The New York Times is under a lot of scrutiny these days. Anti-war, pro-Palestine protesters regularly target the paper over what they say is its biased coverage of Israel's war against Hamas, award-winning writers have been forced out for expressing pro-Palestine views, and revelations about the shoddy reporting behind a blockbuster story on alleged sexual assault perpetrated by Hamas on October 7 have led to outrage (and internally, what the newspaper's union claims is a racially biased investigation by management targeting staff of Middle Eastern and North African descent).
Recent criticism of the Times has not been limited to its coverage of Israel's genocidal campaign against Palestinians. In February of last year, a group of writers called out the paper's "editorial bias in the newspaper’s reporting on transgender, non-binary, and gender nonconforming people" and criticized how, in its reporting on trans youth, the Times was "following the lead of far-right hate groups in presenting gender diversity as a new controversy warranting new, punitive legislation."
Has anything changed since? On Tuesday, GLAAD and Media Matters for America released a report examining the Times's coverage of anti-trans legislation in the past year, and found that even based on what one would think are the bedrock principles of the "objective" coverage that the Times prizes itself on—hearing from all sides, combating misinformation, and reporting all the facts—the Times is still falling short.
The groups examined 65 articles the Times published on anti-trans legislation between February 15, 2023 and February 15, 2024, and found:
- 66 percent of the articles did not quote even one trans or gender-nonconforming person;
- 18 percent of the articles quoted misinformation from anti-trans activists without adequate fact-checking or additional context; and
- Six articles obscured the anti-trans background of sources, erasing histories of extremist rhetoric or actions.
"The paper of record has an obligation to present its readers with the full human toll of the anti-trans legislative assault," said Ari Drennen, the LGBTQ program director at Media Matters, in a press release. "Trans people are more than theoretical curiosities to be debated from afar. Each and every anti-trans bill affects living, breathing people whose voices deserve to be heard and whose stories deserve to be told."
We've reached out to the Times for comment, and will update if and when they respond.
And now some links that deserve to be read:
- "Mega-Cars Violate Brooklyn Bridge Weight Ban with Impunity"
- A New Jersey resident's life is about to be ruined.
- Maybe just close Rikers?
- Help me make this make sense! Via New York Focus: "The lobbyist dating New York State Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie has been cleared to return to work before the Assembly, New York Focus has learned. A spokesperson for the Greater New York Laborers-Employers Cooperation and Education Trust, or LECET, told New York Focus that after being barred on the advice of its former ethics lawyer, legislative and communications director Rebecca Lamorte can resume lobbying the Assembly—including Heastie's staff—but not the speaker himself. After Lamorte was cleared to return, the former ethics attorney quit."
- Another wind farm project in New York is inching closer to reality.
- Yankees fans from Long Island, rejoice!
- Good luck with this gag order on Donald Trump, truly.
- "Beth Israel delaying lifesaving care for patients because of service cuts, state says"
- NIMBYism strikes again.
- New York is getting its own version of AIPAC.
- "Billionaire Who Made Straw Donations to Eric Adams Has a Checkered Past in China"
- And finally, full apartment tour, when???
