The New York Times and the FBI raids

The real significance of the editorial, however, lies in what it does not say. In a commentary lamenting “how easily civil liberties can be cast aside,” there is not a single mention of the FBI raids carried out against antiwar activists in Chicago and Minneapolis just three days before the editorial’s publication.

There is no innocent explanation for this silence. It is a highly conscious omission.

Of a piece with the Times’ decision to bury its news report on the raids in a perfunctory article on its inside pages, the editorial sends a clear signal to the Obama administration and the police/security agencies. The Times has no problem with the use of police-state methods to suppress antiwar sentiment and will not make an issue of the attacks carried out on Friday. This amounts to a tacit endorsement of the FBI raids.

The major organ of the liberal Democratic Party establishment is by no means alone in suppressing coverage and implicitly condoning the raids. The FBI action was ignored entirely by the Washington Post and has received only token coverage from other media outlets.

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