Beware anti-Western bias of New Atlas, ATNN

Peter M Haymond of the US Embassy in Bangkok is absolutely right to dismiss the outrageous accusations made by an organisation called the New Atlas and referred to in the column headlined “Is regime change a motive behind recent bombings?” published in The Nation on August 19. This column has now been reproduced, in full, on the New Atlas website.

It is also worth noting that the recent accusations by the New Atlas – that various media organisations and non-governmental organisations in Thailand have either received funding from or have a close relationship with financier George Soros’s Open Society foundation – have also been carried on the website Alternative Thai News Network (ATNN), which is clearly linked with New Atlas. 

It appears that the modus operandi of both New Atlas and ATNN is to cherry-pick or manipulate information in order to arrive at extremely dubious conclusions that are solely intended to traduce and undermine Western governments and agencies.

Neither the New Atlas nor ATNN provide any information regarding their own backers or funding, but ATNN’s homepage displays the logo of a media organisation called New Eastern Outlook, which is based in Moscow. Therein, perhaps, lies a clue.

All articles produced by the New Atlas and ATNN should be treated with extreme caution and scepticism.

Robin Grant