All the News That's Fit to Spin

How much power does The New York Times really have, and what happens when that power is used to shape narrative instead of pursue truth?

In this episode of The Curious Middle, we speak with Ashley Rindsberg, author of The Gray Lady Winked, about the Times' reporting on some of the most important stories of the last century: the Nazi invasion of Poland, Stalin's Soviet Union, the Holocaust, Israel, the 1619 Project and more.

Ashley joins us to explain why he believes the paper has repeatedly protected power, buried inconvenient truths, and helped shape public opinion in ways that changed history. We also talk about the Sulzberger family, the culture inside elite newsrooms, the collapse of trust in journalism, and how listeners can build a healthier media diet today.

Follow Ashley's Substack

In this episode:

• What first inspired Ashley to write The Gray Lady Winked
• Why the New York Times is unlike any other media institution
• The Times' Holocaust coverage and what was buried
• How the NYT created a narrative on the Soviet Union, Hitler, Cuba, Iraq, Israel and the Intifada
• The 1619 Project and narrative-driven reporting
• The Tom Cotton op-ed controversy, safe spaces, silencing dissent and newsroom ideology
• How to find better journalism in a fractured media environment

More reading:

Books:

• Buried by the Times by Laurel Leff
• Stalin's Apologist: Walter Duranty: The New York Times's Man in Moscow by S.J. Taylor

Articles:

• About the NYT Nazi Correspondent from Tablet Magazine
• NYT journalist Walter Duranty, who downplayed the Ukraine famine.

"Committed to protecting his own influence and to a future ‘greater good’ promised by the Soviet regime, Duranty at first dismissed rumors of the Ukrainian Famine. Then he downplayed them. Then he claimed that Ukraine's ‘food shortages’ were the result of local mismanagement and the work of ‘wreckers’ and ‘spoilers’ intent on undermining Soviet progress."

More podcasts with Ashley:

• Ashley on the Coleman Hughes podcast
• Ashley on the Winston Marshall podcast

Timestamps

• 05:13 — Origin Story of the Book. Spark: reading The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. Shock discovery: NYT reported Poland invaded Germany (1939). Core question: “If they got that wrong, what else did they get wrong?”
• 08:42 — Why Focus on The New York Times
• 11:32 — Ochs-Sulzberger Family Ideology. German-Jewish assimilation philosophy: Judaism = religion only (not identity)
• 14:23 — Holocaust Coverage Critique. Only 6 front-page Holocaust stories in 6 years
• 17:56 — Historical Parallels to Today. Narratives like: “Jews cause wars” / “Israel manipulation”
• 20:34 — Could Coverage Have Changed History?
• 21:12 — Fascination with Power / Dictators
• 24:15 — Ukraine Famine Denial (Walter Duranty)
• 26:43 — Publishing Barriers. Publishers avoided book due to fear of NYT retaliation and bestseller list control. Insight: NYT bestseller list = editorial, not purely sales-based
• 30:12 — NYT Power Today. Less local dominance, more global reach. ~600 million monthly users. Now a digital ecosystem
• 32:32 — NYT Lack of Accountability
• 35:30 — State of Journalism Today
• 38:48 — Misleading Image Example (Second Intifada). Photo falsely captioned: Palestinian victim → actually Jewish man being saved. Example of narrative overriding facts
• 41:20 — Mohammed al-Dura Case. Widely reported killing blamed on Israel. Later forensic evidence contradicted it. NYT never corrected narrative
• 43:10 — The 1619 Project. Claim: U.S. founded on slavery, not liberty. Criticism: Historians said key claims were false. Still: Won Pulitzer. Entered school curricula
• 51:54 — Tom Cotton Op-Ed Controversy
• 57:55 — Future of Media
• 59:27 — Advice for News Consumers (GREAT CLIP). “Unbundle the news like Spotify unbundled albums”
• 1:01:09 — Closing + Current Work. Focus on: Narrative spread across platforms, Wikipedia, Reddit, AI manipulation. Company: NPOV