NYT finds a way to blame PM Modi for Arnab’s arrest, calls Shiv Sena “progressive”

The New York Times, the infamous ‘opinion’ newspaper which is known for muzzling the voices of those who do not believe its ideas or ideology, has justified the arrest of Arnab Goswami in an article written by its Delhi based reporter Samir Yasir.

In a tweet which quoted the article written by Yasir, NYT claimed that Arnab Goswami was arrested on charges of abetting suicide in Mumbai, where a ‘progressive’ political party is in power. Although, when the Twitter users found the screenshots of the stories, the newspaper had done criticizing Balasaheb Thackeray and Shiv Sena, and juxtaposed it with the tweet in which it called Shiv Sena a progressive party, a red-faced NYT published a correction and removed the world progressive from the story and the tweet.

The correction of NYT reads, “An earlier version of this article mischaracterized the political party that currently controls Mumbai. It is an opposition party, not a progressive opposition party.”

The newspaper has previously published stories calling Shiv Sena extremist. When the party first fought the election in 1968 and won 40 seats in Mumbai city council, NYT published the headline, ‘Extremists win 40 seats in Bombay’s city council’. Again when Balasaheb died in 2012, the newspaper published a story headlined- Bal Thackeray, Extremist Hindu Leader, Dies in Mumbai. For NYT, Shiv Sena turned from ‘extremist’ to ‘progressive’ in a short period of time as it joined anti-BJP forces in Maharashtra.

The whole story is critical of the Modi government and tries to justify the arrest of Arnab Goswami. Very cleverly, it has not mentioned the Shiv Sena, Congress, or NCP a single time while the name of Prime Minister Modi is mentioned “seven times” and “Hindu nationalist government” three times.

Maharashtra government, which was responsible for the arbitrary and unlawful arrest of Arnab Goswami, is mentioned only one time, that too, in a quote from a journalist related to Mumbai Press Club. Reading the story one gets a sense that Arnab is guilty and the Modi government is responsible for his arrest while giving a clean chit to Uddhav Thackeray government.

While the name of Prime Minister Modi is mentioned seven times, the real culprits, Uddhav Thackeray, Aaditya Thackeray, Shiv Sena, Congress, NCP, are not mentioned even once.

Biased ‘opinion’ articles that NYT publishes in the name of ‘reporting’ have become characteristic of the newspaper. And, in the opinion pages, there is complete apathy towards the views of the opposite side of the political spectrum. So, like The Wire, Scroll, or The Quint, its outrage on media freedom is selective.

Previously, Bari Weiss, an opinion editor at The New York Times (NYT), quit her job on Tuesday and shot off a scathing 1,500-word resignation letter that exposed ‘NYT and its allegiance of adhering to only a certain section of the society’.

In the letter posted on her personal website, Weiss accused the Times of abandoning its journalistic principles to “satisfy the narrowest of audiences, rather than to allow a curious public to read about the world and then draw their own conclusions.”

“I was always taught that journalists were charged with writing the first rough draft of history. Now, history itself is one more ephemeral thing moulded to fit the needs of a predetermined narrative.”

Newspapers like NYT do a great disservice to the cause of journalism and freedom of the press with their selective outrage. The trust of the common people in the media house is at an all-time low despite the fact that the institution claims to be the ‘fourth pillar of democracy’ and ‘voice of the people’. In reality, newspapers like NYT have become the voice of the left-liberal establishment.