New York Times' Roger Cohen on Georgian crisis: A case of deliberate deception

Mobilizing so huge an apparatus as the US media behind Washingtons propaganda line is a complex process, and not every journalist functions as a conscious agent of US imperialism. However, the manipulation of US public opinion does require conscious deception and bad faith from prominent figures within the media establishment.

The New York Times, among the most prominent organs of American liberalism, has played a critical role in legitimizing the US governments position. Its September 1 column by International Writer-at-Large Roger Cohen, headlined NATOs Disastrous Georgian Fudge, is an example of the Times deliberate campaign of disinformation on the Georgian crisis.

Cohen begins by attacking the April, 2008 NATO summit in Bucharest, where the US secured a general statement favoring the eventual admission of Georgia and Ukraine into the US-led military alliance, but failed to obtain European agreement for rapid NATO membership for the former Soviet republics. Cohen writes: In retrospect the NATO summit declaration of April 3 about Georgia and Ukraine seems almost criminal in its irresponsibility: We agreed today that these countries will become members of NATO.

Cohen does not denounce the NATO summit for stoking tensions with Moscow by declaring its agreement in principle to NATO membership for the two unstable countries on Russias borders

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