Comments on: Burning Down the New York Times in Three Acts – Act 2: Walter Duranty Meets the Holocaust (text version)

By: Webutante

Webutante — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 01:04:52 +0000

Just now catching up with myself enough to watch this, and I have to say it was very interesting. Great historical perspective. After all these decades, how come we’re all the last to know how much more important access was to the NYT as opposed to truth and honest reporting….all the news that’s fit to print is really laughable.

Very good job, Roger. Look forward to the last one.

By: Rhod

Rhod — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 22:17:26 +0000

Muggeridge, recalls in Vol I of his memoir, Chronicles of Wasted Time (The Green Stick)how he sat between Duranty and Anna Louise Strong at some Moscow affair. He described Strong as “an enormous woman with a very red face, a lot of white hair, and an expression of stupidity so overwhelming that it amounted to a kind of strange beauty…”

Muggeridge claimed that one of Duranty’s stock expressions was “I put my money on Stalin”, and that he, Duranty, was fascinated by the totalitarian state around him in Russia. Muggeridge:

“Duranty was in some way getting his own back for being small, and losing a leg, and not having the aristocratic lineage and classical education he claimed to have. This is probably, in the end, the only real basis of the appeal of such regimes as Stalin’s and later Hitlers; they compensate for weakness and inadequacy..

M goes on to say that the NYT WANTED to be deceived, and in that goal, they had Duranty. Things haven’t changed.

By: David Thomson

David Thomson — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 05:56:22 +0000

“Duranty himself wasn’t really a wannabe Bolshevik.”

Walter Duranty was indeed not another Jack Reed. As matter of fact, I am unaware of his ever uttering any pro-socialist rhetoric either publicly or privately. Duranty seemed like an unapologetic opportunist. The man never displayed an ounce of idealism. Duranty may have been something of a psychopath. I definitely get the impression that he never felt the need to lie to himself. His conscience never seemed to bother him. Duranty flat out apparently didn’t give a damn about other people.

By: Roger L Simon

Roger L Simon — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 05:21:54 +0000

Thanks, P Wallace. TRy PJTV again when you have a moment. Most people are finding it easy now, especially in FLASH.

By: P Wallace

P Wallace — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 05:16:12 +0000

Thanks for posting the transcript. I can almost never get PJTV videos to play.