot down yet another misleading report from the Times about supposed contact between the Trump campaign and Russian intelligence officials. On NBC’s Meet the Press, he told moderator Chuck Todd:
I mean we've spent days talking about a story that says that our campaign had constant contacts with Russian spies. And I can tell you, I've talked to the top levels of the intelligence community. And they've assured me that that New York Times story was grossly overstated, and inaccurate and totally wrong....It is this sort of fake news stuff that is enormously important that, when you get a front page story of The New York Times without a single source on the record saying that your campaign had constant contacts -- they didn't say one contact. They didn't say two contacts. It doesn't matter. We have not been informed of even that. But to say, “Constant contact?”
On Friday, NBC’s Today was thrilled by the upcoming Times television spot, with reporter Joe Fryer declaring: “No matter who wins, politics will likely take the stage Sunday....The New York Times will even debut its first-ever Oscars ad, with the message, ‘The truth is more important than ever.’ A sign that with millions watching, Hollywood's biggest night could become its most political.”
Recently the Times featured an article touting the “renewed sense of mission” for journalists in the Trump era looking to take down the Republican president by uncovering a Watergate-style scandal.
The New York paper is not alone in its pretentious claims of being the guardian of truth, on Tuesday, The Washington Post added this slogan to its website: “Democracy dies in darkness.” Apparently only the light of the Post’s reporting can save the nation from the “darkness” of a Trump presidency.
