Alec Karakatsanis Profile picture
Nov 27, 2021 27 tweets 8 min read Read on X
THREAD: Yesterday, the New York Times published a headline it knew was false. The implications of this are dangerous for everyone who cares about an informed public. Here’s what happened:
The NYT wrote another pro-police propaganda piece that had all of the usual problems I’ve discussed before (more on that below). But the editors chose to add a headline that stated that “murders ‘doubled overnight’” in the Bronx, New York. Here’s where it gets devious. Image
Notice that NYT editors chose to put the “doubled overnight” in quotes. Why? It's a signal they aren’t reporting it as a verified fact, but as a quote from a source. In the article body, we learn they are quoting a former cop turned local professor. Here it gets more devious.
In the article body, it’s not “murders” that the former-cop expert is saying “doubled overnight.” He is actually claiming that police (detective) “caseloads” doubled overnight. nytimes.com/2021/11/26/nyr…
Let me note here that this “expert” is wrong. It isn’t true that caseloads “literally doubled overnight.” NYT didn’t quote an opposing expert, show stats, tell readers that the person they quoted was wrong (it’s verifiable with some reporting), or disclose he was a former cop.
The NYT even let this former police officer “expert” add “That’s the unfortunate truth.” (It’s not the truth.)
Here it gets worse. See the sleight of hand? NYT editors took the (false) "caseloads" quote, put it in quotes, and then put it in the headline as applying to “murders”! They did this b/c a larger number of people will see the headline. They did it to create clicks and outrage.
It’s all false. Murders didn’t “double overnight.” Not even close, as others have noted. The NYT editors knew that, hence putting it in quotations so they could deny making the assertion themselves.
Note that the insertion of the quotes, the easily available homicide data that NYT has itself reported on before, and the many people pointing out the lie make it clear that editors chose to print this falsity intentionally, and it's still up online and twitter a day later.
As an aside, the "expert" point about caseloads was also silly. It's an NYPD choice to devote smaller numbers of cops to serious crimes, and most cops to arresting very poor people for drugs and minor stuff. 96% of all police time nationwide is on what cops call "non-violent."
The rest of the article is outrageous. Here are the “expert” sources it quotes, supposedly to help explain what’s happening.

1)Police lieutenant
2)“the police say” generically
3)Former cop (undisclosed)
4)Former cop (undisclosed)
5)Police lieutenant
6)That’s it.
The article is copaganda. Without contrary views, experts, civil liberties advocates, crime survivors who disagree, etc., article lets cops call for more surveillance in most surveilled communities: “the police say some of the city’s most dangerous pockets do not have enough.”
But what do the mostly poor, mostly people of color who’ve been organizing across NYC against NYPD’s expanded and profitable corporate military-contractor surveillance programs think? We aren’t told, because the NYT chooses to leave out their voice. That’s an editorial choice.
It gets worse. NYT then lets anonymous “police” spew a discredited police union talking point that these issues are caused by new laws requiring sharing of basic info with defense lawyers to bring NY state in line with rest of the country (e.g. Texas) and the Constitution.
That claim is garbage @AliWatkins. It’s astonishing that NYT lets anonymous police sources blame this on basic discovery laws that exist across the country and are a basic component of truth in trials. There is no evidence to support it, and no contrary point of view printed.
Even worse, NYT then lets a lieutenant blame poor communities of color for not cooperating with cops! Laughably, lieutenant blames a lack of desire to work with cops on due process “discovery laws” not on decades of corruption/brutality /ineffectiveness in making people safe.
NYT editors chose not to print a contrary point of view to explain why poor communities might not like cooperating with the largest and most racially discriminatory human caging bureaucracy in modern world history that many believe has not kept them safe but made them less safe.
This is part of at least three broader patterns. First, the NYT has a long and disturbing recent history of copaganda.
Second, corporate news in general often disproportionately covers and creates a sense of urgency about certain kinds of “crime,” but does not create the same urgency around objectively larger threats to public health and safety.
Third, when it does cover a narrow range of “crime,” NYT often links problems to police talking points: need for more cops/weapons/surveillance/human caging. This link is profitable to corporations, but it’s like climate denial given the available science.
There are many wonderful journalists working to shed light on the great issues of our time, like the things that threaten our survival as a species and that make society less safe/just. But this threatens that work by boosting police repression and reducing trust in the media.
UPDATE: Here is a (profanity laden) tirade by the ex-cop professor quoted in the NYT piece confirming that the headline is false. The headline is still up even though yesterday the person quoted said publicly he was misquoted. Great work by @jbenmenachem
UPDATE: The @nytimes has now changed the headline to remove the false claim. Will be interesting to see if paper issues a correction explaining who made the decision to print the knowingly false claim, how the decision was made, and why.
UPDATE: the former police officer turned professor who NYT chose to quote has now blocked me for some reason (I don’t think I’ve ever spoken to him online or otherwise). Here’s a screenshot of the relevant portion of his tirade where he agrees the headline is false. ImageImage
UPDATE: others have pointed out that I missed another blatant pro-police lie in the NYT article: that NYPD had been solving 90% of murders. Again, public data is easily accessible.
NYT reporter repeated false claims on twitter. So far the paper has issued no explanation of how this could happen and what kinds of accountability there will be. This stuff matters, esp to those who will be targeted if the cops quoted get what they want.
UPDATE: nyt reporter @AliWatkins has not corrected the tweets about this. I've commented on this reporter's bias before, but at this point, we need to understand from the editors how this is allowed to continue. Here is a piece I hope they grapple with: thenation.com/article/societ…

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More from @equalityAlec

Apr 24
THREAD. I have a chapter about this person in my Copaganda book. He’s considered one of the leading lights among Democratic Party officials. I am sort of open to the idea that we should be a country with a national ID card system and a rule that you're expected to have your papers on you at all times in case your citizenship is challenged.  But if that's what conservatives want, we need to create the card.
At a time of rising authoritarianism, he normalizes the idea of a society where everyone can be questioned and stopped at any time. I cannot begin to describe how dangerous this is.
Too much abhorrent/ignorant to cover on social media, but it's completely ignorant of what is being done with digital IDs in authoritarian India, e.g., and makes assumptions about immigration, "citizenship," and the value of human life that should horrify people of good will.
Read 6 tweets
Apr 21
THREAD. This is one of the more remarkable stories I have seen in my time studying state violence and working in law. But it's also an exercise in propaganda. And it's unbelievable how terrible the U.S. media coverage is. One thing in particular is important to see. headling: Bukele proposes deal that would free deported venezueans.
Background: this follows up on U.S. kidnapping people, rushing them onto planes as courts tried to stop it, and then defying court orders, with White House taunting courts and elected officials about how a person they agree was wrongly trafficked will never be coming back.
The kidnapping people off the street and then sending them to a prison (for life?) in a foreign country with no due process and without any law permitting indefinite detention--and then defying court orders--would be enough to end the U.S. legal system as we know it.
Read 18 tweets
Apr 17
THREAD. As authoritarianism rises, people still don't know the story of what Democrats and news outlets did after the fake shoplifting epidemic: created one of the most alarming expansions of surveillance in modern times. The details of what Democrats + cops did will shock you.
First, as I explain in my new book Copaganda, everyone now acknowledges the "retail theft" and "shoplifting" epidemic was fake. Shoplifting was not up--it was **down.** And property crime at historic lows. It was entirely a fabrication. But why?
The companies had their own reasons--distracting from the real reasons they were closing stories, lobbying for various crackdowns on online commerce, and socializing the costs of security to the public so they could cut costs. But the real story is the police.
Read 8 tweets
Mar 30
Copaganda 101: the New York Times suggests without evidence (and contrary to actual polling evidence) that “left-leaning views” on public safety “have become less popular.” It’s a neat sleight of hand where the news doesn’t actually tell us what those mystery positions are. While many of his progressive rivals in the race have adopted more centrist positions on certain issues like policing and public safety, Mr. Mamdani, a democratic socialist, continues to embrace left-leaning views that have become less popular with voters in New York.
Notice also the paper’s description of violent police surveillance and repression as “centrist positions.”
I have a chapter in my Copaganda book about the sometimes subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) playbook the New York Times uses against candidates who would attempt to curb the size, power, and profit of police.
Read 5 tweets
Feb 12
THREAD. Last year, we filed landmark lawsuits on behalf of children in Michigan alleging a conspiracy between sheriffs + private equity-owned companies to end family jail visits for millions of kids across the U.S. as part of a scheme to make more $$ on phone/video calls.
Several days ago, a second Michigan sheriff has announced that this ban on visits is wrong and destructive, and that they will be ending it. Hundreds of sheriffs are still doing this--do you know what's going on in your community? facebook.com/SheriffAlyshia…
You can watch a video from NBC News explaining what's going on across the country:
Read 5 tweets
Feb 10
THREAD. Every day I get to work with amazing people from all walks of life who are dedicating their lives to fighting government repression and corporate predation. They do it strategically and relentlessly. The incompetence and grifting of political elites makes a mockery of it.
For years, Jeffries and leading Democrats pushed an agenda of mass economic plunder, health insurance profiteering, prisons, militarism, genocide, identity politics, jingoism, and ecological ruin. It's why he can't say anything meaningful with credibility in this fascist moment.
The crisis is as acute as it has been in my lifetime. People of goodwill and influence must jettison leaders like this from public life. We need to organize and demand people who can put forward a simple, popular plan of widespread human flourishing and resistance to cruelty.
Read 8 tweets

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