Deadly arrogance of 'The Grey Lady'

The New York Times (NYT) can be seen as an uncrowned king in journalism and a flagship of the US press.

In its 160-year history, the newspaper, famous for challenging yellow journalism and assailing the White House, even earned a gracious nickname of "The Grey Lady" for its black and white and serious style.

Known for its defiance of the powerful and the rich, the NYT has been long regarded as a national "newspaper of record". It has been occupying the moral high ground in the field of international communication. The newspaper always likes to talk about fairness, objectiveness and rationality and takes it as its own duty to defend freedom of the press.

However, despite such a good appearance of the newspaper, what can't be covered up is its notorious record of plagiarism and fabrication. Act of distorting facts is commonly seen in its reports about China and it misled readers through its reports ahead of the Iraq War in 2003.

In his book Hard News, Seth Mnookin, the American writer and journalist, clearly exposed how the NYT broke the codes of journalism ethics and betrayed the trust of the public.

Domestically, the Grey Lady is known for its audacity to challenge the White House and the Pentagon, but in foreign affairs, it serves as the bridgehead in touting the Uncle Sam, with deep-rooted prejudice in its report of global affairs.

The Iraq War exemplifies the falsely-touted fairness and objectivity in its report: the NYT claimed that Iraq is a country armed with WMD (weapons of mass destruction) before the breakout of the Iraq War, playing up the threatening from the Middle East country.