New York Times

NY Times Rewrites History for New Trump Attack

When former special counsel Robert Mueller failed to deliver on the accusations of 2016 election collusion with Russia and bring an end to the Trump presidency, the New York Times appeared to quickly move to Plan B.

Adrian Norman

The paper’s “1619 Project,” in the words of Project 21 member Adrian Norman, tasks Times writers with “shap[ing] their stories to contextualize anything they can through the lens of racism because it’s the most effective tool they have at achieving their ultimate goal: casting [Trump] as a racist.” According to a transcript of a Times staff meeting, Executive Editor Dean Baquet explained to his staff that “the story changed” post-Mueller, and they had to “regroup, and shift resources and emphasis to take on a different story.”

“That approach is opining,” Adrian points out, “not reporting.”

In a commentary for Epoch Times, Adrian critiques the Times‘s “revisionism” that is framing everything through terms of race. He cites articles that go as far as to blame today’s traffic jams on segregation, current health care troubles on Reconstruction-era policies and modern prisons on slavery.

Adrian writes:

[T]his project seems more like an attempt to reshape the public’s view of U.S. history to inflame racial tensions by mischaracterizing the country as inexorably tied to slavery and irredeemably racist, and tying the ills and anxieties of the present to events that occurred roughly 400 years ago.

To do all of this, the Times reset America’s founding from 1775, 1776 or even 1789 to 1619. This is the year that the first African slaves arrived at the Jamestown colony. Actually, slavery in the Americas may have started as early as 1501 with the Spanish.

But accuracy takes away the opportunity to make this all about white-on-black oppression. Adrian notes:

The framing of slavery as a uniquely American (or a white versus black) phenomenon is counterfactual and intellectually dishonest, as slavery occurred all around the globe. It was America that played a large role in ending slavery and casting it as an unacceptable practice.

So why is the Times revising history?

For one thing, there are more blacks supporting President Trump today than in 2016. According to a recent poll by Zobgy Analytics, 28% of black voters support him. Support this high, Adrian remarks, “spells trouble for the left.”

Is the New York Times trying to hurt the President’s reputation with American blacks for political gain? Adrian writes:

It’s reshaping American history for political purposes and keeping the black community looking backward, rather than forward.

“But, pesky little things like facts don’t matter,” Adrian pointed out, “when your real goal is activism and revising history to push your own political agenda.”

To read all of Adrian’s Epoch Times commentary – “Race, Revisionism and the New York Times” – click here.



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