The publisher of the New York Times wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post, decrying the threat to the

independent press in democratic countries. I'm Scott Ott with Bill Whittle and Stephen Green,

and this episode of Right Angle is brought to you by the members at bill whittle.com.

Gentlemen, I thought it was unusual. I usually don't read the opinion page in the Washington Post,

but when I saw that the

publisher of the New York Times was writing an op-ed in basically their major competitor for national and

international news, I thought this is interesting. It is a very long piece, and one wonders why it

wasn't simply written as a news story, since much of it contains purported facts. But A.G. Sulzberger,

who was the heir to the air to the air to the New York Times dynasty and publisher,

writes this op-ed basically starting off with an imaginary scenario where a democratically elected

president of a country begins using the levers of government

to crack down on independent journalists with whom he disagrees or who have critical opinions of him.

And it goes on for paragraph after paragraph describing this scenario, clearly wanting to conjure the

prospect of Donald Trump becoming president and then

cracking down on the fake news.

Well into the story, you find out that no, in fact, this is about Victor Orban from Hungary

and what he has done, according to Soulsberger, to the press there.

And then he also uses examples of Modi's government in India and Bolsonaro's government

in Brazil, the former president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, and how democracies can use

less oppressive tactics than an autocracy might, for example, by digging into tax records,

by fiddling with immigration laws to affect the lives of reporters and editors at these publications,

and by having their well-to-do associates file lawsuits against news organizations.

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