LONDON: The New York Times is under renewed scrutiny after over 300 writers, scholars and public intellectuals pledged to stop contributing to the newspaper’s op-ed page, citing what they described as entrenched anti-Palestinian bias.
The group’s members said they would withhold their contributions until the NYT meets three specific demands to address this issue.
In a public letter released on Monday, the writers accused the newspaper of biased coverage on its opinion pages, in particular coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza amid allegations of war crimes and genocide.
They called for “accountability for its biased coverage and commits to truthfully and ethically reporting on the US-Israeli war on Gaza.”
“Only by withholding our labor can we mount an effective challenge to the hegemonic authority that the Times has long used to launder the US and Israel’s lies,” the writers added.
The group of “writers of conscience” include Rima Hassan, Rashida Tlaib, Kaveh Akbar, Sally Rooney, Tareq Baconi, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Greta Thunberg, Elia Suleiman, Plestia Alaqad, and Hannah Einbinder.
Other signatories include Andreas Malm, Isabella Hammad, Mohammed El-Kurd, Rupi Kaur, Jia Tolentino, Alana Hadid, China Mieville and Ghassan Abu-Sittah.
Nearly 150 former NYT contributors have also signed the pledge.
“We owe it to the journalists and writers of Palestine to refuse complicity with the Times, and to demand that the paper account for its failures, such that it can never again manufacture consent for mass slaughter, torture, and displacement,” the authors wrote.
In the letter also co-signed by several pro-Palestinian groups, the authors issued three key demands.
They called for a comprehensive review of reporting and the development of new editorial standards for Palestine coverage, which would include updated sourcing and citation practices, as well as a revised style guide for how the conflict is described.
The letter also insisted on a ban on contributions from any journalist who has served in the Israeli military.
Additionally, the writers demanded the retraction of a December 2023 article titled “Screams Without Words,” which alleged that Palestinians involved in the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023, sexually assaulted Israeli women.
The investigation, which relied heavily on unnamed sources, has since been largely discredited.
The NYT itself acknowledged that newly released video evidence “undercuts” the claims of sexual assault but stopped short of retracting or removing the story.
Even before its publication, independent investigations by Mondoweiss and The Intercept had found that two of the three sexual assault claims reported by the newspaper were unsubstantiated.
Following the article’s release, the NYT faced intense scrutiny, with family members of the alleged victims accusing the publication’s reporters of manipulation “to score a journalistic achievement.”
The signatories also called on the Times’ editorial board to advocate for a US arms embargo on Israel, stating these requests were neither “impossible nor unreasonable.”
“There is no US newspaper more influential than The New York Times. Editors and producers in newsrooms across the West take cues from its coverage, it is widely considered the ‘paper of record’ in the United States,” the letter said.
“Since Israel began its genocidal war on Gaza, The New York Times has obfuscated, justified, and outright denied the occupier’s war crimes, thus continuing the paper’s decades-long practice of acting as a bullhorn for the Israeli government and military,” the signatories added.
