51吃瓜

The New York Times鈥� (NYT) coverage of the increasingly relevant topic of 鈥淏iden鈥檚 wars,鈥� which he manages with no boots on the ground, has reached the point of generating journalistic nonsense. If nonsense literature, from Fran莽ois Rabelais and Miguel Cervantes to Laurence Sterne and Lewis Carroll is a noble genre, nonsense journalism, except when deliberately comic, such as in the case of or, is itself nonsense. The art of twisting reality into its opposite for a generally uncomfortable but perfectly targeted laugh requires a lot of skill, which no one working for the Gray Lady has ever quite sought to acquire.

NYT鈥檚 descent into irrelevance derives from its pathological crush on and unconditional loyalty to the Washington establishment, and more particularly to the Democratic party establishment. The newspaper of record has become, more than ever, a fawning slave of the current administration led by aging Democratic President Joe Biden. Instead of following its own motto of offering 鈥渁ll the news that鈥檚 fit to print,鈥� it has shown a clear preference for all the news that鈥檚 fit to distort in the interest of promoting the policies of the nation鈥檚 current leadership. I鈥檓 not the first to point out that the Democratic party鈥檚 worldview has become indistinguishable from the worldview of the US military-industrial complex, six decades after Republican President Dwight D Eisenhower鈥檚 candid warning that the growing tentacles of the MIC were at risk of overturning American democracy.

In its effort to flatter the policies of its masters in Washington, the Gray Lady spares no pains. When not engaged in boldly asserting utterly unfounded assumptions 鈥� for example, concerning Russia鈥檚 culpability for the Havana Syndrome, which we have regularly highlighted  鈥� NYT resorts to another technique. Let鈥檚 call it the art of calculated understatement. This is particularly useful when reporting on actions by one鈥檚 own government that appear mistaken or dangerously aggressive. 

The strategy can prove risky. It works so long as the asserted fact doesn鈥檛 inadvertently produce the exact opposite of the intended reaction. Last week that happened. In an article titled 鈥淚n Tel Aviv, Biden鈥檚 Embrace of Israel Came With a Gentle Warning鈥� Peter Baker, NYT鈥檚 chief White House correspondent,鈥� treated us to a borderline of attempted understatement that, to anyone attentive to history, could be seen as an obvious inversion of reality.

罢辞诲补测鈥檚 Weekly Devil鈥檚 Dictionary definition:

Gentle warning:

A quiet gesture 鈥� meant to appear friendly and considerate when used by someone supposedly in a position of authority or force 鈥�  that can easily produce the unintended effect of revealing one鈥檚 helplessness or simply lack of a backbone.

Contextual note

鈥淚n a way,鈥� Baker wrote, 鈥淢r. Biden flew to Israel on Wednesday to give the whole country a hug, to say how much America grieves with Israel and stands by Israel and has Israel鈥檚 back. But with the hug came a whisper in the ear as well, a gentle warning not to give into the 鈥榩rimal feeling,鈥� not to let overwhelming grief or overpowering anger drive the country to go too far as he believes America did after Sept. 11, 2001.鈥�

When governments with a history of ideological extremism, like that of current Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, engage in aggressive belligerence easily inclined to slip into the category of war crimes, the idea that a powerful external moral authority might bring it back to reason with a 鈥済entle warning鈥� can only appear laughable. This is especially true when the warning comes from the US president, commonly referred to as 鈥渢he leader of the free world.鈥� By 鈥渇ree world鈥� everyone understands, not some sort of coherent geopolitical reality, but rather the heavily financialized global economy to which all the world鈥檚 nations are now subjected.

Israel is a bona fide and influential member of the financialized global economy. That means that if it feels threatened, the 鈥渇ree world鈥� will not apply any brakes even to its most extreme actions or reactions. But that is not all. The great liberal powers who write the rules by which the free world is governed feel themselves bound not only to approve Israel鈥檚 actions but also to actively support it financially and militarily. They do so despite the fact that Bibi鈥檚 governing clique has never shown any aptitude to obey anyone鈥檚 rules, either domestically or internationally.

The powers that stand up as Israel鈥檚 unwavering friends are easily recognizable. Most of them are part of NATO. Israel of course has nothing to do with NATO, just as Ukraine officially had nothing to do with NATO until a bellicose President George W Bush decided otherwise in 2008. 

In both cases, what should now be called 鈥渢he NATO mentality鈥� has become the principal defining feature of the foreign policy of Western powers. This NATO mentality, ignored or denied by Western media, is now easily recognized in the non-Western world. It can be defined as a military and militaristic attitude focused on perpetuating the unipolar order that emerged thirty years ago with the collapse of the Soviet Union. Many observers have noted that the unipolar order has already been seriously weakened. Most serious observers have begun tracking the emergence of a multipolar order.

From a diplomacy point of view, given the quasi-genocidal bombing campaign Israel is now conducting in Gaza, Biden鈥檚 鈥済entle warning鈥� becomes hard to distinguish from complicity in what some are already describing as war crimes. Baker describes it as a 鈥渨arning not to give into the 鈥榩rimal feeling鈥欌�� associated with the US reaction to 9/11. Anyone who knows Biden鈥檚 history can only chuckle at this idea. As the Democratic Senator heading the Foreign Relations Committee two decades ago, Biden was in a position to oppose President George W. Bush鈥檚 shameless exploitation of 鈥減rimal feelings.鈥� Instead, he championed Bush鈥檚 rush to war in Iraq on false pretenses in 2003. At the time, he had had 18 months to mull over, digest and discard his own 鈥減rimal feelings鈥� in the wake of 9/11.

Another NYT reporter, David Sanger, followed Peter Baker鈥檚 lead with the gentleness meme. 鈥淢r. Biden鈥檚 response,鈥� he, 鈥渋s that experience has taught him that the best way to moderate Mr. Netanyahu鈥檚 behavior is to wrap him in support 鈥� and whisper a warning into his ear.鈥� 

Instead of holding Bibi accountable, Biden has attempted to embrace gentleness in a different way. At the very moment when the world awaits Israel鈥檚 expected ground invasion of Gaza and the international fireworks that are likely to ensue, Biden has decided to prove his commitment to justice and peace, not by reining in Netanyahu who has already 鈥渦nrelenting attacks,鈥� but by organizing humanitarian aid for the ever-increasing-number of civilian victims of Israel鈥檚 seemingly random bombing campaign.

Historical note

The controversy surrounding blame for the explosion at the Al-Ahli Arab hospital last week illustrates the difficulty of reporting meaningful information about Israel鈥檚 war. NYT made this very clearly. 鈥淐overing wars is always fraught, both because journalists on the ground are often in harm鈥檚 way and because the sides at war aggressively push information in their favor. The war between Israel and Hamas has proved even more difficult than most conflicts, because it has generated vast amounts of misleading and false information online. There are so many untrue claims that some people question the true ones.鈥�

For the attentive reader, this too produces a potentially comic effect. NYT has been no stranger to much of the 鈥渕isleading and false information鈥� generated over the past 19 months around the war in Ukraine. From creating the absurd belief that Ukraine was winning the war and was certain to come out victorious, to accusing Russia of sabotaging the Nord Stream pipeline and then ignoring Seymour Hersh鈥檚 still uncontradicted account of Washington鈥檚 culpability, NYT has enthusiastically embraced its role as an organ of White House and CIA propaganda.

The story of the 鈥済entle warning,鈥� for all its unintentional comedy, actually does tell us a lot about the power relationships in a world hovering uncertainly between what some persist in seeing as a comforting 鈥渞ules-based鈥� unipolar order and an emerging and seemingly inexorable redistribution of geopolitical influence and power. But NYT has consistently avoided reporting on that unfolding drama. From the rise of BRICS to the destructive chaos of Western-led supposedly 鈥渆xistential鈥� wars, the historical significance of such events is a topic NYT has no time for. Its journalists seem to be more interested in the 鈥済entle鈥� side of the news.

*[In the age of Oscar Wilde and Mark Twain, another American wit, the journalist Ambrose Bierce produced a series of satirical definitions of commonly used terms, throwing light on their hidden meanings in real discourse. Bierce eventually collected and published them as a book, The Devil鈥檚 Dictionary, in 1911. We have shamelessly appropriated his title in the interest of continuing his wholesome pedagogical effort to enlighten generations of readers of the news. Read more of 51吃瓜 Devil鈥檚 Dictionary.]

The views expressed in this article are the author鈥檚 own and do not necessarily reflect 51吃瓜鈥檚 editorial policy.