Some conservatives and journalists condemned The New York Times following its “1619 Project” that “aims to reframe the country’s history.”
The “1619 Project” is made up of numerous stories and poems about slavery and racism and suggests America’s “true founding” was when the first slaves arrived.
Former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich called the project “a lie” on Fox News on Aug. 19.
The project includes an essay by journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones on Aug. 14 suggesting “our democracy’s founding ideals were false when they were written.”
“The 1619 Project is a major initiative from The New York Times observing the 400th anniversary of the beginning of American slavery,” the project reads. “It aims to reframe the country’s history, understanding 1619 as our true founding, and placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of the story we tell ourselves about who we are.”
Gingrich tweeted Sunday that “The NY Times 1619 Project should make its slogan ‘All the Propaganda we want to brainwash you with’.it is a repudiation of the original NY Times motto.”
“The fact is I saw one reference that The New York Times claims that the American Revolution was caused in part to defend slavery,” Gingrich said on “Fox & Friends.” “That is such historically factually false nonsense that it’s embarrassing that The New York Times is doing this.”
Gingrich also mentioned a leaked NYT town hall meeting where Executive Editor Dean Baquet “‘basically said, ‘Look, we blew it on Russian collusion, didn’t work. Now we are going to go to racism. That’s our new model,'” according to the former speaker.
“This is a tragic decline of The New York Times into a propaganda paper,” Gingrich said.
Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz tweeted out against the project.
Ben Domenech, co-founder and publisher of The Federalist, dismissed some of the quotes from the project as false.
Benjamin Weingarten, a senior contributor at The Federalist, suggested the 1619 Project was intended to “delegitimatize America.”
The “1619 Project” will be publishing more stories in the upcoming weeks.
