Journalists and company employees accuse the vehicle of biasing the topic
O New York Times has come under fire from staff and newspaper readers for its coverage of transgender issues.
On February 15, a group of workers from the New York Times sent a open letter to Philip B. Corbett, editor of Standards for the paper, questioning editorial bias in reporting on trans, nonbinary, and gender nonconforming people.
According to collaborators, the Times “treated gender diversity with an oddly familiar mix of pseudoscience and euphemistic language” in the last years. The document was made available for people outside the newspaper to sign.
On Friday (24.Feb.2023), the letter sent by the newspaper’s collaborators had more than 1,200 signatures from the newspaper’s employees. New York Times and 34,000 more media workers, readers and subscribers, repudiating coverage of transgender people.
Still in the letter, the group of employees says that “Many reporters from Times cover trans issues fairly.” but end up being obfuscated.
According to journalist Tom Scocca, over 15,000 words were published on the front page of the Times in the past 8 months questioning medical care for transgender children and whether support would not be going “too far or too fast”.
Also on February 15, a second letter was sent to the newspaper by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD, in its acronym in English) criticizing the newspaper’s coverage of the matter. Here’s the full (743KB, in English).
On the same day, a truck passed in front of the newspaper’s headquarters, in New York, with the message: “Dear New York Times, stop questioning trans people’s right to exist and their access to health care.”.
More than 100 organizations and leaders have signed a letter to the @nytimes demanding a stop to biased and irresponsible coverage of transgender people.
Today GLAAD was at the New York Times building to deliver the letter and send a clear message. https://t.co/IkQocps8fS pic.twitter.com/0xqk2aMHwi
—GLAAD (@glaad) February 15, 2023
Charlie Stadtlander, Director of External Communications at New York Timesreplied to the letter sent by GLAAD and thanked for the feedbackbut stated that the group has goals “many different” from the newspaper.
“We understand how GLAAD and the letter’s co-signers view our coverage. But at the same time, we recognize that GLAAD’s advocacy mission and The Times’ journalistic mission are different.” said Stadtlander in a statement on Wednesday (15.Feb)
In response to the document sent by the group of officials of the Times, the executive editor of New York TimesJoe Kahn, and opinion editor Kathleen Kingsbury sent an internal email to staff on February 16 criticizing participation in the movement.
“We do not welcome, and will not tolerate, participation by ‘Times’ journalists in protests organized by advocacy groups or attacks on colleagues on social media and other public forums,” says the email.
The president of the newspaper’s union, Susan DeCarava, sent a text, reported by the portal traffic lightin response to the email sent to employees.
In the document, DeCarava said Times employees were “protected by collectively raising concerns that the conditions of their employment constitute a hostile work environment.”.
The comment was not well received by all the collaborators of the New York Times. In another letter, written and signed by special reporters for the newspaper, including Peter Baker, the main White House correspondent, the journalists criticized the president.
“Your letter seems to suggest a fundamental misunderstanding of our responsibilities as journalists. Regrettably, our own union leadership now seems determined to undermine the ethical and professional protections we depend on to protect the independence and integrity of our journalism.”says the document.
Newspaper officials said they were “taking personal and professional risks by signing the letter”. They also thanked everyone not connected with The New York Times for signing the document: “It made a real difference in this fight”says the document.
#Times #criticized #coverage #transgender #people