Photo by Rafael Hoyos Weht

Pornographic associations aside, I’m old enough to remember when “Deep Throat” was a quasi-heroic figure spilling the beans on U.S. government malfeasance during Watergate. In the New Year, Deep Throat is a shapeless phantom who peddles propaganda for the New York Times. He/she/they might as well be a clerk in the Times mailroom, for all we know. What’s important is that they get to make claims the Times wants to promote sound more real by coming from a secret source.

Such is the Fourth Estate in the Year 2026.

On the last day of 2025, the Times ran with a story headlined “Venezuela Detains Americans Amid Growing U.S. Pressure,” leading off with, “Venezuelan security forces have detained several Americans in the months since the Trump administration began a military and economic pressure campaign against the government of the South American nation, according to a U.S. official familiar with the matter.”

This “U.S. official … spoke on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to speak publicly.” Checkmate.

Like so much else the Times sees fit to print, the point of this random story is to stoke the fires of belligerence toward Venezuela and its leader Maduro.

“President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela has long used detained Americans, whether guilty or innocent of serious crimes, as bargaining chips in negotiations with Washington, his greatest adversary,” the reporters claim, with no context or evidence. (There are three reporters bylined; apparently it takes a village to concoct such inanity.)

“The number of detained Americans in Venezuela began to rise again in the fall, according to the U.S. official. That rise coincided with the deployment of a U.S. naval armada in the Caribbean and the start of airstrikes against boats that Washington says transport drugs on Mr. Maduro’s orders,” the story continues. Again, no data or evidence to back up the assertion that the number has risen, and no sense of irony at all that, even if it were true, the fact that the U.S. has essentially begun a war on Venezuela might, perhaps, be germane.

“Some American citizens who have been released from prison in Venezuela earlier this year have described abusive conditions and lack of due process. Many were not charged with any crimes, and few were convicted.” I’m sorry, but the lack of self-awareness on the part of the Old Gray Lady is just mind-boggling. You could substitute “America” for “Venezuela” and be spot-on accurate. She’s starting to sound like satire.

None of this should come as a surprise anymore, but it’s good to be reminded as we turn the calendar that our “mainstream media” have become propaganda arms of the regime.

New Year. Same Old Times.

The post The New York Times Goes Deep…for Propaganda appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

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