Joe Kahn, executive editor of the New York Times (NYT), stated that no conclusions were reached during the newspaper's investigation into an alleged leak related to its staff coverage of the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
The controversy, which led to the investigation of the American newspaper, arose from a report published by the digital media Intercept. In it, Intercept reported that an episode of the NYT's The Daily podcast was archived due to internal disagreements.
The Daily episode addressed an article written by Jeffrey Gettleman and independent journalists in which it was pointed out that the terrorist organization Hamas used sexual violence as a weapon during the October 7 massacre in Israel.
Kahn stated in an NYT channel on the Slack application that the newspaper did not reach a "definitive conclusion" on the matter. However, he added that the newspaper identified "gaps" in the handling of journalistic material. "We have taken steps to address these issues," he stressed.
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Kahn recently stated that the alleged leak reflects "a breakdown in the type of trust and collaboration necessary in the editorial process." However, he clarified that he values the internal debate.
The investigation, as expected, generated controversy within the NYT. The union filed a complaint about it because it considered the newspaper to have targeted some employees of Arab and Middle Eastern descent.
The "progressive bias" of the 'NYT'
The New York Times has been the scene of several recent internal disputes. One of them was related to a discussion in a WhatsApp group chat about the publication's reports on the bombing of a hospital in Gaza days after the start of the war when Hamas reported the deaths of 500 people due to an Israeli attack. Several international media, including the NYT, published the news based on the data provided by the Palestinian terrorist group. However, then it was proven that, in reality, the incident had occurred due to the failed rocket launch by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad organization and that between 100 and 300 individuals died in the event.
At the time, Vanity Fair revealed a bitter internal discussion on Slack, in which some employees pointed out that the information was inaccurate and needed to be corrected.
As Fox News reported in December, former NYT Opinion editor James Bennet highlighted issues related to the newspaper's "progressive bias."
Bennet, who resigned in 2020, wrote in The Economist that the progressive worldview had taken over the newsroom from the NYT. Furthermore, he claimed that the newspaper had lost its way, adding that editor AG Sulzberger forced him to resign with "an anger (...) that still baffles and saddens me" because some progressive staff were offended by an opinion article published by Republican senator Tom Cotton, who in the writing suggested deploying the military to quell urban unrest in the summer of 2020.
Bennet also criticized his former employer, accusing the NYT of silencing opposing points of view.
