For decades the liberal press, including the New York Times, used the Federal Bureau of Investigation as a symbol of the fears of oppressive government surveillance, investigating allegations that the agency surveilled civil rights leaders and radical anti-war groups during the Vietnam War. The Times hyped myriad other civil liberties concerns regarding the “sullied agency.”
In this millennium, the Times condemned FBI tactics, post 9-11 and during the Iraq War, including the surveillance of Muslims, which sowed “anger and fear.”
