More anti-Russian propaganda from the New York Times

by Barry grey, WSWS (art added by AE)

The New York Times has been spearheading a media campaign to demonize Russian President Vladimir Putin and create an atmosphere of anti-Russian hysteria. This is in preparation for a sharp escalation of US military violence in the Middle East and stepped-up preparations for war against Moscow and Beijing.

Using unsubstantiated assertions, political amalgams and outright lies in a manner reminiscent of McCarthyism, the Times has published virtually daily articles, editorials and columns asserting, along with Russian “aggression” in Syria and Ukraine, that the Kremlin organized the hacking of the Democratic National Committee’s computers in order to embarrass Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and tip the election in favor of Republican Donald Trump.

The claim—presented by the Clinton campaign, the Times and much of the US media as indisputable fact—is that Trump is a political ally, if not a direct agent, of Putin. This allegation has become the focus of an attack by Clinton and the Democrats on the fascistic Trump from the right. It has been used to line up former CIA officials and Republican neo-conservatives deeply implicated in the invasion of Iraq, torture and other crimes of the Bush administration, along with an expanding list of billionaire financiers and CEOs, in support of Clinton.

There are precedents for such exercises in state propaganda in the guise of journalism. They have all ended with mass killings, the toppling of governments and, in many cases, the murder of government leaders portrayed as the incarnation of evil—Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi, for example.

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