Ads for The New York Times declare “the truth is more important than ever.” Yet when a man shot and killed his estranged wife at the elementary school where she was employed—also killing a special needs child and wounding another before killing himself—this is how the Times described it:
“The toll the proliferation of guns takes on the nation was made clear yet again on Monday when gunfire broke out at an elementary school in San Bernardino, Calif., leaving two adults and one child dead and one student critically injured.”
How can these two accounts possibly describe the same tragedy? One is an account of fact (aka truth), while the Times’ description is clearly biased. Only in the Times’ world does gunfire “break out” like gasoline-soaked rags bursting into flame; only on their pages can a deranged murder-suicide be characterized as two victims of spontaneous combustion.
In its war on fake news, the Times doesn’t have to look far to find it.
