Pressenza
24 Apr 2025

The New York Times

Over the course of the last 25 years, The New York Times has devolved into an arm of the Israel lobby and the now bipartisan neoconservative war economy. In fact, most of their foreign affairs and war related content is pipelined in from the Military Industrial Complex and its affiliated global intel orgs.(1A),(1B),(1C) Perhaps youve noticed that The NY Times is always either overtly or covertly pro-war when the US is involved? There have been no exceptions to this rule in the 21st century. No matter how operationally berserk, how unnecessarily escalative, how flagrantly illegal, how unprecedentedly vicious or how overtly genocidal the US instigated and/or assisted wars have been in Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Syria, Libya, Gaza, etc., the NY Times has unflinchingly backed every one of them from their start.(2),(3),(4)

And What of the Rest of the US Mainstream News Media?

To make matters worse, The NY Times is far from alone in the 21st century. In fact, every major US mainstream news media outlet is privately owned and pro-war. All of them, be they of the so-called left, the so-called center or the so-called right are directly or indirectly influenced by an extremely wealthy and very powerful faction of people who are quite often observably connected to the US war for profit making industry.(5) Were speaking here of a fairly obvious revolving door government-military-media interconnection, in which journalistic integrity is sacrificed regularly for financial reward.(6),(7),(8)

A Deeper Dive into the 21st Century Western News Media Monstrosity

Over the course of the last three years, Ive been closely observing this monstrosity with near amazement. I knew there was a fair amount of corruption and dishonesty burgeoning in corporate media, beginning, at the latest, by the early 2000s, when the neocons in the Bush Jr. administration ran ramshackle over a century's worth of human rights advances and regulatory legislation put in place to limit the power of the powerful wealthy fews ability to usurp ownership of the media and the American electoral process. What I wasnt aware of was the extent to which this regression had advanced, seemingly unhindered and in some cases even accelerated by sitting Democratic administrations as well as Republican ones.

A Bipartisanly Approved Takeover

From Barack Obamas unforgivable blunder - his signing the National Defense Authorization Act, which effectively took away every American Citizens right to a fair trial by law in 2012,(9),(10) to Joe Bidens green-lighting, funding and arming of a genocide (confirmed as such by Amnesty Interntational and the UN) in Gaza in 2023/2024, its been clear for a while now that the Democratic party has fully signed on to the neoconservative foreign policy/perpetual war agenda put in place by their Republican counterparts.(11),(12)

Peace Becomes a Dirty Word

Simply put: To be pro-peace in the US from mid-2022 onward has essentially meant youre an enemy of democracy as its defined by privately owned mega-corporations like The NY Times, The Atlantic, The NY Post, The Washington Post, CNN, FOX News, The Wall Street Journal, MSNBC, ABC News, Time Magazine, The New Yorker, etc..(13) Include also on this list, the lions share of the better known corporately funded foreign affairs and war related podcasts you find on Apple or Spotify. All youve gotta do is follow the money and youre almost certain to find out who's (really) deciding whos at the microphones on these shows.

Who on Earth OKd This Mutation? (You Do the Math)

If youve read this far, maybe a certain question has arisen in your mind? How the heck did this happen?! Who on earth OKd this mutation? This is a question I intend to go into more deeply in a future article. For now though, I can give you a concise, historically based set of reasons that are all connected to one another:

A) The Telecommunications Act (1996) signed into law by Bill Clinton. This deregulated the formerly regulated US media, opening the door for biased uber-wealthy moguls to begin taking over our screens, our airwaves and our most prominent printed news publications.

B) Bill Clintons repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act (1999), which ended a 66 year separation between investment and commercial banking. This opened up all sorts of possibilities for the economically (very) well-situated.(13A)

C) The Bush Jr. administration's massive tax cuts for the wealthy in the early 2000s, coupled with further deregulation. Even more importantly though, was the Bush administrations installation of the neoconservative foreign policy/war-centered agenda, which set in motion a plan for seven wars in five years as well as setting the tone for the US still existing perpetual war and weapons sales modus operandi.(14),(15)

D) The signing into law of The Citizens United Act (2010) which de-democratized the US electoral process, allowing inordinately wealthy individuals and corporate/special interest conglomerates to effectively buy politicians in order to enact their particular political preferences. Most notably, the Israel Lobby/AIPAC, which now essentially directs US foreign policy.(16)

Im gonna leave the rest of the math to you. 2 Hints: Think about what all of the above-mentioned changes have in common. Then think about what this commonality, coupled with the removal of anything legally restraining those already holding a large amount of power and influence, might have opened the door to. This is entry level stuff here folks. Youre on your own. You'll be fine though, youve got this.

A Hunch and a Suggestion

In another 50 years or so, by 2075 ish, people will be looking back at the first thirty or so years of 21st century US history, saying,

Be open to the possibility that we're going to need to start moving outside of our so-called "left" and "right" Western news media comfort zones. Even if just a little bit, at first. We're also going to have to find new ways to discuss these issues amongst ourselves without tearing each others heads off. The snooze button has been deactivated. Time to Rise and Shine.

Coming Soon

In an article coming soon, Im going to put together a dynamite list of alternative Western and nonWestern news media suggestions for anyone whos game. If youre itching to see a list before then, feel free to contact me through Pressenza or at my website. Until then, Peace.

CITATIONS:

1A-https://www.mediamatters.org/legacy/military-media-industrial-complex

1B-https://archive.globalpolicy.org/empire/media/2005/07militarymedia.htm

1C-https://www.tni.org/files/publication-downloads/stateofpower2017-complex.pdf

2-https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-new-york-times-cant-hide-its-pro-war-bias/

3-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPbYtCepkEc

4-https://www.csis.org/analysis/americas-failed-state-wars-afghanistan-iraq-syria-and-yemen-still-less-half-strategy

*5-https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/04/12/new-reporting-details-corporate-medias-war-industry-pundits

6-https://www.military.com/daily-news/2021/03/07/how-biggest-arms-manufacturers-steer-millions-influence-us-policy.html

7-https://www.allsides.com/blog/media-bias-pro-war-advocates-financial-stakes-arms-industry

8-https://www.militarymedia.org/p/military-industrial-complex-generals-revolving-door

9-https://clearinghouse.net/case/12310/

10-https://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/12/with-reservations-obama-signs-act-to-allow-detention-of-citizens

11-https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/12/amnesty-international-concludes-israel-is-committing-genocide-against-palestinians-in-gaza/

12-https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/11/un-special-committee-finds-israels-warfare-methods-gaza-consistent-genocide

13-https://www.globalresearch.ca/seven-reasons-why-americas-corporate-media-is-pro-war/5559969

13A-https://www.commondreams.org/views/2009/11/12/reflections-glass-steagall-and-maniacal-deregulation

14-https://www.salon.com/2007/10/12/wesley_clark/

15-https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/netanyahu-speaks-of-a-seven-front-war-which-fronts/

16-https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20241104-us-election-how-aipac-shapes-american-politics/

Mark Lesseraux