New York Times editor defends independence, including from internal pressure – 06/29/2023 – Market

The most prominent executive at the Wan-Ifra (World Association of News Editors) congress in Taiwan, the editor of The New York Times used his participation to defend independent journalism, which has been questioned among professionals in the United States.

Joe Kahn exemplified the newspaper’s stance, also publicly defended by publisher AG Sulzberger, with its coverage of issues about transgender people. Since the beginning of the year, it has been the target of both external and internal criticism, from members of the Newsroom itself, including open letters.

One, signed by dozens of its journalists, alongside readers, intellectuals and others, claimed that the NYT was “following the lead of far-right hate groups” by publishing extensive reports “discussing the adequacy of medical care for transgender children. “.

According to Kahn, “What independence means is finding those issues that your own staff is divided about, your own journalists aren’t sure how to cover, and finding a way to do good journalism that speaks to a large number of people about why these divisions exist”.

It goes for readers, too: “The true test of independent, non-partisan journalism is when you have people who even love the journalism you do, but don’t see something you’re writing as in sync with their views of what you’re doing. should be doing”.

He says it’s “a more complicated situation because you want to listen”. In the case of “the social role for people who are trans,” he reckons that “the understanding of that is evolving, and as that happens, it can be a very polarizing issue. And we have to navigate that.”

In the broad debate about independence and objectivity currently taking place in American journalism, one of the central points for proposing more activist coverage that takes sides is that it would better reflect newsrooms, especially their younger journalists.

Kahn, 58, who studied Mandarin at Harvard and has covered China for two decades, for the Dallas Morning News, The Wall Street Journal and the NYT itself, lamented the low number of American journalists in the country today. “At the NYT, we’re down to two, which is, for a global organization, completely insufficient.”

The picture comes from three years ago, when the Trump administration withdrew the visas of dozens of professionals from Xinhua, CCTV and other Chinese groups, which was retaliated by cutting visas from NYT, Voice of America and others. The newspaper’s editor at the time appealed to Washington and Beijing, without success.

“Many [veículos] were forced to cover a giant country, a global geopolitical force, the world’s second-largest economy, with a handful of people, which is really inadequate for the task of trying to increase global understanding,” says Kahn, whose formal title is Editor -executive.

“We’re committed to doing what we can, we have reporters in Hong Kong, in Taiwan, in active coverage of China, both what’s happening in the country and its impact on the world. But I would really like to see a chance to bring more people from return.”

Argued with his own experience. “China is missing the opportunity to have a generation of pen pals who learn the culture, make friends and relationships there, develop that nuanced understanding that you get from living in a place.”