NYT should review biased China coverage

By Wen Xian (chinadaily.com.cn) Updated: 2014-12-16 12:21

In late January, a New York Times reporter was required to leave China for violation of the country's visa management rules. The newspaper, however, made an issue of the matter and published unreasonable stories accusing China of "punishing" the reporter for normal news coverage. On Nov. 13, the newspaper published an editorial saying that the Chinese leaders warned that the troubles of foreign press organizations are self-inflicted. "The message was clear: He (President Xi Jinping) was warning foreign news organizations that their

New York Times reporter: Austin Ramzy(File photo)

troubles are self-inflicted; they are being penalized for unfavorable or controversial news coverage and could correct the problem by changing that approach." It went on to claim that it will not change its stance. "The Times has no intention of altering its coverage to meet the demands of any government — be it that of China, the United States or any other nation," the editorial said.

Although the newspaper has claimed repeatedly that it will only serve the truth, there have been many cases in its history that show it has cheated its readers and opted to use double standards in reporting. During the Kosovo War in the 1990s, former New York Times journalist Daniel Simpson said he was forced to take an anti-Serbia stance in news reporting. Later, he was required to report that the Serbians and the Iraqi government had weapons of mass destruction, which later turned out to be lies. Simpson left the newspaper and wrote a book revealing that the paper was peddling war propaganda.

On May 11, 2003, the newspaper admitted that its reporter Jayson Blair lied and faked stories. At least 36 out of his 73 stories involved cheating and plagiarism. It became a major scandal in the newspaper's history. Although it vowed to redress it, that such plagiarism and cheating could happen at such a famous newspaper is thought-provoking.

What is more notorious is that the newspaper spread lies that the Iraqi government had weapons of mass destruction to cater to the George W. Bush government's intention to wage a war against the Gulf country. Its reporter Judith Miller wrote a front-page report claiming that sources told her Iraq has large-scale weapons of mass destruction. She also cited unnamed US officials

and intelligence people as saying that the US had intercepted metal pipes for storage of nuclear raw materials in Iraq and the country was going to purchase raw materials worldwide to make nuclear bombs. The top US government officials often cited her reports in order to drum up support for the US invasion of Iraq.