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The New York Times Calls on Biden to Close Guantanamo Bay
“The U.S. naval base on Cuba has become synonymous with American shame,” observed the New York Times Editorial Board last week.
“Biden Can Close the Extrajudicial Prison at Guantanamo,” wrote the New York Times Editorial Board on April 29, 2023. “The U.S. naval base on Cuba has become synonymous with American shame.”
Left unsaid, is the fact that the Editorial Board of the New York Times — like all the other papers of record who reported certain “inaccuracies” about the War on Terror, especially in the terrible months and years immediately after 9/11 — would also very much like to close that dark chapter in journalism history.
“How Has Media Coverage Of The ‘War on Terror’ Changed Since 9/11?” asked Jade Hindmon for KPBS on September 8, 2021.
“Critics have noted that American news media was overcome by a ‘veil of patriotism’ when covering such conflicts, which often resulted in a failure to properly interrogate the nation’s rationale behind the war,” noted Hindmon.
The observation wasn’t exactly new.
In 2004, Susan D. Moeller of the Center for International Security Studies at Maryland published an extensive report on media coverage of weapons of mass destruction from 1998–2003. It was rather unsparing.