4 ms·

NYT might be a paragon of journalism for American issues but it is hardly a good source for news about countries like China or India. I have been following the

NYT might be a paragon of journalism for American issues but it is hardly a good source for news about countries like China or India. I have been following their international coverage for some time and what they have mastered is the art of misleading through omission. Whether that is intended or just by virtue of hiring journalists and op-ed writers from the same echo chamber, that I don't know. It is smart in a way actually, as they rarely write outright lies. What they will do instead is just cover the points of one side, keep doing it through several articles and someone following NYT will have a very different idea of an event. I am not sure how NYT is gauged inside China as I can't read their social media but I am surprised NYT is treated like sacrosanct by Indians with their critical articles of the establishment being widely shared there. Just look at the coverage of the farmer protests in NYT, Guardian etc. So when these same platforms complain about Facebook eating their lunch and allowing fake news, I have no sympathy for them as their holier than thou attitude for their own content is just off putting.

haltingproblem 6y ago
I broadly agree with what you are saying. Most of the journalists covering India have an left-bias or are from the opposite ideological/religious spectrum. Modi has won the last two general elections with an overwhelming majority and regularly gets approval ratings highest of any world leader but NYT has not done a single positive article on him. Guess 1.3B Indians wrong and NYT right. If that is not blinkered colonialist superiority complex, I don't know what is. You are getting downvoted by the wide HN audience, I guess the NYT has fans on HN ;)
- temp-dude-87844 6y ago
  I broadly agree with both of you on the nature of coverage in mainstream Western [1] generalist publications about topics on India and China (but also Southeast Asia and Africa, to a point). In my observation, a lot of the coverage on those parts of the world is hollow and lacks sophisticated contextualization along a variety of local and global concerns. If local concerns are noted, it's either an echo of popular Western concern, or some jarring evocation of culture shock and poverty porn. Notable exceptions include the BBC, who take better care to explain local concerns in greater depth, although they do so in a characteristically terse style that doesn't play well among the New York Times or The Atlantic crowd. [1] Western here is a byword for US, UK, CA, AU, NZ in the Anglosphere, but also some of the similarly leaning publications in Europe publishing in English.

haltingproblem 6y ago

I broadly agree with what you are saying. Most of the journalists covering India have an left-bias or are from the opposite ideological/religious spectrum. Modi has won the last two general elections with an overwhelming majority and regularly gets approval ratings highest of any world leader but NYT has not done a single positive article on him. Guess 1.3B Indians wrong and NYT right. If that is not blinkered colonialist superiority complex, I don't know what is. You are getting downvoted by the wide HN audience, I guess the NYT has fans on HN ;)

temp-dude-87844 6y ago
I broadly agree with both of you on the nature of coverage in mainstream Western [1] generalist publications about topics on India and China (but also Southeast Asia and Africa, to a point). In my observation, a lot of the coverage on those parts of the world is hollow and lacks sophisticated contextualization along a variety of local and global concerns. If local concerns are noted, it's either an echo of popular Western concern, or some jarring evocation of culture shock and poverty porn. Notable exceptions include the BBC, who take better care to explain local concerns in greater depth, although they do so in a characteristically terse style that doesn't play well among the New York Times or The Atlantic crowd. [1] Western here is a byword for US, UK, CA, AU, NZ in the Anglosphere, but also some of the similarly leaning publications in Europe publishing in English.