The New York (War) Crimes

The New York (War) Crimes is a bi-monthly protest publication associated with Writers Against the War on Gaza (WAWOG) in parody of The New York Times.[1][2][3][4][5] It is published as a printed newspaper and website.[1]

The New York (War) Crimes
"All the Consent That's Fit to Manufacture"
Websitenewyorkwarcrimes.com

History

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The The New York (War) Crimes (NYWC) formed as an ad-hoc collective adjacent to the Writers Against the War on Gaza (WAWOG).[2] In an interview in The Baffler, a collective of editors of The New York (War) Crimes described the beginning of its newspaper as "a piece of agitprop for protest against the New York Times" that became more of a movement outlet.[1] They decided to target The New York Times because of what they see as a longstanding bias in favor of the Israeli military,[2] arguing that "when there’s no way to write a headline that will otherwise exculpate the Israeli army, they’ll just print a headline with no verbs."[1] The collective chose to target it in particular because they see it as the newspaper of record of the US and the West, and they see its prestige, malfeasance, and complicity as exemplary.[1] According to the collective, The New York Times is "essentially state media, they have the same consent-manufacturing function, but they operate under a conceit of independence, journalistic integrity, and the pursuit of noble truth or whatever."[1]

Its first issue in November 2023 consisted of three broadsheets with the names of the 7,000 dead that the Gaza Health Ministry reported killed by Zionist forces.[1] It drew inspiration from the 1989 ACT UP and Gran Fury project New York Crimes,[6][2] a mock version of the New York Times made to draw attention to the paper's "malfeasance" in the mass death of the AIDS epidemic, as well as an actual issue[7] from New York Times during the COVID-19 pandemic that featured a front page filled entirely with columns of names of the dead as the US death toll approached 100,000.[1]

The New York (War) Crimes also exists as a website launched "to present the case against the Times systematically, including detailed analysis of their Palestine coverage and extensive historical background of their complicity with U.S. empire from Guatemala to Iran to Vietnam."[1]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i "Stealing the Voice of Authority | Arielle Isack". The Baffler. 2024-04-17. Retrieved 2024-11-12.
  2. ^ a b c d "A protest newspaper is gaining traction. But what's next for The New York War Crimes?". Literary Hub. 2024-05-28. Retrieved 2024-11-12.
  3. ^ "Protests and Parody Paper Decry New York Times' Pro-Israel Bias in Gaza Coverage | Common Dreams". Common Dreams. Retrieved 2024-11-12.
  4. ^ Forthofer, Ron. "U.S. Complicity With Israel's Genocidal Crimes." Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, vol. 43, no. 1, Jan.-Feb. 2024, pp. 48+.
  5. ^ "How the New York Times fights America's wars". Mondoweiss. 2024-04-27. Retrieved 2024-11-13.
  6. ^ "The New York Crimes". NYPL Digital Collections. Retrieved 2024-11-12.
  7. ^ Grippe, John (23 May 2020). "The Project Behind a Front Page Full of Names". The New York Times.