Nearly 200 New York Times Contributors Are Denouncing the Paper's Anti-Trans Coverage

[babylonsister]

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/02/new-york-times-trans-coverage


Nearly 200 New York Times Contributors Are Denouncing the Paper’s Anti-Trans Coverage
The letter, also backed by several celebrities, notes that the paper’s coverage has been cited by state Republicans attempting to “justify criminalizing gender-affirming care.”
By Charlotte Klein
February 15, 2023


More than 170 past and present New York Times contributors signed an open letter on Wednesday calling out the paper’s coverage of transgender, non-binary, and gender nonconforming people. The missive points to “what one journalist has calculated as over 15,000 words of front⁠-⁠page Times coverage debating the propriety of medical care for trans children published in the last eight months alone,” as well as “reporting on trans children that omits relevant information about its sources.” Among the prominent journalists and writers who signed the letter are Roxane Gay, Rebecca Solnit, Ed Yong, and Lucy Sante. Several current Times staffers are also signatories, as are actress Cynthia Nixon and writer-director Lena Dunham.

Despite the paper’s editorial guidelines requiring that reporters “preserve a professional detachment, free of any whiff of bias,” the Times has, according to the letter, “treated gender diversity with an eerily familiar mix of pseudoscience and euphemistic, charged language.” The letter, addressed to standards editor Philip Corbett, criticizes terminology and sourcing used in a number of pieces—from magazine stories to features to Opinion columns. Emily Bazelon’s “The Battle Over Gender Therapy" is specifically cited as having “quoted multiple expert sources who have since expressed regret over their work’s misrepresentation.”

“The very news stories criticized in their letter reported deeply and empathetically on issues of care and well-being for trans teens and adults,” a spokesperson for the Times said in a statement. "Our journalism strives to explore, interrogate and reflect the experiences, ideas and debates in society—to help readers understand them. Our reporting did exactly that and we’re proud of it."

Bazelon’s piece is among the Times articles that have made their way into Republican-led state legislatures attempting “to justify criminalizing gender-affirming care,” the letter states. “The natural destination of poor editorial judgment is the court of law.” South Dakota on Monday became the second state, after Utah, to ban gender-affirming care for trans youth this year. Meanwhile, more than two dozen bills attempting to restrict transgender health care access were introduced at the start of 2023 state legislative sessions, according to the Associated Press. Critic and writer Jo Livingstone, who helped organized the letter, told Hell Gate that it was “willfully ignorant" to “suggest that there is no relationship between the way that we are using language at the newspaper to discuss people's lives.” They added, “This is not quite business as usual anymore."

[Lovie777]

1. K&R......

[NoMoreRepugs]

2. At the doctor, just read this, will cancel NYT subscription when I get home.

[Duppers]

13. Good.

Subscribe to the Washington Post instead.

We discovered yrs ago that the Times is full of wingers who help elect Repub rats.

[NoMoreRepugs]

15. subscribe to both - no - just the Post as of now.

[yardwork]

3. I would never subscribe to the NYT.

I hold so much against them. They are literally traitors.

[brooklynite]

8. "Traitors"?

HYPERBOLIE (noun): " extravagant exaggeration"

[yardwork]

11. When you accuse someone of hyperbole you might want to spell it correctly.

The NYT published articles written by a traitor to the U.S. to support the invasion of Iraq under false pretenses in 2003. This is clear evidence of treason in my mind, and it's not the only instance.

In 2020, days before the presidential election, the NYT published front pages filled with false innuendo about one of the presidential candidates, deliberately attempting to influence the outcome of the election. They were successful.

I could go on.

[brooklynite]

12. TREASON (noun)

"the offense of attempting by overt acts to overthrow the government of the state to which the offender owes allegiance"

Another word which gets thrown around flippantly.

[BannonsLiver]

17. I take it from your passionate defense of the NYT in the thread

You support the tone of their trans coverage, is that correct?

[Joinfortmill]

4. Not my paper.

[brooklynite]

14. 45 year subscription

[BannonsLiver]

16. 45 years?!

That’s amazing. Say, do you get a paperweight for that milestone, like with Delta? Or maybe an exclusive lunch with Jason Blair or Judith Miller? Coffee with Maggie Haberman?

[brooklynite]

19. No, I get one of the best news covering organizations providing a paper every day.

Always amazing how many people demand a way around the paywall when the Times breaks a story about, say Trump's taxes or the Jan 6 insurrection.

[BannonsLiver]

20. Whoa. Not even a fucking tote bag?

[scipan]

28. Wish I could. I'm poor.

I'm one of those who don't demand, but are grateful, of a way to get around the paywall.

I often wonder if the only people who are at least middle class will be the only people who are informed, in the future.

That would be horrible.

[Evolve Dammit]

5. Good for them!

[reACTIONary]

6. I read the NYT daily....

... including their reporting on transgender issues and the bias and discrimination that transgender individuals are subject to.

“The very news stories criticized in their letter reported deeply and empathetically on issues of care and well-being for trans teens and adults,” a spokesperson for the Times said in a statement. "Our journalism strives to explore, interrogate and reflect the experiences, ideas and debates in society—to help readers understand them. Our reporting did exactly that and we’re proud of it."

I have to agree with the NYTs. Some folks, I guess around 200 or so, would like to stick their head in the sand and ignore what is actually going on in the world.

[Bobstandard]

10. Did you bother to read the whole letter?

Did you bother to read the whole letter? You quote at length part of a statement from the Times. You could have quoted from the letter to show that the Times’ statement didn’t address the problems with Times reporting it addresses. The letter makes a pretty strong case. The Times rebuttal does not.

[reACTIONary]

21. Yep, I did, and...

... I was not impressed. They seem to be very upset that views on a controversial topic other than their own are being reported on. As the NYT points out, that isn't the way the news works.

I went on to look up the article that used the term "patient zero". It seemed to be appropriate, or at least benign, in context. The patient himself called himself a "guinea pig".

“Of course, I wanted that,” F.G. said of puberty suppressants, in an interview in “The Dutch Approach,” a 2020 book about the Amsterdam clinic by the historian Alex Bakker. “Later I realized that I had been the first, the guinea pig. But I didn’t care.”

Rather than trying to suppress the debate, they should focus on winning it.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/15/magazine/gender-therapy.html?unlocked_article_code=EIChUrxLzpc0TPpjGZyLSZEQkweYpIvwFMjWxhY4zaP8OhmuPLWMuU_6G4dJFuc5xCvHXfJe0x5X7pQzvk0F2JKNoGftO6Y4WFkHkXC_4xQwEneNx97bcKScSnLkVXLZ3_EnLX_dpffdI7sv5PpYAAbGur22QWV9GHwDE5GlNDAyhROg5b5ya1NdUuOhgyKDi2x5LXw0GnyYuH0pa632Lb6BAFNMvpg7TlS4yU-q08ahYCOr1W_lvfStUl2vdKqdrHrlNR2b93TUfGAvkudaafb-wwcQpqYjMn6XIDaUB6yleXZxPmtu08xGQ0RihhBOxNYJgcC7Mio-&smid=url-share

[gratuitous]

22. One side wants trans persons to live their lives, the other wants them to die in horrible ways

Thank goodness the Times is here to act as referee for finding some middle ground between such "extreme" views.

[reACTIONary]

25. I don't think we can, nor should we expect...

.... news organizations to be advocates for our ideology or preferred outcomes.

Journalism strives to explore, interrogate and reflect the experiences, ideas and debates in society—to help readers understand them. Advocacy is up to us, not them.

[uponit7771]

26. They can be advocates of reality based on facts, there's no "middle" ground to that. Arguing ...

... whether its raining outside vs panning the camera towards a window isn't being a "news organization" that's stenography or something close

[reACTIONary]

27. I've been following the NYT's reporting on this issue...

... and there is nothing wrong with it.

[scipan]

29. I would like them to report on the experience of teen trans people.

As malaise would say, that is all.

(Puberty can be traumatic for someone who feels like they are in the wrong body.)

[reACTIONary]

31. They do. Why do you think they don't? nt

[gratuitous]

30. Oh, not at all

I mean, why should transgender people expect to live their lives in peace, and it's not the Times' job to make that case for them. Basic humanity and respect is just too much to expect from the self-styled Newspaper of Record. And if they just *oopsie* forget to tell their audience quite everything about a guest columnist, well, that's not on the Times.

Now, a chicken farmer from outside Munich will give us his views on the developing government programs in 1930s Germany. Take it away, Heinrich.

[reACTIONary]

32. I read the NYTs every day. The go far beyond...

...basic humanity and respect. There is nothing wrong with their reporting on this issue.

[Act_of_Reparation]

7. Speak of the Devil...

From today's paper:

In Defense of J.K. Rowling by noted transphobe Pamela Paul.

[markodochartaigh]

9. In a democracy rational public debate is essential.

But the debate should be how to help groups in society, not whether the groups should be allowed to exist.

[BannonsLiver]

18. Not related, but no news entity will do more to normalize DeSantis than the NYT in 2024

Book it.

[maxsolomon]

24. The reason is right in this article:

...editorial guidelines requiring that reporters “preserve a professional detachment, free of any whiff of bias”

That's a feature Repukes have used to their advantage. Reportage is not editorializing.

[maxsolomon]

23. For the most part, the NYT coverage is just that: COVERAGE of the issue

They're not editorializing in the news reports. The articles didn't "debate"; they reported on the debate.

When some asshole state proposes a law banning gender-affirming care for minors, the NYT reports that's what happened. They may include quotes from asshole legislators in that asshole state. They may include quotes from people affected, or people opposed. I doubt they're making pronouncements on who is correct, even if the asshole state is clearly wrong.

I'll have to go back and read Bazelon's article to understand what the specific objection is. It's bound to be narrowly focused.