HOW DID WALTER DURANTY LIVE WITH HIMSELF?

 To most of us Walter Duranty (1884-1957) lies in the dustbin of history. Say his name and the response is, “Who?”

But say his name in the 1930’s and there would have been instant recognition; he was the most well-known journalist of his day, working for the most prestigious newspaper in the world, the Grey Lady, The New York Times. Walter Duranty was the eyes and ears of America in Russia and his thirteen articles from Moscow won him the most prestigious award a journalist can receive, the coveted Pulitzer in 1932. His editors loved him, his readers believed his every word. His articles influenced people in high places, people like President Roosevelt who recognized the Soviet Union.

But Walter Duranty was liar who deceived them all.

Excepts from his dispatches from Moscow to The New York Times include the following statements:

“There is no famine or actual starvation, nor is there likely to be.” (11-15-1931)

“Any report of famine in Russia today is an exaggeration or malignant propaganda.” (8-23-1933)

“ . . . the youth and strength of the Russian people is essentially at one with the Kremlin’s programs, believes it to be worthwhile and supports it, however hard be the sledding.” (12-9-1932)

Those dispatches were lies, and blatant ones at that. 

At the time Walter D. wrote this, millions died because of the famine caused by the Soviet government. Stalin had launched a collectivization to bring socialism to the countryside. He sent troops to confiscate the farmers’ land and goods and that turned into a war, big time. The farmers resisted the troops. To keep the government from getting their crops, they burned them; to keep them from stealing their tools, they disabled them; to keep them from getting their livestock, they killed 30 million cattle and  a hundred million sheep and goats.

Stalin’s troops of socialism confiscated their grain and shipped it out of the Ukraine, leaving the population to starve to death. When it was all said and done, socialism had killed more than 10,000,000 and sent 10,000,000 to slave labor camps, men, women, and children. (From “Radical Son,” by David Horowitz)

During all this carnage, 25,000 people a day were dying of starvation in the Ukraine. No wonder Malcolm Muggeridge of The Manchester Guardian, called Duranty, “the greatest liar of any journalist I have met in fifty years of journalism.”

What was happening was that Duranty had so dedicated his life to preserving the reputation of Stalin as “Uncle Joe” and preventing a stain from appearing on socialism that he lied and deceived. “Truth forever on the scaffold, wrong forever on the throne,” as long as it’s for a “good cause.” He knew 10 million men, women, and children had starved to death because of a government caused famine, yet he covered it up.

All of this didn't come to light later. The horror story of Stalin’s rampage was known in Russia while it was occurring. When other reporters asked Duranty what he was going to report, he said, “Nothing. What are a few million dead Russians in a situation like this? Quite unimportant. This is just an incident in the sweeping historical changes here. I think the entire matter is exaggerated.”

CENSORSHIP

What is this? This is censorship by omission and it shows just how far a person will go to champion a cause to which he has dedicated his life. Stalin was the head of “the most through-going, ruthless and bloody tyrannies ever to exist on the earth” and Duranty lied, misled, and deceived thousands in order than no one know that. (Muggeridge)

"Through-going, ruthless and bloody tyranny" is the historical record of nations which, like the builders of Babel, seek to build a heaven on earth. Every back-to-Eden-enterprise unleashes demons it can't control. Man cannot be his own god without bloodshed.

Yet, such is the way of the world-system, a system organized by Satan to leave God out. Duranty wasn’t the only one: playwright George Bernard Shaw and Hollywood screen writer Dalton Trumbo were Stalin apologists as were authors, academics, and intellectuals. How could they be so blind, so willfully ignorant, that they would give cover to the man who murdered millions? It was all in their vain pursuit of an idea: man by man’s efforts will be able to bring a millenium on earth and if he has to murder millions to do it, so be it; it's for the cause.

As a postscript: Further degrading himself, Duranty accepted the Pulitzer Prize for the articles he knew were lies. You can’t get much lower than that.

In defense of The New York Times, in 1990, the paper hired a Columbia University history professor to make an independent assessment of the reporting of Duranty. His conclusion: Duranty’s Pulitzer should be rescinded because of his ''lack of balance'' in covering Stalin's government.

Has the prestigious award been rescinded? Short answer: No.