Self-immolation coverage … All the news that's 'fit to fade'?

Editor's note: John Gong, a special commentator on current affairs for CGTN, is a professor at the University of International Business and Economics (UIBE) and the Vice President of Research and Strategy at the UIBE-Israel. The article reflects the author's views and not necessarily those of CGTN.

I will be honest. I love reading The New York Times. I subscribed to it for many years when I was living in New Jersey in the late 1990s. I had to say goodbye to it for a few years after moving to Colorado and later back to China. Thankfully we are now in a digital age, and I have been an avid New York Times online subscriber for quite some time.

The New York Times differs from The Washington Post, which is another favorite of mine that I subscribe to, considering the former's coverage of broader social and international issues other than just politics within the Beltway. The New York Times also shines in its many compassionate, piercing op-ed pieces by authors like Maureen Dowed and Nicholas Kristof.

Nevertheless, sometimes there are moments when one has to stand up against something one loves. That moment came yesterday when I was trying to find the news about Aaron Bushnell, an active-duty senior airman of the United States Air Force who burned himself alive in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington D.C. in protest at the Joe Biden administration's Middle East policy and in support of the Palestinian cause. Even though the tragic event happened just within 24 hours, it took me a while to find the piece in The New York Times' website.

Thank goodness The New York Times did run a short reportage of him, reminding me of the famous New York Times slogan coined by its original owner, Adolph Simon Ochs, in 1897, "All the news that's fit to print."

But as the above screenshot vividly illustrates, I can't help imagining how desperate The New York Times news editors were hoping this piece of news would fade away quickly. In arranging the news under the Gaza war category, the self-immolation protest was pushed way downwards on the website behind news events that happened several hours earlier. This appears bizarre as Bushnell's self-immolation is clearly a domestic event happening in the capital Washington D.C. 

News of the Palestinian Authority Prime Minister's resignation appeared 15 hours before I surfed to this page, which is 8 hours earlier than the news about Aaron Bushnell appeared. And yet the former was listed in a more prominent position than the latter. The Times' editors clearly understand "All the news that's fit to print," but presumably also understand very well "All the news that's fit to fade."

No press is totally free. All news media outlets have their position and would go out of their way to reflect and promulgate their position. That is all understandable. In a way, that is called propaganda. Media in China are often attacked by the West as being propaganda. But the Western media themselves are far from innocent in that regard as this Times example vividly shows.

But one has to admire the level of sophistication and subtlety with which media outlets like The New York Times are able to influence the public. In this case, it is influence by lessoning, mitigating, and essentially blocking the news exposure. Ultimately, it boils down to prevention of free flow of information.

For once, The New York Times failed miserably in terms of heralding and protecting the First Amendment right in the United States, and as its loyal, long time reader, I am proud to have caught it.

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