The NY Times is sorry to inform you that the child that was bombed into hiding and starved to death regrettably had pre-existing conditions (other than being susceptible to bombing and needing to eat):
This country has turned into a nation of fucking monsters that you can’t even spoof:
I feel like I am taking crazy pills.
On The Road – Captain C – Netherlands, September 2024 Part 2: Rotterdam Harbour Tour Part 1
rusty
The NYT, using all the fancy educations of their staff to justify scrubbing out their empathy and humanity. No wonder they love the current SCOTUS and administration. The worst people.
Derelict
The FNYT is really going to use the kid’s pre-existing conditions to deny coverage? Does the FNYT think it’s United Health or something?
Suzanne
“He had pre-existing conditions” is, like, the most dystopian turn of phrase I have ever heard. Of course Republicans and Islamophobes love this approach.
Citizen_X
“He’s not dying of starvation, he’s dying with starvation, la-la-la!”
Gin & Tonic
Never forget this is the newspaper of Walter Duranty, the West’s pre-eminent Holodomor denialist. Read more here, if you have the stomach.
They have a history.
lowtechcyclist
I’m trying to find anything resembling an iota of reason for that correction. Does the child’s pre-existing condition mean Bibi is only 80% responsible for this child’s death?? Whatever.
There’s a time for acronyms and this isn’t it: fuck the motherfucking new york times.
planetjanet
When we were all talking about alternative news sources, I added subscriptions to the Onion and Wired. Both are doing good work. Truth right there in the headline.
Omnes Omnibus
Was the pre-existing condition that he was hungry?
Jeffro
You’re not taking crazy pills, John: it’s all a perfectly normal reaction to insanity after insanity, both in terms of the trumpov 2.0 administration’s insane actions and the snooze media’s insane ‘coverage’ of those actions.
(yes, I know trump is not actually doing the bombing and starving of Gazans…but he’s doing absolutely nothing about it, and I seem to remember this being raised as a major DQ when it came to Joe Biden)
So…totally normal reaction to truly insane shit, day in and day out.
Raoul Paste
@Jeffro: “ truly insane shit, day in and day out…”
There it is. It wears on you.
gene108
I have pre-existing conditions, my kidneys failed, I’ve been on dialysis, had a transplant, had a transplant go into rejection which was halted due a plasmapheresis treatment, and I somehow have managed to never be malnourished or starve to death.
***************
I left messages this morning for my Congress people. All Democrats. I doubt it’ll do much good, but I’ll bug them again. Outside of sending money to relief groups in Gaza, calling my reps is all I can do.
Doesn’t feel like enough.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
Ask me again why anybody should reward this overall kind of reporting with a subscription? Or a click. Okay, somebody’s gotta do it just to monitor their crapitude but most? Please stop.
planetjanet
Contrast to WaPo’s article today. 18,500 children have died so far. wapo.st/3IRLZn6
Baud
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
No one is going to stand up to the NYT. We didn’t do it for our country, we’re not going to do it for people elsewhere.
gene108
@Baud:
People have been complaining, and canceling subscriptions. They don’t seem to care.
planetjanet
@Baud:
The Onion just did. That is public push back.
Baud
@gene108:
Last I heard, their subscriptions (unlike WaPo’s) were going up.
Suzanne
@gene108: I predict that newspapers — all of them, not just the NYT — will go the way of the dodo, but that doesn’t mean what replaces it will be any better.
piratedan
remember, its a team effort, just think of all of the editors and decision makers that this correction passed thru before they hit publish……
there are times where I wish our side had enough of a ruthless streak to enact a mass deportation now campaign, I certainly can’t think of a more appropriate target.
Melancholy Jaques
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
You just don’t understand how good those recipes are.
Baud
@planetjanet:
I appreciate the Onion and everyone else who comments about the NYt. But it’s not widespread enough among liberals to make a difference.
Eyeroller
@gene108: At least last I heard, their digital subscriptions count has been rising. I do not have any data on who is subscribing, but I doubt very much it’s MAGA. Maybe the Nice Polite Republican types. And as we have often discussed here, many liberals read the FTFNYT and thinks they are “objective” and these readers are being properly informed.
But I am constantly reassured that my decision to cancel last September was right.
Butch
How is this new information “context?” I hate the NYT.
planetjanet
@Baud: True. The Onion headline will be more of a social media impact on reputation. They document the atrocities in our media. The Onion is not a replacement for a comprehensive news source.
gene108
@Eyeroller:
I heard a description of the NYT’s as a game app and recipe hub, with a news department.
It’s still taken seriously, and occasionally they do very good reporting most other places cannot do.
schrodingers_cat
Netanyahu is terrible, people in Gaza are suffering. Russia has successfully used good old antisemitism to drive a wedge in the Democratic coalition. Antisemitism found its natural vibrating frequency among squishy (mostly white)Ds.
Russia successfully helped usher us into T2.0.
gene108
@planetjanet:
The Onion headline in the OP is from 2023. Still relevant.
Soprano2
@Jeffro: It’s probably true that FFOTUS could pick up the phone and get Netanyahu to end the war, but I don’t hear Medhi Hassan calling for him to do that.
Harrison Wesley
The most courageous actions I’ve seen recently were by the group of Israeli artists and academics and celebrities,who publicly stood up – in Israel – and demanded international sanctions. I assume NYT couldn’t be bothered to cover that.
Gin & Tonic
@Eyeroller:
Those liberals need to also read an article about Gell-Mann amnesia.
TONYG
I guess the logic here is: 1) People with pre-existing conditions tend to die more quickly of starvation. 2) Therefore inflicting starvation on civilian populations is OK. Or something like that.
Hoodie
There is special sort of educated cluelessness that permeates a lot of the Times’ work, maybe reflecting the prevalence of Ivy League dipshits in their management. They claim this info on his medical history adds “context.” Sure, his medical condition likely makes him more vulnerable and maybe this is what they intended to convey, but these idiots somehow don’t get the “context” that, in the general discourse, this false pursuit of accuracy provides no particular context and more likely arms propagandists to say “see, he was sick from other stuff and not being victimized by Netanyahu’s righteous struggle to pulverize all the remaining concrete in Gaza.” They seem to be deathly afraid of being criticized by people who tend to lie about everything anyway, but there also seems to be a bit of narcissistic preening associated with their own image of themselves as journalists.
Suzanne
@TONYG: Apparently the logic is that Israel is less at fault because sick people’s lives count less than well people’s lives.
ETA: It’s not like they killed a person who matters.
(That’s contemptuous snark.)
RevRick
@Citizen_X: I had the exact same reaction, thinking back to all the insane MAGA denials about COVID deaths.
Captain C
How many of those preexisting conditions have to do with the poor kid being bombed, shot at, and subject to malnutrition for a year-plus?
Also (and there may not be an answer to this other than ‘they want to be how they are’), what the fuck is wrong with the FTFNYT?!?
J.
Had Trump threatened to sue them for a billion dollars over this?
Shalimar
@Soprano2: Why would Trump give a shit what Mehdi Hasan called on him to do? Why would Mehdi Hasan believe that calling on Trump to do things was a productive use of his time?
satby
Are they brave enough to allow comments? Not a subscriber, but I have a few.
Captain C
@gene108:
They’re happy to bury their good reporting on page A17 with a misleading but technically accurate headline, while the front-page headlines contradict that reporting, and the editorial page goes off on how the real problem is trans people and Democrats.
Trollhattan
I’m impressed at the bredth of Israeli responses to the UK’s intention to acknowledge a Palestinian state come September. Okay, the bredth of Israelis who say thanks for the gift to Hamas and then go on to declare a two-state system impossible.
Been an education. A corner has been turned.
gene108
@Suzanne:
Fits in with RFK, Jr.‘s eugenics policies and the MAHA movement.
satby
I have heard you can read publications for free on library apps like Libby. For those who just can’t part with the games and recipes. Subscriptions support propaganda.
planetjanet
@satby:
Thanks, I had not heard of that app.
Bokonon
When I cancelled my NYT subscription, they outright told me this. Something along the lines of “la la la, we are a highly principled and ethical newspaper, we can’t please all viewpoints, bye.”
Peke Daddy
@Derelict: The preexisting condition was the child being Palestinian.
Tony Jay
Above a certain level of Establishment Club membership, even the most basic expressions of recognition for Palestinian humanity have to be so heavily caveated that they become deliberately meaningless.
Over on this side of the Pond, Prime Minister Sir Partially Inflated Balloon has ever so bravely decided that now is the time to announce the UK’s intention to recognise Palestinian statehood.
In September.
Unless Israel allows ‘more aid into Gaza, halts land-grabs in the West Bank, signs up for a ceasefire of indeterminate length and a long-term peace process. Oh, and only if Hamas accepts all of Israel’s current terms.
With France announcing its own decision to recognise Palestine and a major rebellion underway within ‘His Party’ by MPs and Ministers who understand that Starmer’s current policy of ‘Give Israel Arms and Intel -Give Palestinians Thoughts and Prayers’ is unsustainable, the Man of Steam had to do something. As usual he’s so politically vacuous that he’s plumped for an indefensible partial reversal that achieves nothing, pushes the decision down the road, and satisfies no one.
Really living up to that ‘Sir Kid Starver’ label. Wanker.
Suzanne
@gene108:
Ableism, fatphobia, and exclusionary beauty standards are recurrent/rhyming themes among the world’s authoritarians, fascists, and mass murderers. Have been for literally hundreds of years.
Geminid
@gene108:
New Lines Magazine editor Lydia Wilson touches on her similar feeling in an article posted yesterday titled:
Ms. Wilson stays in contact as best she can with people she knows in Gaza.
Like all New Lines articles, this one is long but worth reading. I’ll try to link:
newlinesmag.com/first-person/covering-gaza/
Geminid
@Shalimar: Mehdi Hasan thought it was a productive use of his time and influence when Joe Biden was in office, to assert that Biden could end the conflict with a phone call as Ronald Reagan did in a dissimilar case four decades before. I think that was the commenter’s point.
rusty
@TONYG: Supports the soft eugenics of RFK Jr. and the MAHA crowd. Got to clear out the weak ones.
Shakti
I had no idea this story existed but this skeet is specifically applicable
Peter Birkenshaw
p.a.
Of course, decisions where to spend time, $, and effort to research topics by the NYT is absolutely objective!
Eyeroller
@Gin & Tonic: That phenomenon is precisely why I decided that their political reporting being so terrible tainted all their reporting, including on very non-political subjects.
mapanghimagsik
@Geminid:
Heartbreaking. I can’t even breathe a word of it with coworkers that might care. We’d be fired in a heartbeat
Peke Daddy
@Shakti: Dying with COVID and not of COVID. And so on.
Eyeroller
@Hoodie: If there’s one thing that has long been true of the FTFNYT, it’s that it is full of “Ivy League dipshits” who narcissistically preen and think very, very, VERY highly of themselves, their “journalism,” and their newspaper. It makes them utterly impervious to criticism, especially from the left, which they especially hate.
WTFGhost
@TONYG: Weren’t you around at the sinking of the Titanic? “My sister had diabetes, so she only died *with* drowning, not *from* drowning.”
No, wait, that was Covid-19. Why does it seem like a bunch of know-nothings parroting idiocy? Surely by the 21st century….
Anyway, “child dies of MORTALITY, not STARVATION! He only died WITH starvation, FROM mortality! Even the ancient Greeks understood mortality!”
sab
@Derelict:I spent five years uninsured before ACA because of preexisting conditions. So this preexisting condition thing resonates with me. Every day in every way NYT makes me want to hate them.
Denali5
I continue to be glad I cancelled my subscription to the NYT. And for so many years it had the reputation of a liberal newspaper. Now my email is bombarded with offered from substack. I am really tired of all this.
Elizabelle
@Gin & Tonic: Thank you. Excellent article on Gell-Mann theory.
And applies quite fairly to the FTF Vichy NY Times.
This week, two articles in the Opinions section, interviewing a group of 11 Latinos who have voted Republican. One of the authors is Patrick Healey, who is filthily partisan.
Not open for reader comments, of course.
E[ditor]-hole Joseph Kahn has done away with hearing from most of the voices of his readers. Money and clicks are all he wants. Fucker.
Elizabelle
@Denali5: FTF NY Times cannot put up enough photos of Trump, or use his name in as many headlines as possible, or disparage the Democrats enough in their headlines.
I rarely read their articles anymore.
Gell-Mann, and have checked out.
Soprano2
@Shalimar: Because he made a big show out of saying that about Biden. Just because he thinks FFOTUS won’t do it doesn’t mean he shouldn’t say it.
Another Scott
@Denali5: FTFNYT may have had a reputation as a “liberal newspaper”, but as long as I can remember, they have not been friendly or even fair to the Democratic party. They were relentless in criticizing Carter (and Clinton and Gore, IIRC), before we even get to Hillary.
[ Insert link to UK Reuters institute interview with Sulzberger] They claim their job is to “confront” readers with stuff they “didn’t know they needed to know”, and they do that via their vaunted “judg[e]ment”. In actuality, they’re partisan trolls hunting for clicks and should be shunned.
Grr…
Best wishes,
Scott.
Steve LaBonne
Mamdani will win in a landslide. That will tell you how much influence FTFNYT has in its own city.
Chip Daniels
A corollary to “The cruelty is the point” is “The audacity of the lie is the flex.”
The power move by authoritarians is to demand that we accept an outrageous lie as the truth and the bigger the lie, the more essential it is that we not question it.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
And yet they aren’t talking about the only way to lift the blockage is by military force. Of course the answer is no one wants to send their son to die in Gaza thus all the angst and blamestorming.
Geminid
From Ankara-based Clash Report:
Clash Report got the day wrong. According to the Axios report cited, Witkoff is expected to fly to Israel tomorrow. Barak Ravid’s Axios article is titled “Scoop: Trump envoy Witkoff heads to Israel to discuss humanitarian crisis in Gaza.”
It’s a short article with a note at the end, “This is a breaking story. Check back for updates.”
This link might work:
share.google/8EQFebuLWK4U4gCv
Welp, the link doesn’t work. I’ll try again later after the article is updated.
Harrison Wesley
@Geminid: Sounds like somebody is getting antsy for a Win, such having been in short supply recently.
YY_Sima Qian
@Harrison Wesley: Yeah, that took courage.
Suzanne
@Harrison Wesley: Agreed, that’s really incredible.
There’s been years of condemnation and criticism directed toward anyone who protested in support of the Palestinians, both in Israel and here in the U.S. It’s reprehensible.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
To follow this line of thinking, FTFNYT would have said this:
They would have then gone on to blame the flea.
YY_Sima Qian
@Trollhattan:
@Tony Jay:
France & the UK are still talking about symbolic gestures, which recognition of Palestinian statehood is. They are not even implying sanctions or weapons embargoes.
Geminid
@Harrison Wesley: I think Witkoff’s trip may be more in the nature avoiding a Loss. This humanitarian crisis reflects terribly on Israel, but it also reflects badly on the Trump administration and its efforts.
Whether Steve Witkoff actually cares about Palestinians is a question that I will leave others to debate.
Tony Jay
@YY_Sima Qian:
Yup. They know that US support for Israel is the whole ballgame, but they also know that remaining on the pro-Israeli side while the Palestinians are being genocided is unsustainable. France has some greater freedom of movement than the post-Brexit UK, but at the end of the day Netanyahu is going to keep the slaughter going until he’s forced to stop, and that’s not doing to happen until Israelis oust him* and/or Washington DC turns off the tap.
Until then, or maybe until a co-ordinated and global boycott of Israeli goods and institutions kicks in, mostly symbolic displays of frustration with Israel are all that’s on the cards for the rest of the world.
It says a lot about how extreme the position Starmer and Co’s antics have backed the UK into that something as wimpy and pointless as a ‘maybe, but probably not’ recognition of Palestinian statehood is the most that could be dragged out of them while skeletons are shambling around the rubble of Gaza.
* * Though if any replacement Government would change the policy of purging Gaza and the West Bank is doubtful at best.
New Deal democrat
@YY_Sima Qian: Howdy stranger, haven’t seen you ‘round these parts in awhile!
I have been thinking of you, because I am hoping you can steer me to some good source material.
In their book, “Why Nations Fail,” by economists Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson, who jointly received the 2024 Nobel Economics Prize for their work, make the case that the certainty of holding on to $$$ gains from efficiency and innovation are the key to a nation’s prosperity. They further argue that nations begin to falter when this system fails; for example, dictators dislike innovation because it brings social upheaval that could threaten them.
In my opinion they make a pretty good case as to the modern world post-1689 Glorious Revolution, although as applied to earlier systems it is sketchy. Yes, there are records of both Ancient Greek city states and Rome rejecting innovation for that very reason, but the authors peg the turning point for Rome at about 150 BC – a full 300 years before it reached the apex of its power.
Anyway, I am currently reading “The Rule of Laws” by Fernanda Pirie, and she describes what can only be called a massive contrary example: the Song Dynasty in China, during which innovation was rampant, but which also featured a strong, authoritarian, punishment-oriented system of law.
So I am looking for a good book or two, or other source material, on the Song Dynasty, particularly as to why it was so innovative, and I immediately thought of you.
So, with that long-winded introduction, do you have any suggestions? Thanks.
Geminid
@Tony Jay: Last October the UK *did* suspend 30 licenses to export military goods to Israel. But they left the other 300 in place, so the suspensions amounted to a dim yellow blinking light.
“It’s the least we could do.”
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@New Deal democrat:
I too would be interested in Song Dynasty reads.
Geminid
@Geminid: I think I got the date for Witkoff’s trip wrong and Clash Report had it right. The Axios report says Witkoff will fly to Israel today, Wednesday.
Tony Jay
@Geminid:
“The very, very least we could do, and you should reward us for it.”
As mottos go, it suits this shitshow of a Government down to an T.
Archon
@New Deal democrat: Song China is an absolutely fascinating society. It also is a good example of how the dictum, “The enemy of my enemy is my friend” doesn’t always apply, especially when dealing with a new barbarian confederation called “Mongols”.
prostratedragon
A real-life parable:
The Audacity of Krope
Nothing worth rushing, I suppose. I’m sure expressing intent to recognize statehood is a complicated matter with a lot of fine details to iron out…
The Audacity of Krope
Your standard “Trump should do X” statement takes about two seconds. Not a lot of time involved and it serves the further purpose of being an argument about what ought to be done in general.
Soprano2
@Geminid: Yes, this exactly. He doesn’t think it’s worth it to try to influence FFOTUS, but that makes him seem really one-sided in his critique. Plus, there’s the fact that in the case of FFOTUS, he really might be able to leverage his relative popularity with Israelis to force Netanyahu to make a deal. Evidently Hassan thinks only Biden should be held to account for not making that magic phone call. It’s infuriating to me.
Tony Jay
@The Audacity of Krope:
Nothing more nourishing than the knowledge you’re helping out a spineless British politician who’s got himself into a bit of a tight spot, domestically speaking.
Suck on that, starving children, and be thankful for the nice man’s calm consideration of your needs.
He’s -such – a wanker.
JustRuss
@Suzanne:
Cool, so it’s open season on hospitals, apparently.
Sasha
Um, no. That child was born with severe congenital illnesses. His physical condition, though exacerbated by malnutrition, is not remotely representative or typical of this crisis.
He was not bombed into hiding and starved to death. Israel facilitated his transport to Italy for care through COGAT
Source.
Sasha
@Sasha: In other words, the NYT published a picture all but designed to inflame passions and have people draw the wrong conclusions, then released a contextless “oops!” statement worded so badly that people drew even more wrong conclusions.
Oy …
Sasha
@Sasha: What’s especially infuriating is that the child arrived in Italy for treatment nearly *two weeks before* this picture appeared in the NYT, which suggests that the NYT knew it was being disingenuous.
Nice to know that the spirit of William Randolph Hearst lives on.
different-church-lady
Just 18,499 more “editor’s notes” and the record will be corrected!
Galaxy Being
@Sasha: Why are you reply to yourself?
YY_Sima Qian
@New Deal democrat: Hi! Life and work has been intervening in the past few weeks. I am actually in the States for a business trip, but I am flying back in a couple of days.
As to your request, I am not actually well read on the economic histories of Chinese dynasties, but below are several worthwhile articles/papers that can serve as introductions, and there may be good books to be found in the bibliographies:
In essence, Song China was highly innovative because it had developed a highly sophisticated proto-industrial and proto-capitalist economy, supported by great advances in agriculture that supported a large population surplus that could engage in commerce & industry, and built on foundations of integration and technological innovations from the previous Sui & Tang Dynasties. For all of its glory, the epoch of the “Golden Tang” was actually relatively brief, cut short by the apocalyptic An Rokshan Rebellion, a weakening of central authority & integration by the autonomous warlords after the rebellion was put down, & then almost a century of division during the Five Dynasties & Ten Kingdoms period. It was only after the reunification & reintegration under the Northern Song Dynasty, that these prior advances could coalesce and consolidate.
I tend to think that “a strong, authoritarian, punishment-oriented system of law” is orthogonal to whether a sophisticated & innovative economy could develop (see the PRC post-Reform & Opening). A highly centralized stated managed through a punishment oriented system of law & operated by a professional bureaucracy characterize all Chinese dynasties from the Qin to the Qing, & indeed the ROC & the PRC in the post-imperial era. Song is not at all unique here. Aside from the brutally Legalist & quite short lived Qin Dynasty, all subsequent regimes in China operated on the Confucian-Legalist model, where the Legalist punishment oriented system of governance is leavened by the paternalistic but anti-brutalistic Confucian governing ethos. Yet, for most of China’s imperial history it was consistently one of the most populous, prosperous, innovative, & cultured regions in the world, whose decline did not become apparent until the mid-Qing Dynasty in the late 1700s. The Song epoch in economic development IMO had structural roots from prior centuries, & forged under pressure of foreign threats.
In general, I find AJR’s thesis of prosperity resting on the foundation of “inclusive” economic & political institutions to be unconvincing, especially their Western-centric tendency to define whatever institutions the industrializing & imperialistic Western powers had to be “inclusive”. Their analysis also completely ignores the greatest developmental success story post-WW II, that of E & SE Asia, especially but not exclusively the PRC. Japan has for all intents & purposes been a single party stated ruled by the LDP, w/ low voter participation in elections. South Korea & Taiwan saw rapid industrialization under hard authoritarian rules. The PRC & Vietnam have never been anything other than hard authoritarian. Singapore & Hong Kong have never been anything other than soft authoritarian. This glaring gap in accounting for the E/SE Asian experience renders their thesis woefully incomplete at the very least.
YY_Sima Qian
@Archon: Well, before the Southern Song allied w/ the Mongols to try to annihilate the Jürchen Jin Dynasty & recover northern China lost to the Jürchens (only for its ineptitude to tempt the Mongols to conquer the Southern Song), the Northern Song Dynasty allied w/ the Jürchens to try to annihilate the Khitan Liao Dynasty & recover the border prefectures lost to the Khitans, (only for its ineptitude to tempt the Jürchens to conquer the Northern Song, which was how Northern Song became the Southern Song).
However, the martial weakness of the Song Dynasty has also been oversold. Before the Jürchen invasion, the Northern Song had stabilized its border w/ the Liao to the north, & was well on the way to defeat the Tangut Western Xia Kingdom to its northwest. The Southern Song had defeated multiple attempts by the Jürchens to invade the south. Finally, of all of the empires & kingdoms conquered by Mongols across Eurasia, the Southern Song held out by far the longest.
fry1laurie
Similar to the coverage when an innocent person is gunned down by police, but had a jaywalking citation in his past. Coverage will then say, “he was no angel!”
Sasha
@Galaxy Being: Because like a dummy, I posted the first post then wanted to add but missed my post’s edit window, so I replied to myself to “link” the posts together to indicate that it was all the same thought … then made the exact same mistake with the second post. 🙄