Fabricated Bellicose Statements

Fabricated Bellicose Statements

"Many details are provided by Kennett Love, who was then the Middle East correspondent of the New York Times. He describes, for example, how the Times failed to publish his interview with Nasser in which Nasser offered to demilitarize the frontier: "distorted versions of Nasser's effort to pacify the frontier were splashed across New York's front pages under headlines representing him as a warmonger," including a Times report stating that "Many neutrals say Premier Nasser's statement [on demilitarizing the frontier] was bellicose and is certain to increase tension." Two days after the Times killed Nasser's interview it ran a front-page headline, based on distorted news agency versions of the interview, which read: "Gaza War Threat Voiced by Egypt." The aggressors themselves at the same time were attributing fabricated bellicose statements to Nasser, taking earlier writings of his out of context and grossly changing their sense, etc. The distortions of Western propaganda, which in this case reflect a remarkable degree of moral cowardice quite apart from the falsification of the facts, remained effective even after the outright aggression by Israel, France and England. In particular, it is still widely held that Israel's aggression was in fact defensive, at worst a "preemptive strike" in response to Nasser's threats. The incident is an example - one of many - of how facts can be overwhelmed by a powerful propaganda system employing the "free press" as its instrument." Chomsky, Fateful Triangle, p.101