In throwing itself on its knees in front of institutionalized hereditary privilege, the Times recalls the words of Mark Twain: “Unquestionably the person that can get lowest down in cringing before royalty and nobility, and can get most satisfaction out of crawling on his belly before them, is an American. Not all Americans, but when an American does it he makes competition impossible.”
Perhaps realizing they had overdone it, the Times editors published a somewhat defensive article on September 14 under the title “Was Elizabeth the Queen of America?” (This article appeared after World Socialist Web Site managing editor Niles Niemuth wrote on September 9: “Was Elizabeth America’s Queen? … I recall a distinct break with aristocracy some 250 years ago.”) In this article, the Times acknowledged that “Americans fought for freedom from the British crown” but placed the blame on the American population for being “consumed with fascination by the royal family after the queen’s death on Thursday.”
This excuse turns reality upside down. The Times and the rest of the US media establishment have been force-feeding the population with monarchist propaganda ever since the news arrived of the queen’s death—but according to the Times, this is supposedly the fault of readers for reading it, not of the newspapers for cramming it down their throats.
-- Tom Carter, "The 1619 Project and the New York Times’ glorification of the monarchy" (WSWS).
