New York Times Bosses Seek to Quash Rebellion in the Newsroom

Reader thoughts?

Good morning from Chicago - and a special good morning to those we hung out with last night at the Old Town Ale House, thanks for the great convos and (I think?) for the shots of Malort.

My better half Sarah Hepola sent the following WSJ article this morning. It’s pay-walled but I am posting the lead (and a link to the rest) and am eager for your thoughts. Sarah and I, we have many! And to the listener who told me on the phone the other day that his favorite part of the show is when I get a head of steam on, I anticipate much pleasure coming your way xx

New York Times Bosses Seek to Quash Rebellion in the Newsroom

After internal upheaval over coverage of sensitive topics like the Israel-Gaza war, management renews emphasis on independence and neutrality

By Alexandra Bruell

Over the past several weeks, Charlotte Behrendt, a top Times editor in charge of probing workplace issues in the newsroom, has summoned close to 20 employees for interviews to determine whether staffers leaked confidential information related to Gaza war coverage to another media outlet.

It is the latest internal crisis at the Times, where management has been at odds with factions of the newsroom over union negotiations and coverage of sensitive topics like the transgender community and social justice.

Reporting about the Gaza war has been a particular flashpoint, especially over an in- depth article that found Hamas weaponized sexual violence in the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel. Some staffers questioned the reporting behind

it and alleged that the suffering of Gazans isn’t getting the same attention. Times leaders in March said they stand by the reporting.

The internal probe was meant to find out who leaked information related to a planned podcast episode about that article. But its intensity and scope suggests the Times’s leadership, after years of fights with its workforce over a variety of issues involving journalistic integrity, is sending a signal: Enough.

“The idea that someone dips into that process in the middle, and finds something that they considered might be interesting or damaging to the story under way, and then provides that to people outside, felt to me and my colleagues like a breakdown in the sort of trust and collaboration that’s necessary in the editorial process,” Executive Editor Joe Kahn said in an interview. “I haven’t seen that happen before.”

The Times is the envy of much of the news- publishing world, with more than 10 million paying subscribers and a growing portfolio of products like cooking and games apps. But while its business hums along, the Times’s culture has been under strain.

In many ways, it is a story familiar to companies big and small across America, as bosses struggle to integrate a new generation of workers with different expectations of how their jobs and personal lives should mesh—and

whose evolving social values can sow discord in the workplace.

But these tensions have particular resonance at the Times, which has long prided itself as a standard-setter in American journalism. Newsroom leaders, concerned that some Times journalists are compromising their neutrality and applying ideological purity tests to coverage decisions, are seeking to draw a line.

Kahn noted that the organization has added a lot of digital-savvy workers who are skilled in areas like data analytics, design and product engineering but who weren’t trained in independent journalism. He also suggested that colleges aren’t preparing new hires to be tolerant of dissenting views.

“Young adults who are coming up through the education system are less accustomed to this sort of open debate, this sort of robust exchange of views around issues they feel strongly about than may have been the case in the past,” he said, adding that the onus is on the Times to instill values like independence in its employees.

Kahn said he welcomes the normal push and pull of any newsroom—journalists challenging each other’s assumptions and debating whether coverage is fair.

But he said opposition to the Hamas sexual-violence article, penned in late December by veteran correspondent Jeffrey Gettleman and two freelancers, crossed a line when confidential Times work-product was allegedly shared outside the newsroom.

Tensions have run high at the Times lately, especially over an in-depth article that found Hamas weaponized sexual violence in the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel.

Details about staffers’ pre-publication debates were revealed in an article published by nonprofit news organization the Intercept that said the podcast episode was shelved.

Some Times staffers said the probe was justified. But others said management is going too far. Behrendt, a lawyer by training whose official title is director of policy and internal investigations, asked for the names of participants in a chat group for Middle Eastern and North African Times employees and asked some staffers to name others who had discussed concerns about the Gettleman story, people familiar with the interview sessions said. At least one session lasted longer than an hour.

One staffer complained about the Gettleman piece in a letter to the Standards department, an official channel for raising internal concerns about the Times’ journalism. Behrendt, who had obtained the letter from another source, later called the author in for questioning. In the interview, she asked if anyone else helped her write the letter, and for her communications with a worker on the “Daily” podcast.

Stacy Cowley, a business reporter and Times union officer who sat in on a few interviews to represent staffers, said the Times is targeting employees who have been struggling to get the company to listen to their concerns about war- related coverage.

“Instead of taking them seriously, the company is turning around and bullying that group into silence,” she said. The union has filed a grievance alleging that the company was targeting a group of staffers of Arab and Middle Eastern descent. Times leaders said the allegations are false.

Strong passions

Coverage of the Israel-Hamas war has become particularly fraught at the Times, with some reporters saying the Times’s work is tilting in favor of Israel and others pushing back forcefully, say people familiar with the situation. That has led to dueling charges of bias and journalistic malpractice among reporters and editors, forcing management to referee disputes.

“Just like our readers at the moment, there are really really strong passions about that issue and not that much willingness to really explore the perspectives of people who are on the other side of that divide,” Kahn said, adding that it’s hard work for staffers “to put their commitment to the journalism often ahead of their own personal views.”…

Read the rest here: https://www.wsj.com/business/media/new-york-times-reporters-rebellion-a6951d91