NY Times reporters slam exec editor Joe Kahn for ‘unwillingness to tolerate dissent’: report
NY Post
Reporters at the New York Times have been circulating a draft of an open letter to executive editor Joe Kahn in response to his comments scolding young journalists for being “less accustomed” to “open debate” and a “robust exchange of views” while seeing the newsroom as a “safe space.”
The draft letter hits back at Kahn, accusing him of an “unwillingness to tolerate dissent,” according to the news site Semafor.
“Instead of engaging in robust exchange, we are increasingly discouraged from speaking up at all,” staff wrote in the draft letter.
“We are told that it is only appropriate to express concerns or even earnest questions in one-on-one conversations with people who outrank us.”
Staffers wrote in the letter that the Times did not offer them opportunities to exchange views and that more diverse perspectives were “needed to protect not just the independence but also the empathy of our journalism.”
Kahn was accused in the letter of making “broad generalizations that reflect a poor understanding of the people who make up your newsroom.”