The Record of the Paper: How the New York Times Misreports US Foreign Policy

New York: Verso, 2004-11-17. First Edition. Hardcover. Very Good/Very Good. 9x6x1. No Stock Photos! We photograph every item. light edge wear to boards and jacket; first edition, first printing; From the 1954 Geneva Accords on Vietnam to Iraq today - The NYT has failed to incorporate international law into its coverage of US foreign policy. This lapse, as the authors demonstrate, has had profound implications for the quality of the Times' journalism and the function of the press in a country supposedly governed by the rule of law. In this meticulously researched study, Howard Friel and Richard Faulk reveal how the Times has consistently misreported major US foreign policy issues, including the bombing of North Vietnam in response to the Tonkin Gulf and Pleiku incidents in 1964-65, the Reagan administration's policy toward the Sandinista government of Nicaragua in the 1980s, the 2002 military coup that briefly overthrew Hugo Chavez, Venezuela's elected president, and the Bush administration's 2003 invasion of Iraq. In their analysis of the Times' coverage of Iraq, the authors analyze the specious legal rand policy arguments given to support the invasion, the claims of Iraqi WMD, the Times' use of Ahmed Chalabi, the US cluster-bombing of Baghdad and the Iraqi town of Hilla, and a lengthy New York Times Magazine cover story that appeared to advocate the abuse and inhumane treatment of detainees that was published just as the Abu Ghraib story was breaking. Friel and Falk's eloquent and damning book concludes by proposing an alternative editorial policy that incorporates international law into the Times' coverage of US foreign policy, which, they argue, would improve the news and editorial products and the Times while aligning its editorial mission with the defense of constitutionalism and the rule of law in the United States.