Journalist Claims NY Times Only Permits ‘Right Wing Opinions’
Few honest reviews of the New York Times newsroom would describe it as a bastion of right-wing extremism, but one controversial journalist recently suggested that only conservative opinions are allowed to be published by the newspaper’s editors.
Taylor Lorenz, a former Times employee who authored a now-infamous report for the Washington Post that exposed the identity of the woman behind the popular “Libs of TikTok” social media account, is now upset because her brand of far-left activist journalism is apparently even too extreme for the Gray Lady.
In a social media post this week, she linked to a Discourse Blog article by Jack Mirkinson that denounced the Times’ “interesting” rules regarding coverage of Palestine.
“Anyone who’s worked as a journalist at the NYT knows that journalists there are absolutely allowed to loudly espouse political opinions, you just have to espouse the *right* political opinions,” Lorenz claimed. “Right wing opinions are fine, left wing opinions are not.”
Mirkinson’s argument seemed to hinge on the fact that New York Times Magazine writer Jazmine Hughes was forced to resign after signing a letter in support of Gaza following the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel.
“Israel’s war against Gaza is an attempt to conduct genocide against the Palestinian people,” the October petition began.
Editor Jake Silverstein announced Hughes’ exit from the magazine, writing: “While I respect that she has strong convictions, this was a clear violation of The Times’s policy on public protest. This policy, which I fully support, is an important part of our commitment to independence.”
For Lorenz, however, demonizing Israelis still reeling from the impact of a devastating terrorist attack is apparently the type of “left wing opinions” that should be welcomed by the Times editorial department.
Further expressing opinions widely perceived as tone-deaf and hypocritical, Lorenz went on to complain that she “wasn’t allowed to express the ‘opinion’ that online harassment was a bad thing, in the midst of having [her] entire family harassed and doxxed.”
Considering that is precisely what her critics say she did to the Libs of TikTok founder, the post opened her up to extensive online mockery.
Adam Rubenstein, also a former Times writer, concluded that Lorenz “lives in an alternate reality.”
