Here I go again “Talking Through My Hat” with my second installment in my short, not-so-happy history of America’s newspaper of record… “Burning Down the New York Times in Three Acts – Act 2: Walter Duranty Meets the Holocaust“.
Justin Folk did the editing on this one, putting me at that supposed 1930s NYT editorial board meeting, trying to figure out why they published Duranty’s Stalinist propaganda in the first place. As you can see, I’m a little baffled. Maybe by Part 3 I will have figured it out. Part 2 is all about the NYT and Holocausts (Ukrainian and Jewish). Part 3 will be my two-bit psychoanalysis of the NYT. Why they are the way they are. Again, you can view Part 2 here. Part 1 is here, in case you missed it or want to see things in order. Part 3 – wait until next week.
Glad to see your skewering of Duranty.
Being a Ukie myself (though my grandparents got out of there before the First World War, thank God) I grew up with the famine stories, but discovered that nobody else knew or cared about it. Some took the line that the victims deserved it because they were greedy rich reactionaries, or anti-Semites (because all Ukies hate Jews, right?) and a Leftoid high school teacher of mine denied that it had ever happened – the pictures were fake, you see. I wonder if he was still alive when the Soviet Union fell apart and Russian officials actually got around to admitting that, well, yeah, the famine really did happen.
Do you think that if World War II had ended differently, and the Russians had come a lot farther west (say, to the Rhine) that even today we might not know about the Holocaust – or that like the Ukrainian famine, it might be something rumored but never really confirmed by the Communists in charge? The photos denounced as fakes the the few Muggeridges and Joneses denounced as crackpots?
Roger, I love these! I hope you do more after Part III on the NYT. Can’t wait to hear your conclusion although I think I know what it will be.
Roger: Bravo! Encore!
p.s. Hope you believe the same as VDH today:
“Letters and Posts
I don’t moderate any posting. If they are filtered, it is done by those at Pajamasmedia.com on the basis of obscenity or hate speech. Some replies to some commentary:
Yes, I would prefer real names to faux-ones on the postings. But it’s your call.
No, I don’t care if “trolls” come to this site, or if they are directed to by political operatives. Free speech trumps all. Nothing they can post matches the daily venom that I get on my personal email. The arena is open to all, the only rule being proper language and decorum.”
When I gave you my opinion of part 1, I was critical that I didn’t feel there was enough “meat” or facts, names, dates, details.
You nailed it this time!
History has a way of repeating itself, only the names and locations may be changed. Thank you for using such history to open the minds of the uninformed. Keep it going, as “Three” might be the conclusion of this segment, we all want more of the pararells in history, as #5 said “you nailed it” and
we all want more of your nails regarding the failures out of the press…
On a related note, see how long it takes you find, in today’s New York Times about this story from the UK. It may actually be in the NYT somewhere, but I don’t have the time to run an extensive search. At least the UK is on it.