Quite an institution with quite a story
The New York Times
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"NYT" redirects here. For the theatrical organization also known as NYT, see National Youth Theatre.
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The front page of The New York Times
on July 29, 1914, announcing Austria-Hungary's declaration of war against Serbia |
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| Type | Daily newspaper |
| Format | Broadsheet |
| Owner | The New York Times Company |
| Founder | Henry Jarvis Raymond George Jones |
| Publisher | Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, Jr. |
| Editor | Jill Abramson |
| Managing editors | Dean Baquet John M. Geddes |
| News editor | Richard L. Berke |
| Opinion editor | Andrew Rosenthal |
| Sports editor | Tom Jolly |
| Photo editor | Michele McNally |
| Staff writers | 1,150 news department staff [1] |
| Founded | 1851 |
| Headquarters | The New York Times Building 620 Eighth Avenue New York City, New York, United States |
| Circulation | 1,865,318 Daily 2,322,429 Sunday (March 2013)[2] |
| ISSN | 0362-4331 |
| OCLC number | 1645522 |
| Official website | www.nytimes.com |
The paper's print version remains the largest local metropolitan newspaper in the United States and third-largest newspaper overall, behind The Wall Street Journal and USA Today. Following industry trends, its weekday circulation has fallen to fewer than one million daily since 1990.[6] Nicknamed The Gray Lady, The Times is long regarded within the industry as a national "newspaper of record".[7] It is owned by The New York Times Company, publisher of 18 other newspapers including the International Herald Tribune. The company's chairman is Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr., whose family has controlled the paper since 1896.[8]
The paper's motto, "All the News That's Fit to Print", appears in the upper left-hand corner of the front page. Its website has adapted it to "All the News That's Fit to Click".[9] It is organized into sections: News, Opinions, Business, Arts, Science, Sports, Style, Home, and Features. The New York Times stayed with the eight-column format for several years after most papers switched to six, and was one of the last newspapers to adopt color photography.
History
The newspaper shortened its name to The New-York Times in 1857. It dropped the hyphen in the 1890s.[11] On April 21, 1861, The New York Times departed from its original Monday–Saturday publishing schedule and joined other major dailies in adding a Sunday edition to offer daily coverage of the Civil War. One of the earliest public controversies it was involved was the Mortara Affair, the subject of twenty editorials it published alone.[12]We shall be Conservative, in all cases where we think Conservatism essential to the public good;—and we shall be Radical in everything which may seem to us to require radical treatment and radical reform. We do not believe that everything in Society is either exactly right or exactly wrong;—what is good we desire to preserve and improve;—what is evil, to exterminate, or reform.
The newspaper's influence grew during 1870–71 when it published a series of exposés on William Magear "Boss" Tweed, leader of the city's Democratic Party—popularly known as Tammany Hall—that led to the end of the Tweed Ring's domination of New York's City Hall.[13] In the 1880s, The New York Times transitioned from supporting Republican candidates to becoming politically independent; in 1884, the paper supported Democrat Grover Cleveland in his first presidential campaign. While this move cost The New York Times' readership, the paper regained most of its lost ground within a few years.[14] The New York Times was acquired by Adolph Ochs, publisher of the Chattanooga Times, in 1896. The following year, he coined the paper's slogan, "All The News That's Fit To Print";[14] this was a jab at competing papers such as Joseph Pulitzer's New York World and William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal which were known for lurid yellow journalism. Under his guidance, The New York Times achieved international scope, circulation, and reputation. In 1904, The New York Times received the first on-the-spot wireless transmission from a naval battle, a report of the destruction of the Russian fleet at the Battle of Port Arthur in the Yellow Sea from the press-boat Haimun during the Russo-Japanese war. In 1910, the first air delivery of The New York Times to Philadelphia began.[14] The New York Times' first trans-Atlantic delivery to London occurred in 1919. In 1920, a "4 A.M. Airplane Edition" was sent by plane to Chicago so it could be in the hands of Republican convention delegates by evening.[15]
In 2009, the newspaper began production of local inserts in regions outside of the New York area. Beginning October 16, 2009, a two-page "Bay Area" insert was added to copies of the Northern California edition on Fridays and Sundays. The newspaper commenced production of a similar Friday and Sunday insert to the Chicago edition on November 20, 2009. The inserts consist of local news, policy, sports, and culture pieces, usually supported by local advertisements.
In addition to its New York City headquarters, the newspaper has 10 news bureaus in the New York region, 11 national news bureaus and 26 foreign news bureaus.[20] The New York Times reduced its page width to 12 inches (300 mm) from 13.5 inches (340 mm) on August 6, 2007, adopting the width that has become the U.S. newspaper industry standard.[22]
Because of its steadily declining sales attributed to the rise of online alternative media and social media, the newspaper has been going through a downsizing for several years, offering buyouts to workers and cutting expenses,[23] in common with a general trend among print news media.
The newspaper's first building was located at 113 Nassau Street in New York City. In 1854, it moved to 138 Nassau Street, and in 1858 it moved to 41 Park Row, making it the first newspaper in New York City housed in a building built specifically for its use.[24]
The paper moved its headquarters to the Times Tower, located at 1475 Broadway in 1904, in an area called Longacre Square, that was later renamed Times Square in honor of the newspaper. The top of the building – now known as One Times Square – is the site of the New Year's Eve tradition of lowering a lighted ball, that was started by the paper. The building is also notable for its electronic news ticker – popularly known as "The Zipper" – where headlines crawled around the outside of the building. It is still in use, but is now operated by the Reuters news agency. After nine years in its Times Square tower, the newspaper had an Annex built at 229 West 43rd Street. After several expansions, the 43rd Street building became the newspaper's main headquarters in 1960 and the Times Tower on Broadway was sold the following year. It served as the newspaper's main printing plant until 1997, when the newspaper opened a state-of-the-art printing plant in the College Point section of the borough of Queens.
A decade later, The New York Times moved its newsroom and businesses headquarters from West 43rd Street to a gleaming new tower at 620 Eighth Avenue between West 40th and 41st Streets, in Manhattan – directly across Eighth Avenue from the Port Authority Bus Terminal. The new headquarters for the newspaper, known officially as The New York Times Building but unofficially called the new "Times Tower" by many New Yorkers, is a skyscraper designed by Renzo Piano.[25][26]
New York Times v. Sullivan
Main article: New York Times Co. v. Sullivan
The paper's involvement in a 1964 libel case helped bring one of the key United States Supreme Court decisions supporting freedom of the press, New York Times Co. v. Sullivan. In it, the United States Supreme Court established the "actual malice" standard for press reports about public officials or public figures to be considered defamatory or libelous.
The malice standard requires the plaintiff in a defamation or libel
case prove the publisher of the statement knew the statement was false
or acted in reckless disregard of its truth or falsity. Because of the high burden of proof on the plaintiff, and difficulty in proving what is inside a person's head, such cases by public figures rarely succeed.[27]The Pentagon Papers
Main article: Pentagon Papers
In 1971, the Pentagon Papers, a secret United States Department of Defense history of the United States' political and military involvement in the Vietnam War from 1945 to 1971, were given ("leaked") to Neil Sheehan of The New York Times by former State Department official Daniel Ellsberg, with his friend Anthony Russo assisting in copying them. The New York Times
began publishing excerpts as a series of articles on June 13.
Controversy and lawsuits followed. The papers revealed, among other
things, that the government had deliberately expanded its role in the
war by conducting air strikes over Laos, raids along the coast of North Vietnam, and offensive actions taken by U.S. Marines well before the public was told about the actions, all while President Lyndon B. Johnson had been promising not to expand the war. The document increased the credibility gap for the U.S. government, and hurt efforts by the Nixon administration to fight the on-going war.[28]When The New York Times began publishing its series, President Richard Nixon became incensed. His words to National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger included "People have gotta be put to the torch for this sort of thing..." and "Let's get the son-of-a-bitch in jail."[29] After failing to get The New York Times to stop publishing, Attorney General John Mitchell and President Nixon obtained a federal court injunction that The New York Times cease publication of excerpts. The newspaper appealed and the case began working through the court system. On June 18, 1971, The Washington Post began publishing its own series. Ben Bagdikian, a Post editor, had obtained portions of the papers from Ellsberg. That day the Post received a call from the Assistant Attorney General, William Rehnquist, asking them to stop publishing. When the Post refused, the U.S. Justice Department sought another injunction. The U.S. District court judge refused, and the government appealed. On June 26, 1971 the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to take both cases, merging them into New York Times Co. v. United States 403 US 713. On June 30, 1971, the Supreme Court held in a 6–3 decision that the injunctions were unconstitutional prior restraints and that the government had not met the burden of proof required. The justices wrote nine separate opinions, disagreeing on significant substantive issues. While it was generally seen as a victory for those who claim the First Amendment enshrines an absolute right to free speech, many felt it a lukewarm victory, offering little protection for future publishers when claims of national security were at stake.[28]
Discrimination in employment
Discriminatory practices restricting women in editorial positions were part of the history, correlating with effects on the journalism published at the time. The newspaper's first general woman reporter was Jane Grant, who described her experience afterwards. She wrote, "In the beginning I was charged not to reveal the fact that a female had been hired". Other reporters nicknamed her Fluff and she was subjected to considerable hazing. Because of her gender, promotions were out of the question, according to the then-managing editor. She was there for fifteen years, interrupted by World War I.[30]In 1935, Anne McCormick wrote to Arthur Hays Sulzberger, "I hope you won't expect me to revert to 'woman's-point-of-view' stuff."[31] Later, she interviewed major political leaders and appears to have had easier access than her colleagues did. Even those who witnessed her in action were unable to explain how she got the interviews she did.[32] Clifton Daniel said, "[After World War II,] I'm sure Adenauer called her up and invited her to lunch. She never had to grovel for an appointment."[33] Covering world leaders' speeches after World War II at the National Press Club was limited to men by a Club rule. When women were eventually allowed in to hear the speeches, they still were not allowed to ask the speakers questions, although men were allowed and did ask, even though some of the women had won Pulitzer Prizes for prior work.[34] Times reporter Maggie Hunter refused to return to the Club after covering one speech on assignment.[35] Nan Robertson's article on the Union Stock Yards, Chicago, was read aloud as anonymous by a professor, who then said, "'It will come as a surprise to you, perhaps, that the reporter is a girl,' he began... [G]asps; amazement in the ranks. 'She had used all her senses, not just her eyes, to convey the smell and feel of the stockyards. She chose a difficult subject, an offensive subject. Her imagery was strong enough to revolt you.'"[36] The New York Times hired Kathleen McLaughlin after ten years at the Chicago Tribune, where "[s]he did a series on maids, going out herself to apply for housekeeping jobs."[37]
Ownership
The Ochs-Sulzberger family trust controls roughly 88 percent of the company's class B shares. Any alteration to the dual-class structure must be ratified by six of eight directors who sit on the board of the Ochs-Sulzberger family trust. The Trust board members are Daniel H. Cohen, James M. Cohen, Lynn G. Dolnick, Susan W. Dryfoos, Michael Golden, Eric M. A. Lax, Arthur O. Sulzberger, Jr. and Cathy J. Sulzberger.[38]
Turner Catledge, the top editor at The New York Times from 1952 to 1968, wanted to hide the ownership influence. Arthur Sulzberger routinely wrote memos to his editor, each containing suggestions, instructions, complaints, and orders. When Catledge would receive these memos he would erase the publisher's identity before passing them to his subordinates. Catledge thought that if he removed the publisher's name from the memos it would protect reporters from feeling pressured by the owner.[39]
Carlos Slim loan and investment
On January 19, 2009, the New York Times reported that Carlos Slim, Mexican telecommunications magnate and the world's richest person, loaned it $250 million "to help the newspaper company finance its businesses".[40] Since then, Slim has made additional investments in Times stock; according to Reuters, his position as of October 6, 2011, was estimated at over 8.1 percent of Class A shares.[41]Dual-class structures caught on in the mid-20th century as families such as the Grahams of The Washington Post Company sought to gain access to public capital without losing control. Dow Jones & Co., publisher of The Wall Street Journal, had a similar structure and was controlled by the Bancroft family but was later bought by News Corporation in 2007, which itself is controlled by Rupert Murdoch and his family through a similar dual-class structure.[42]
Content
Sections
The newspaper is organized in three sections, including the magazine.- News: Includes International, National, Washington, Business, Technology, Science, Health, Sports, The Metro Section, Education, Weather, and Obituaries.
- Opinion: Includes Editorials, Op-Eds and Letters to the Editor.
- Features: Includes Arts, Movies, Theater, Travel, NYC Guide, Dining & Wine, Home & Garden, Fashion & Style, Crossword, The New York Times Book Review, The New York Times Magazine, and Sunday Review.
Style
When referring to people, The New York Times generally uses honorifics, rather than unadorned last names (except in the sports pages, Book Review and Magazine). It stayed with an eight-column format until September 1976, years after other papers had switched to six,[45] and it was one of the last newspapers to adopt color photography, with the first color photograph on the front page appearing on October 16, 1997.[46] In the absence of a major headline, the day's most important story generally appears in the top-right column, on the main page. The typefaces used for the headlines are custom variations of Cheltenham. The running text is set at 8.7 point Imperial.[47]Joining a roster of other major American newspapers in the last ten years, including USA Today, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post, The New York Times announced on July 18, 2006, that it would be narrowing the width of its paper by six inches. In an era of dwindling circulation and significant advertising revenue losses for most print versions of American newspapers, the move, which would result in a 5 percent reduction in news coverage, would have a target savings of $12 million a year for the paper.[48] The change from the traditional 54 inches (1.4 m) broadsheet style to a more compact 48-inch web width was addressed by both Executive Editor Bill Keller and The New York Times President Scott Heekin-Canedy in memos to the staff. Keller defended the "more reader-friendly" move indicating that in cutting out the "flabby or redundant prose in longer pieces" the reduction would make for a better paper. Similarly, Keller confronted the challenges of covering news with "less room" by proposing more "rigorous editing" and promised an ongoing commitment to "hard-hitting, ground-breaking journalism".[49] The official change went into effect on August 6, 2007.[50]
The New York Times printed a display advertisement on its first page on January 6, 2009, breaking tradition at the paper.[51] The advertisement for CBS was in color and was the entire width of the page.[52] The newspaper promised it would place first-page advertisements on only the lower half of the page.[51]
Reputation and awards
The New York Times has established links regionally with 16 bureaus in the New York region, nationally, with 11 bureaus within the United States, and globally, with 26 foreign news bureaus.[citation needed]The New York Times has won 112 Pulitzer Prizes, more than any other newspaper. The prize is awarded for excellence in journalism in a range of categories.[53]
Web presence
The New York Times has had a strong presence on the Web since 1996, and has been ranked one of the top Web sites. Accessing some articles requires registration, though this could be bypassed in some cases through Times RSS feeds.[54] The website had 555 million pageviews in March 2005.[55] The domain nytimes.com attracted at least 146 million visitors annually by 2008 according to a Compete.com study. The New York Times Web site ranks 59th by number of unique visitors, with over 20 million unique visitors in March 2009 making it the most visited newspaper site with more than twice the number of unique visitors as the next most popular site.[56] Also, as of May 2009, nytimes.com produced 22 of the 50 most popular newspaper blogs.[57]In September 2005, the paper decided to begin subscription-based service for daily columns in a program known as TimesSelect, which encompassed many previously free columns. Until being discontinued two years later, TimesSelect cost $7.95 per month or $49.95 per year,[58] though it was free for print copy subscribers and university students and faculty.[59][60] To avoid this charge, bloggers often reposted TimesSelect material,[61] and at least one site once compiled links of reprinted material.[62] On September 17, 2007, The New York Times announced that it would stop charging for access to parts of its Web site, effective at midnight the following day, reflecting a growing view in the industry that subscription fees cannot outweigh the potential ad revenue from increased traffic on a free site.[63] In addition to opening almost the entire site to all readers, The New York Times news archives from 1987 to the present are available at no charge, as well as those from 1851 to 1922, which are in the public domain.[64][65] Access to the Premium Crosswords section continues to require either home delivery or a subscription for $6.95 per month or $39.95 per year. Times columnists including Nicholas Kristof and Thomas Friedman had criticized TimesSelect,[66][67] with Friedman going so far as to say "I hate it. It pains me enormously because it's cut me off from a lot, a lot of people, especially because I have a lot of people reading me overseas, like in India ... I feel totally cut off from my audience."[68]
The New York Times was made available on the iPhone and iPod Touch in 2008,[69] and on the iPad mobile devices in 2010.[70] It was also the first newspaper to offer a video game as part of its editorial content, Food Import Folly by Persuasive Games.[71] In 2010 reCAPTCHA helped to digitize old editions of The New York Times.[72] In 2012, The New York Times introduced a Chinese-language news site, cn.nytimes.com, with content created by staff based in Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong, though the server was placed outside of China to avoid censorship issues.[73]
On October 15, 2012, The News York Times announced that it was adding a Portuguese-language news site next year.[74] In March 2013, The New York Times and National Film Board of Canada announced a partnership entitled A Short History of the Highrise, which will create four short documentaries for the internet about life in highrise buildings as part of the NFB's Highrise project, utilizing images from the newspaper's photo archives for the first three films, and user-submitted images for the final film.[75]
Falling print advertising revenue and projections of continued decline resulted in a paywall being instituted in 2011, regarded as modestly successful after garnering several hundred thousand subscriptions and about $100 million in revenue as of March 2012.[76] The paywall was announced on March 17, 2011, that starting on March 28, 2011 (March 17, 2011 for Canada), it would charge frequent readers for access to its online content.[77] Readers would be able to access up to 20 articles each month without charge. (Although beginning in April 2012, the number of free-access articles was halved to just 10 articles per month.) Any reader who wanted to access more would have to pay for a digital subscription. This plan would allow free access for occasional readers, but produce revenue from "heavy" readers. Digital subscriptions rates for four weeks range from $15 to $35 depending on the package selected, with periodic new subscriber promotions offering four-week all-digital access for as low as 99¢. Subscribers to the paper's print edition get full access without any additional fee. Some content, such as the front page and section fronts will remain free, as well as the Top News page on mobile apps.[78] In January, 2013, the Times' public editor Margaret Sullivan announced that for the first time in its history, the paper generated more revenue through subscriptions than through advertising.[79]
Mobile presence
The Times Reader is a digital version of The New York Times. It was created via a collaboration between the newspaper and Microsoft. Times Reader takes the principles of print journalism and applies them to the technique of online reporting. Times Reader uses a series of technologies developed by Microsoft and their Windows Presentation Foundation team. It was announced in Seattle in April 2006 by Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr., Bill Gates, and Tom Bodkin. In 2009 the Times Reader 2.0 was rewritten in Adobe AIR.[80]In 2008, The New York Times created an app for the iPhone and iPod touch which allowed users to download articles to their mobile device enabling them to read the paper even when they were unable to receive a signal. In April 2010, The New York Times announced it will begin publishing daily content through an iPad app.[81] As of October 2010, The New York Times iPad app is ad-supported and available for free without a paid subscription, but translated into a subscription-based model in 2011.[70]
In 2010, the newspaper also launched an App for Android smartphones.
Moscow
Communication with its Russian readers is a special project of The New York Times launched in February 2008, guided by Clifford J. Levy. Some Times articles covering the broad spectrum of political and social topics in Russia are being translated into Russian and offered for the attention of Russia's bloggers in The New York Times community blog.[82] After that, selected responses of Russian bloggers are being translated into English and published at The New York Times site among comments from English readers.[83][84]Reporter resources
The website's "Newsroom Navigator" collects online resources for use by reporters and editors. It is maintained by Rich Meislin.[85][86][87] Further specific collections are available to cover the subjects of business, politics and health.[85][88][89] In 1998, Meislin was editor-in-chief of electronic media at the newspaper.[90]Interruptions
No editions were printed on January 2 of 1852–1853, January 2 of 1862–1867, and July 5 of 1861–1865.Due to strikes, the regular edition of The New York Times was not printed during the following periods:[91]
- December 9, 1962 to March 31, 1963. Only a western edition was printed due to the 1962–63 New York City newspaper strike.
- September 17, 1965 to October 10, 1965. An international edition was printed, and a weekend edition replaced the Saturday and Sunday papers.
- August 10, 1978 to November 5, 1978. A multi-union strike shut down the three major New York City newspapers. No editions of The New York Times were printed. Two months into the strike, a parody of The New York Times called Not The New York Times was given out in New York, with contributors such as Carl Bernstein, Christopher Cerf, Tony Hendra and George Plimpton.
Coverage issues
Political persuasion overall
According to a 2007 survey by conservative-leaning[92] Rasmussen Reports of public perceptions of major media outlets, 40% saw the paper as having a liberal slant, 20% no political slant and 11% believe it has a conservative slant.[93] In December 2004, a University of California, Los Angeles study by former fellows of a conservative think tank gave The New York Times a score of 63.5 on a 100 point scale, with 0 being most conservative and 100 being most liberal. Fox News, comparatively, received an 11. [94] The validity of the study has been questioned by liberal organizations, including the media "watchdog" group Media Matters for America.[95] In mid-2004, the newspaper's then public editor (ombudsman), Daniel Okrent, wrote an opinion piece in which he said that The New York Times did have a liberal bias in news coverage of certain social issues such as abortion and permitting gay marriage. He stated that this bias reflected the paper's cosmopolitanism, which arose naturally from its roots as a hometown paper of New York City. Okrent did not comment at length on the issue of bias in coverage of other "hard news", such as fiscal policy, foreign policy, or civil liberties, but stated that the paper's coverage of the Iraq war was insufficiently critical of the Bush administration.[96] The New York Times has not endorsed a Republican for president since Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1956; since that year it has endorsed every Democratic nominee.[97]States and ethnicities
The Huffington Post criticized the New York Times for its coverage of foreign leaders through profiles. It cited a glowing report for Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti versus a dismissive report on Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa, despite the fact that the two men have similar background in getting PhDs in economics from U.S. schools. The report cited such points as democracy and a proven track record, yet showed that the labeling of Monti in glowing terms as a technocrat and Correa as a "left-leaning economist" showed the New York Times was not a left-leaning newspaper but right-leaning in economic terms. Further, Monti was unelected, Correa elected; Monti's term as leader led to a brain drain, economic malaise, and increased unemployment, while Ecuador (despite using the U.S. dollar) managed growth during the Great Recession and reduced both unemployment and poverty.[98]Iraq War
A year after the war started the newspaper asserted that some of its articles had not been as rigorous as they should have been, and were insufficiently qualified, frequently overly dependent upon information from Iraqi exiles desiring regime change.[99] Reporter Judith Miller retired after criticisms that her reporting of the lead-up to the Iraq War was factually inaccurate and overly favorable to the Bush administration's position, for which The New York Times later apologized.[100][101] One of Miller's prime sources was Ahmed Chalabi, an Iraqi expatriate who returned to Iraq after the U.S. invasion and held a number of governmental positions culminating in acting oil minister and deputy prime minister from May 2005 until May 2006.[102][103]Palestinian-Israeli conflict
For its coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, some have claimed that the paper is pro-Palestinian, others it is pro-Israel.[104][105] The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, by political science professors John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, alleges that The New York Times sometimes criticizes Israeli policies but is not even-handed and is generally pro-Israel.[106] On the other hand, the Simon Wiesenthal Center has criticized The New York Times for printing cartoons regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that were claimed to be anti-Semitic.[107]Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected a proposal to write an article for the paper on grounds of lack of objectivity. A piece in which Thomas Friedman commented that praise awarded to Netanyahu during a speech at congress was "paid for by the Israel lobby" elicited an apology and clarification from its writer.[108]
The New York Times' public editor Clark Hoyt concluded in his January 10, 2009, column, "Though the most vociferous supporters of Israel and the Palestinians do not agree, I think The New York Times, largely barred from the battlefield and reporting amid the chaos of war, has tried its best to do a fair, balanced and complete job — and has largely succeeded." [109]
World War II
On November 14, 2001, in The New York Times' 150th anniversary issue, former executive editor Max Frankel wrote that before and during World War II, the Times had maintained a consistent policy to minimize reports on the Holocaust in their news pages.[110] Laurel Leff, associate professor of journalism at Northeastern University, concluded that the newspaper had downplayed the Third Reich targeting of Jews for genocide. Her 2005 book Buried by the Times documents the NYT's tendency before, during and after World War II to place deep inside its daily editions the news stories about the ongoing persecution and extermination of Jews, while obscuring in those stories the special impact of the Nazis' crimes on Jews in particular. Leff attributes this dearth in part to the complex personal and political views of the newspaper's Jewish publisher, Arthur Hays Sulzberger, concerning Jewishness, antisemitism, and Zionism.[111]During the war, New York Times journalist William L. Laurence was "on the payroll of the War Department".[112][113]
Ethics incidents
Failure to report famine in Ukraine
The Times has been criticized for reporter Walter Duranty's work, who served as its Moscow bureau chief from 1922 through 1936, series of stories written in 1931 on the Soviet Union. Duranty won a Pulitzer Prize for his work at that time; however he has been criticized for his denial of widespread famine, most particularly the Ukraine famine in the 1930s.[114][115][116][117] In 2003, after the Pulitzer Board began a renewed inquiry, the Times hired Mark von Hagen, professor of Russian history at Columbia University, to review Duranty's work. Von Hagen found Duranty's reports to be unbalanced and uncritical, and that they far too often gave voice to Stalinist propaganda. In comments to the press he stated, "For the sake of The New York Times' honor, they should take the prize away."[118]Fashion news articles promoting advertisers
In the mid to late 1950s, "fashion writer[s]... were required to come up every month with articles whose total column-inches reflected the relative advertising strength of every ["department" or "specialty"] store ["assigned" to a writer]... The monitor of all this was... the advertising director [of the Times]... " However, within this requirement, story ideas may have been the reporters' and editors' own.[119]Plagiarism
In May 2003, Times reporter Jayson Blair was forced to resign from the newspaper after he was caught plagiarizing and fabricating elements of his stories. Some critics contended that Blair's race was a major factor in his hiring and in The New York Times' initial reluctance to fire him.[120]Duke University lacrosse case
The newspaper was criticized for largely reporting the prosecutors' version of events in the 2006 Duke lacrosse case.[121][122] Suzanne Smalley of Newsweek criticized the newspaper for its "credulous"[123] coverage of the charges of rape against Duke University lacrosse players. Stuart Taylor, Jr. and KC Johnson, in their book Until Proven Innocent: Political Correctness and the Shameful Injustices of the Duke Lacrosse Rape Case, write: "at the head of the guilt-presuming pack, The New York Times vied in a race to the journalistic bottom with trash-TV talk shows."[124]Quotes out of context
In February 2009, a Village Voice music blogger accused the newspaper of using "chintzy, ad-hominem allegations" in an article on British Tamil music artist M.I.A. concerning her activism against the Sinhala-Tamil conflict in Sri Lanka.[125][126] M.I.A. criticized the paper in January 2010 after a travel piece rated post-conflict Sri Lanka the "#1 place to go in 2010".[127][128] In June 2010, The New York Times Magazine published a correction on its cover article of M.I.A., acknowledging that the interview conducted by current W editor and then-Times Magazine contributor Lynn Hirschberg contained a recontextualization of two quotes.[129][130] In response to the piece, M.I.A. broadcast Hirschberg's phone number and secret audio recordings from the interview via her Twitter and website.[131][132]Online activity
Online content is available through a metered paywall begun in 2011. While one's first ten articles per month are free to read, one must subscribe to read additional articles.[77] There are also mobile applications to access content for various mobile devices, such as Android devices and Apple's iOS platform.The paper's website was hacked on August 29, 2013, by the Syrian Electronic Army, a hacking group that supports the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The SEA managed to penetrate the paper's domain name registrar, Melbourne IT, and alter DNS records for the Times, putting some of its websites out of service for hours.[133]
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