New York Times management denied allegations on Saturday of “racially targeting” employees as part of its investigation to discover the leaker of an unreleased podcast episode that covered the Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel by Hamas and heinous assaults of a sensitive nature carried out by some of the soldiers for their gratification during the deadly terrorist attack.
According to a report by The Wrap, the NewsGuild of New York, the union for New York Times journalists, accused the company of targeting employees “for their national origin, ethnicity and race,” during its internal investigation.
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, the union wrote, “The Guild intends to vigorously defend our members and their rights, and ensure that all our members are protected in a workplace free from harassment and racial profiling.”
'The Guild intends to vigorously defend our members and their rights, and ensure that all our members are protected in a workplace free from harassment and racial profiling.'#Period https://t.co/2BQuWdDCWi
— NYTimesGuild (@NYTimesGuild) March 2, 2024
The Times Union left the note on a repost of a Washington Post article with the caption, “The union representing New York Times employees accused the company of targeting employees with Middle Eastern or North African backgrounds in a weeks-long investigation into leaks from its newsroom regarding the paper’s coverage of Oct. 7.”
The union representing New York Times employees accused the company of targeting employees with Middle Eastern or North African backgrounds in a weeks-long investigation into leaks from its newsroom regarding the paper’s coverage of Oct. 7. https://t.co/e1guxzyyke
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) March 2, 2024
New York Times spokesperson Danielle Rhoades Ha told the Wrap, “The NewsGuild’s claim that we targeted people based on their associations or ethnicity is preposterous. While we aren’t going to comment on internal matters, as we’ve said before, the work of our newsroom requires trust and collaboration, and we expect all of our colleagues to adhere to these values.”
Times Executive Editor Joseph Kahn and Managing Editors Marc Lacey and Carolyn Ryan said in a memo to employees, “We are currently undertaking an inquiry to determine how outside media got access to information in confidential planning documents and draft scripts The Daily team was using in preparing an episode.”
“We undertook the inquiry for a simple reason,” the memo said. “Using access to our publishing systems to reveal pre-publication details of our journalism to people outside The Times crosses a clear red line. It threatens the culture of trust essential to the intensive editing process in every part of the newsroom.”
