A scathing and thoroughly researched examination of the editorial practices of the world’s most consulted newspaper.

When the New York Times finally apologized for its coverage of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction in 2004, it was too late. The newspaper had already supported the invasion. The Bush administration was not only violating international law, it was lying to the public, using major media like the Times to spread its message.

In this meticulously researched study—the first part of a two-volume work—Howard Friel and Richard Falk demonstrate how the newspaper of record in the United States has consistently, over the last 50 years, misreported the facts related to the wars waged by the United States. From Vietnam in the 1960s to Nicaragua in the 1980s and Iraq today, the authors accuse the New York Times of serial distortions. They claim that such coverage now threatens not only world legal order but constitutional democracy in the United States.

Falk and Friel show, for example, that, despite numerous US threats to invade Iraq, and despite the fact that an invasion of one country by another implicates fundamental aspects of the UN Charter and international law, the New York Times editorial page never mentioned the words “UN Charter” or “international law” in any of its 70 editorials on Iraq from September 11, 2001, to March 20, 2003. The authors also show that the editorial page supported the Bush administration’s WMD claims against Iraq, and that its magazine, op-ed and news pages performed just as poorly.

In conclusion the authors suggest an alternative editorial policy of “strict scrutiny” that incorporates the UN Charter and the US Constitution in the Times coverage of the use and threat of force by the United States and the protection of civil and human rights at home and abroad.

Praise for Religion and Humane Global Governance:

“Richard Falk provides a compelling review of the development of human rights during the 20th century. He imaginatively and objectively assesses the implications for the coming decades. This is essential reading for anyone concerned about national and international human rights in the coming globalized and politically re-aligned world.” — Justice Richard Goldstone, former prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and for Rwanda

“His message is one that cannot be ignored.” — Publishers Weekly


Howard Friel is founder and president of Differentiated Information, Inc., an information services company (www.diffinfo.net), and is the author of Dogs of War: The Wall Street Journal and the Right-Wing Campaign Against International Law, 2005.

Richard Falk was the Albert G. Milbank Professor Emeritus of International Law and Practice at Princeton University, and since 2002 has been Visiting Professor of Global Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His most recent books include Unlocking the Middle East and The Great Terror War.

356 pages

Cloth
ISBN-13: 978 1 84467 019 2
US$23 / £16 / CAN$34

Paper
ISBN-13: 978 1 84467 583 8
US$19.95 / £9.99 / CAN$24