How The New York Times is (still) getting gamed by the right
The New York Times has a long-standing obsession with a view from nowhere, but as Republicans increasingly circulate insane conspiracy theories and racist nonsense, the cult of centrism has taken a self-destructive turn. A recent example of this is a story about New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s application to Columbia University in 2009, when he was a high school senior.
Mamdani, who was born in Uganda and is of South Asian descent, identified himself as “Asian” and “Black or African American” on the checklist provided by the application. “Most college applications don’t have a box for Indian-Ugandans, so I checked multiple boxes trying to capture the fullness of my background,” Mamdani told the Times.
The story has been criticized for its racist framing, which implies that Mamdani was trying to game the admissions system. This framing plays better with the increasingly racist right-wing ecosystem. The New York Times declined to comment on the story's framing, instead stating that reporters receive tips from people with biases and bad motives all the time, but only publish such information after verifying it.
However, the source of the story is a hacked document, which typically should be identified along with its goals. In this case, the alleged hacker told Bloomberg that their goal was to acquire information about university applications that would suggest a continuation of affirmative action policies in Columbia’s admissions, following a 2023 Supreme Court decision that effectively barred the practice.
The New York Times declined to comment on why it didn’t follow best practices. The materials were provided by a source identified as “Crémieux” — “an academic who opposes affirmative action and writes often about I.Q. and race.” However, this reference may be a stretch, as Crémieux has been identified as Jordan Lasker, a prominent internet eugenicist.
As for the Times’ description of him as an academic, that may be a mistake. Lasker is co-author of two papers that played a role in getting another co-author fired due to their racist content. One paper lists Lasker as affiliated with the University of Minnesota, while another lists him as Texas Tech.
The Times’ obsession with being objective journalism has led it down a path of self-destruction. By trying to be balanced and fair, the paper is skewing further and further right, resulting in disastrous stories that discredit itself on other issues.
A recent example of this is the story about Claudine Gay, then the president of Harvard, who was accused of plagiarism. The Times published a live blog and at least five front-page stories about Gay, while ignoring a similar story about Stanford President Marc Tessier-Lavigne, who was accused of research fraud.
The Gay story got more play than Tessier-Lavigne's because it was a cause celebre of the right. Rufo published allegations against Gay that were later found to be false, and Tessier-Lavigne was found to have failed on at least four occasions to correct mistakes in the scientific record.
The Times is not just failing its readers; it’s also undermining its own credibility. This is not due to an owner kneecapping an independent newsroom but rather a result of the paper's commitment to objective journalism, which has become a marketing practice.
The false balance problems at The New York Times come from the very top. Joe Kahn, the executive editor, praised both the story and Healy’s defense of it, according to Marisa Kabas. This is not an isolated incident; Jeff Bezos has undermined the authority of The Washington Post to a genuinely stunning degree.
The trouble at the Times is a considerably more dismal sight to behold. It is not going to be easy for the paper to recover from this self-inflicted damage. By trying to be objective, it's lost its way.