Don’t mention the tyrant was an old hero.

The New York Times rarely misses an opportunity to identify conservative political leaders whom reporters and editors dislike. They are reported as ultra-conservative, far right, rightest, reactionary, die-hard, bourgeois, hidebound –you name the right adjective. But when a socialist or Marxist revolutionary becomes a one-party dictator, he or she gets an adjective-free ride .

Example was in a New York Times story, as published in the Boston Globe, Aug 24, 2022, under the headline: “Ortega silences his last critics — Cracks down on Nicaragua clergy.” The story, by-lined by three reporters, tells of the arrest of Bishop Rolando Alvarez, identified as ‘the most prominent voice of protest in Nicaragua.” The story says the Catholic Church “was the only institution that has escaped his [Presdent Daniel Ortega’s] control after 15 years of uninterupted rule.” That’s the only background of Ortega. That he’s a long-time dictator getting more tyranical as time goes by.

The New York Times obviously believes that readers know that Ortega was an ultra-left, Castro-loving, revolutionary, a communist, Marxist, socialist, when he seized control. And he still is. But for the New York Times, it’s not worth mentioning.

File under: All the news slanted to the paper’s line.