Was the anonymous New York Times anti-Trump piece a fraud?

© 2018 Peter Free

 

08 September 2018

 

 

Could the NYT's anti-Trump piece be a fraud?

 

A couple of respect-worthy people think so.

 

Paul Craig Roberts said:

 

 

I know who wrote the anonymous “senior Trump official” op-ed in the New York Times. The New York Times wrote it.

 

The op-ed (http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/50194.htm) is an obvious forgery.

 

As a former senior official in a presidential administration, I can state with certainty that no senior official would express disagreement anonymously. Anonymous dissent has no credibility. Moreover, the dishonor of it undermines the character of the writer. A real dissenter would use his reputation and the status of his high position to lend weight to his dissent.

 

The New York Times’ claim to have vetted the writer also lacks credibility, as the New York Times has consistently printed extreme accusations against Trump and against Vladimir Putin without supplying a bit of evidence. The New York Times has consistently misrepresented unsubstantiated allegations as proven fact. There is no reason whatsoever to believe the New York Times about anything.

 

© 2018 Paul Craig Roberts, I Know Who the “Senior Official” Is Who Wrote the NY Times Op-Ed, The Unz Review (06 September 2018) (excerpts)

 

 

Diana Johnstone agrees:

 

 

The New York Times continues to outdo itself in the production of fake news.

 

The letter by Mister or Ms Anonymous is very well written. By someone like, say, Thomas Friedman. That is, someone on the NYT staff. It is very cleverly composed to achieve quite obvious calculated aims. It is a masterpiece of treacherous deception.

 

The letter amounts to an endorsement of future President Pence.

 

The Democrats may not like Pence, but they are so demented by hatred of Trump that they are visibly ready to accept the Devil himself to get rid of the sinister clown who dared defeat Hillary Clinton.

 

That is treacherous enough, but even more despicable is the insidious design to destabilize the presidency by sowing distrust.

 

Was the New York Times oped written by the paper’s own writers or by the CIA? It hardly matters since they are so closely entwined.

 

The oped claims to provide evidence that Trump is being betrayed, but if he says so, that will be taken as a sign of mental derangement. To save our exemplary democracy from itself, the elected president must be thrown out.

 

© 2018 Diana Johnstone, The New York Times as Iago, The Unz Review (07 September 2018) (excerpts)

 

 

I am less certain of fabrication — than Roberts and Johnstone are

 

However, fraudulent or not, the piece clearly weakens the American fabric.

 

 

The moral? — The propagandizing New York Times has long been complicit in creating a weaker United States

 

When one abandons Truth and reasoned objectivity as goals, one eventually abandons decency.

 

Thus, in my possibly mistaken view, the newspaper was ethically wrong even to give Cowardly Anonymous an outlet for his self-righteous back-stabbing.

 

We lose moral high ground, when we refuse to enforce it.