Truth as the Enemy

A free press should be the defender of truth. When it aligns itself with ideological agendas, it becomes its enemy.

The New York Times was once a symbol of journalistic excellence. Today, between prejudiced reporting and the silencing of intellectual diversity, it systematically fails in its mission. In this article, I examine three pivotal episodes that expose its ethical decline.

The literal omission of the Holodomor

Between 1932 and 1933, Stalin’s genocidal policy caused the deaths of millions of Ukrainians by starvation. As farms were confiscated and borders closed, the New York Times’ Moscow correspondent, Walter Duranty — the bureau chief — wrote that “there is no famine nor is there likely to be.” He went so far as to discredit independent journalists like Gareth Jones, who risked everything to report what he saw with his own eyes. Duranty won the Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of the USSR, an award that has never been revoked, even after the newspaper acknowledged that his reporting amounted to “flagrant propaganda.” The film Mr. Jones (2019), directed by Agnieszka Holland, powerfully dramatizes this episode and exposes the complicity of the Western press with totalitarian regimes.

The grain confiscated from starving Ukrainians was sold to the West — especially the United States — in exchange for technology and industrial machinery. This export funded the Soviet Union’s industrialization, while the West looked the other way in the face of genocide.

The manufactured image of famine in Gaza

On July 25, 2025, the New York Times featured a front-page photo of a severely underweight Palestinian child, accompanied by a headline suggesting Israel was using famine as a weapon of war. The image showed 18-month-old Muhammad Zakaria al‑Matouq in a harrowing condition. Independent investigators, including journalist David Collier, soon revealed that the boy suffers from multiple chronic conditions: a rare genetic disorder, cerebral palsy, hypoxemia, and other complications requiring specialized care.

Muhammad’s health was not a consequence of war. His mother confirmed he receives physical therapy and adequate nutrition, and that his sibling, also shown in the photo, appeared healthy. Yet the New York Times published the story without any of this context. Only after widespread criticism, on July 29, 2025, did the paper issue a short editorial note acknowledging the boy’s pre-existing conditions — without apology, without front-page prominence.

The backlash was immediate. Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett called the episode a “modern blood libel,” accusing the newspaper of manipulating public opinion with a false emotional narrative. Protesters defaced the paper’s Manhattan headquarters with graffiti reading “NYT lies, Gaza dies.”

This case inverted the logic of 1933: instead of denying a real famine, the paper created a famine that didn’t exist.

The internal purge of Bari Weiss

If Duranty reveals the external collapse of journalistic integrity, and Gaza exposes image manipulation, the story of Bari Weiss illustrates the internal erosion of intellectual freedom within the New York Times newsroom.

Hired in 2017 as an opinion editor to broaden ideological diversity after Donald Trump’s election, Weiss brought in a range of voices and championed free speech. Her presence triggered resistance from within. In her 2020 public resignation letter, she described a hostile newsroom, veiled censorship, and systematic intimidation for deviating from progressive orthodoxy.

She wrote that “Twitter has become the ultimate editor” of the New York Times, and that editorial decisions were guided by fear of internal backlash, not journalistic standards. After the controversy over publishing a guest essay by Senator Tom Cotton, who argued in favor of using the National Guard to quell violent protests, editor James Bennet was ousted. Weiss saw that dissenting views were no longer tolerated.

She resigned and founded The Free Press, an independent platform now known for honest reporting and civil debate.

Three faces of the same phenomenon

Duranty erased a real famine. The modern Times fabricated a famine that didn’t exist. Today’s editorial team expels internal dissenters who challenge the official narrative. These are not isolated incidents — they are expressions of a broader editorial decay that sacrifices truth on the altar of ideology.

Journalism should not serve causes, but facts. When the press aligns itself with deception, it becomes propaganda.