Thread by @pslnational

🧵As we enter a new Cold War on China and Russia, never forget that the New York Times has always played a key role in the ruling class’s McCarthyite witch hunts.

Here are just a *few* times the NYT has peddled Red Scare paranoia, from the 1940’s up until today:

Throughout the 1940's and 1950's: When the NYT engaged in rootless speculation targeting teachers, and uncritically running baseless accusations that there are hundreds of card-carrying communists in New York City schools.

July 22, 1948: When they smeared third party progressive presidential candidate Henry Wallace as a communist puppet.

July 15, 1949: When the NYT smeared Paul Robeson — rightly remembered today as a hero with towering accomplishments in a wide range of fields — as a “Black Stalin” with “delusions of grandeur.”

June 20, 1953: When NYT took up an entire front page column to relish in the deaths of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, executed for allegedly sharing nuclear secrets with the Soviet Union. Even in the months preceding the execution, no opportunity was missed to demonize the pair.

May 7, 1964: When the NYT was still running stories like the one below during the height of the Civil Rights Movement, uncritically quoting at length segregationists like Mississippi representative John Bell Williams, who smeared Black liberation organizers as Soviet agents.

Oct. 18, 1998: When NYT published numerous articles and op-eds such as this one after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, vindicating the period of McCarthyism, despite its excesses.

Present-day: NYT headlines still reliably follow the priorities of Pentagon and State Department hawks, running stories like these which promote the myth that the Chinese government is infiltrating U.S. society and coming after Americans.