03/06/2024

Newsroom at The New York Times Fractures over Story on Hamas Attacks

The crisis reflects cultural divides

Tensions at The New York Times over an investigative report on Hamas' use of sexual violence in the Oct. 7 attacks have erupted into the open over the past week with fresh conflict surfacing nearly every day.

The Times crisis reflects a series of cultural divides – between the conventional newsroom and the newspaper's ascendant audio division; between management and many of the rank-and-file; between factions with differing reactions to the war in Israel and Gaza; and between the two sides of yawning industry chasm over whether to handle dissent internally or air it in public.

The Times Guild, the newsroom union representing nearly 1,500 journalists at the paper, filed a formal grievance yesterday with the paper, saying The Times had violated the terms of its contract. The guild accused top news executives of "targeted interrogation" of journalists of Middle Eastern descent in an investigation of how word of such dissent leaked to The Intercept and other news outlets.

Please select this link to read the complete article from NPR.