The dish on the Times and Regis Debray

As promised, Andrew Sullivan takes on the New York Times’ whitewash of Regis Debray in his daily dish this morning. Let’s quote it in full:
“THE NEW YORK TIMES AND TERROR: The Times outdid itself yesterday, running a viciously anti-American op-ed by one Regis Debray. It contained every supercilious canard about American crudeness, religiosity, lack of sophistication that the old Marxist European left has now learned to deploy. The slurs were as sickening as they were shallow. But that’s not news. What’s news is that Debray was absurdly identified by the Times as ‘a former adviser to President Francois Mitterrand of France, editor of Cahiers de Mediologie and the author of the forthcoming “The God That Prevailed.”‘ I say absurdly because Debray is far better known as an old communist, a supporter of political violence, an unabashed admirer of Fidel Castro, and a guerrilla fighter alongside Che Guevara. His hatred of the United States even led him to defend Milosevic and Serbian genocide in the late 1990s. He’s a Pinter with blood on his hands. Isn’t this relevant information? Did the Times know this and decide to ignore it? Or were they simply clueless and eager to run any specious anti-American doggerel they could get their hands on?”

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