His first article as new columnist at The New York Times I find shallow-minded, dishonest and disturbed by a trend of right-wing activists gaining entry into a once liberal newspaper. No one loses its colored feathers as a opinion journalist and it made me wonder if he’s still on Murdoch’s pay while writing on the side for a “quality” liberal newspaper. Bill Kristol gave Stephens a hearty welcome as did the NYT editor. His first column gave a good response with over 1555 posts at last glance.
I won’t provide a link to his article as it isn’t worth the attention it already got and one can find the link here @BooMan in a front-page “Open Thread” by Martin Longman. What disturbs me in that thread is the complete breakdown of civil discourse here at the pond. The stated objective to introduce Bret Stephens at The New York Times reads as follows:
- The New York Times has been defending the paper’s hiring of a climate science denier, fighting off
its critics with what it claims is a standard fashioned from hardened “intellectual honesty.”
Editorial page editor James Bennett, told the paper’s public editor Liz Spayd: “The crux of the question is
whether his work belongs inside our boundaries for intelligent debate, and I have no doubt that it does.
I have no doubt he crosses our bar for intellectual honesty and fairness.”
Our colleague Nick Kristof welcomed Bret to The Times earlier this week with a conversation on Facebook Live,
which you can watch here. As Nick makes clear in the video, he and Bret disagree on a lot of things, from
how to think about American policy in the Middle East to how best to address climate change. And as both
writers note, that’s a good thing; as strong-minded and open-minded people, they welcome the debate.
When Adolph Ochs set out the mission for The New York Times at the end of the 19th century, he said he
hoped to make its opinion pages a forum for “intelligent discussion from all shades of opinion.”
I won’t put up a post in the front-page article as I consequently get trolled by a gang of vigilantes whose (broke)rage in support of HRC is with 100% certainty.
I have covered Bret Stephens / Rupert Murdoch a number of times here @BooMan …
○ Neocons Covert Action and Ukraine Watch
○ First Amendment Rights Muted by Criticism of Israel
Murdoch and Hacked Climategate Emails by Oui @BooMan on July 21, 2011
News Corp and the Hacked Climategate Emails: Time for an Independent Investigation
(ThinkProgress) – There have been countless independent investigations into the scientists whose e-mails were hacked in November 2009. And the scientists have been (quietly) vindicated every time (see “The first rule of vindicating climate science is you do not talk about vindicating climate science “).
But we still don’t know who hacked the emails! And now we know that one of the key investigative bodies tasked with tracking down the hackers — Scotland Yard — were compromised at the time.
How were they compromised? Neil Wallis— the former News of the World executive editor — became a “£1,000 a day” consultant to Scotland Yard in October 2009. Last week he became the ninth person arrested in the metastasizing News Corp scandal “on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications, contrary to section 1(1) Criminal Law Act 1977.”
Certainly Wallis had plenty of motive to join Scotland Yard just to keep an eye on the investigation into the phone-hacking scandal. Indeed, the NY Times reports Wallis “was reporting back to News International while he was working for the police on the hacking case.” But this also suggests how corrupt Wallis was — and how corrupted Scotland Yard was.
○ Rupert Murdoch and full Israel support as insider “Stand With Us”
It’s quite interesting Louise Mensch worked with Rupert Murdoch’s Heatstreet to unveil the “truth” about the links between the Trump campaign and the Russians by means of bots and hacking. As Tory MP, Louise Mensch was on the committee hearing to investigate the Murdoch News Corp tabloid phone hacking scandal in 2011. She voted against the final report of the committee.
○ Britain’s Phone-Hacking Scandal and the Rise of Louise Mensch | TIME |
If there is still some escapism to the true colors of neoconphile Bret Stephens [RightWeb], this presentation must convert all doubters …
Bret Stephens: The next US president may not be pro-Israel | JPost – Feb. 11, 2016 |
Wall Street Journal’s Bret Stephens talks on 9/5/12 about the threat of Iran organized into “moral categories” of self deception, deception, clarity, friendship and courage. He’s one the most brilliant foreign policy minds of our time. It’s one thing to read his extraordinary columns but even more powerful to hear him speak about the Iranian nuclear program and the threat it means to the world.
Bret Stephens speaks on Iran and Israel at Stand With Us San Diego event (2012)
○ WSJ Editor Tells Israel to Ignore World after Obama Betrayal | Arutz Sheva |
○ APN, J Street, NIF respond to Bret Stephens’ characterization of President Obama on Israel | J Street – April 2012 |
○ Bret Stephens: Stance on Climate Change | DeSmog |
Final word to Ken Caldeira: I cancelled my New York Times subscription today …
○ Climate of Risk and Uncertainty
Underreported is Obama’s war on journalists …
○ Obama and the NSA Winning the War Against Journalists?
○ Obama’s call to lengthen Yemeni journalist’s prison term for reporting brutal Tomahawk strike killing dozens
