WTF. I hope that in due time someone documents how badly the NYT got punked by Erdogan — it’ll prove to be on par with Judith Miller’s role in backing the Iraq War. The “coup” was a tiny little Truman Show affair mounted by a handful of idiots in a few neighborhoods, with some serious signal-sending SFX. The countercoup, in contrast, was a systematic purge of political alternatives — with a brutal focus on educational institutions and judicial review. Ambitious NYT reporters and commentators eager for barely sourced scoops based mainly on social media (BOOM BOOM! TANK MAN!) played a decisive role in promoting the narrative. And once it was written in stone, why bother following up with questions like you know, who, what, where, when, etc. But this story is completely beyond the pale. Shame.
(NYT)