Has the NYTimes become an on-ramp to dangerous reactionary ideas for too many people? The evidence really speaks for itself:
• Their own articles reveal that over the last few years their reporters have, on multiple occasions, interviewed people with problematic views, and then quoted them verbatim in the pages of the NYT. In 2016 for instance they reviewed Peter Thiel's book 'Zero to One', and then in 2017 followed up with an extensive, and seemingly sincerely curious, feature article detailing his political views. As recently as 2019 they turned over their op-ed section to Thiel himself to publish in, offering him a huge platform he otherwise wouldn't have had.
Why are NYT staff so closely associating with these folks? Is it possible they privately agree with their views? Could reporting on their political activity — or even writing articles that superficially condemn it — just be a cover to recruit for their cause? As you'll see below, that seems all too possible.
• Numerous people with highly problematic views, such as the notorious Charles Murray, are known to subscribe to the NYT and frequently agree with or share opinion pieces they publish.
Murray has recently gone further and even waxed lyrical about the paper and the direction it's going, saying, and I quote: "The NYT op-ed page isn't just improved. It has become a model, the best page anywhere..."
• The NYT is in the media industry — the same media industry with a culture so toxic as to recently throw up new and offensive right-wing publications such as Breitbart and The Daily Wire. The New York Times is also based in Manhattan, the same metro area in which you'll find the offices of the Trump-supporting New York Post and National Review, the former of which was so toxic as to recently be blocked by Twitter.
Could NYT journalists have friends in common with Trump supporting authors, or even have hung out with them and wealthy Trump donors at elite Manhattan parties? It seems entirely possible, and worth someone looking into.
• I'm also able to reveal that at least three of their staff used to work at Fox News. All three of them overlapped with reporter and Trump hagiographer Lou Dobbs while working there. Who knows what toxic ideas those three have been able to advocate on the NYT Slack (the full records of which, it should be noted, they are unwilling to share publicly, despite being asked).
• If you read over the 'subscriber comments' on their articles, you'll find literally hundreds of conservatives and even Trump supporters being allowed to advocate their views to impressionable readers — on the NYT's very own website!
And if you look at the comments on NYT articles when posted on some subreddits, such as /r/news... well the evidence is even more damning.
I actually investigated and found records of dozens of NYT articles being posted and enthusiastically discussed on reactionary subreddits such as /r/The_Donald/ which are populated by people with attitudes that could politely be described as 'racially charged'. These dark corners of the internet were ultimately shut down for, among other things, publicly identifying and harassing private citizens — a serious breach of basic decency.
• Just this week a NYT journalist wrote a lengthy and surprisingly vague profile piece that prominently featured regressive neoreactionary views. While it used a negative tone, the end result, as usual, is sure to be more attention, and more people recruited to, such dangerous ideas.
New York Times columnists have on multiple occasions linked directly to the website this piece, on its surface, purports to be wary of — so one has to wonder whether this have might be the intended effect from the outset.
And far from being an isolated event, this is actually a pattern of behaviour for this writer — they had previously hung out with and helped to enrich notorious conspiracist, convicted libelist and Trump donor Patrick Byrne, through reporting so sloppy it's hard to believe it was accidental.
• Finally, it seems like every few days the NYT has to fire yet another staff member, for what they themselves concede is inappropriate racist behaviour. When someone tells you who they are, believe them!
It's time to put these various concerning associations together and admit that the New York Times and the media industry have a serious problem.
Given their enormous cultural power, I just hope they can accept and grapple with it before it's too late.