A gaggle of high-profile New York Occasions journalists on Tuesday privately fired again in opposition to NewsGuild of New York president Susan DeCarava, over a letter that she’d written affirming journalists’ proper to criticize the paper with a purpose to tackle office situations, a response that got here amid a dispute over the Occasions’ protection of trangender points. “Factual, correct journalism that’s written, edited, and revealed in accordance with Occasions requirements doesn’t create a hostile office,” reads the letter, which was organized by reporter Jeremy Peters and, prior to now 24 hours, collected dozens of signatures. Amongst them are Peter Baker, Charlie Savage, Adam Goldman, Michael Grynbaum, Apoorva Mandavilli, Lisa Lerer, Jim Rutenberg, Mike McIntire, and Kate Zernike. “Your letter seems to counsel a elementary misunderstanding of our tasks as journalists. Regretfully, our personal union management now appears decided to undermine the moral {and professional} protections that we rely on to protect the independence and integrity of our journalism,” the letter says.
“Every single day, partisan actors search to affect, assault, or discredit our work. We settle for that,” the letter continues.” However what we don’t settle for is what the Guild seems to be endorsing: A office wherein any opinion or disagreement about Occasions protection will be recast as a matter of ‘office situations.’ … We’re journalists, not activists. That line needs to be clear.”
Tuesday’s letter is the most recent in a sequence of exchanges, the first being one signed by a whole lot of Occasions contributors and a number of other present staffers final week. That letter criticized the paper’s protection of transgender points, citing particular tales and who wrote them. Govt editor Joe Kahn and Opinion editor Katie Kingsbury addressed that letter internally, in an e-mail to employees taking challenge with staffers who joined the hassle. “We don’t welcome, and won’t tolerate, participation by Occasions journalists in protests organized by advocacy teams or assaults on colleagues on social media and different public boards,” they wrote, noting that “participation in such a marketing campaign is in opposition to the letter and spirit of our ethics coverage.” This letter got here out the identical day that the Opinion part revealed a column defending J.Okay. Rowling, the Harry Potter writer who has been repeatedly criticized for feedback seen as transphobic
DeCarava then posted a public letter responding to Kahn and Kingsbury’s e-mail, as reported by Semafor, wherein she wrote that “workers are protected in collectively elevating considerations that situations of their employment represent a hostile working setting. This was the priority explicitly raised within the letter at challenge right here.” Some staffers took DeCarava’s letter as an affront, notably because it pertains to the Occasions’ journalistic independence. As Semafor’s Max Tani reported, one reporter, Stephanie Saul, wrote within the Occasions union Slack over the weekend, “Criticism of office situations doesn’t embody attacking the journalism of different members. I strongly object to this letter and I might hope different members of the unit agree with me.”
As Tuesday’s letter was coming collectively, the Guild scheduled a city corridor assembly for five PM on Tuesday, the place they may definitely tackle the objections raised by a few of their members.
