Walter Duranty 2.0

In the 1930s, a Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times correspondent named Walter Duranty misled his readers about the true, horrific nature of Soviet communism.

In so doing, he helped blind Americans to the threat posed by that totalitarian ideology and emboldened its leader, Josef Stalin, to engage in more brutal repression at home and more aggressive behavior abroad. The latter included subversion inside the United States.

Tomorrow, another, now-retired, Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times reporter, David Shipler, is publishing a new book that promises to establish him as Walter Duranty 2.0. He dismisses evidence about the danger posed by today’s totalitarian ideology – the Islamic supremacist doctrine of shariah – and demeans those of us who warn against its stealthy operations in America.

We can’t afford to be duped again.