The NYT's Facile Spectre of 'Osama Bin Ortega'

MANAGUA, Nicaragua - It has been more than two decades since this tiny nation of five million people and its revolutionary strongman, Daniel Ortega, kept Washington awake at night. In recent months, new fears, but the same old politics, have revived that tossing and turning. Mr. Ortega... has opened his fourth campaign for the presidency. Washington is worried once again that its old nemesis might win, this time with consequences for a new global war, on terrorism. [The New York Times April 5, 2005]

" In continuing the tradition of Sandinista misinformation, the NY Times’ Ginger Thompson [brands] Ortega a “strongman”, despite winning the 1984 Nicaraguan election [with] 63 percent of the vote.

"The article is rounded out with expectedly anonymous State Department officials pontificating on the evils of the Sandinistas, without providing any evidence or even reasoning, all quoted without comment. The extent of distortion by Times editors surpasses even their usual standards...