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New York Times accused of bias in its coverage of transgender issues

The New York Times is being called out publicly for its coverage of transgender issues.

Questions about the Times’ transgender coverage have been bubbling for months, but on Wednesday, it became a major topic. That’s because more than 200 New York Times contributors sent a letter to the Times saying they had “serious concerns about editorial bias in the newspaper’s reporting on transgender, non⁠-⁠binary, and gender nonconforming people.”

The letter was signed by many notable journalists, including opinion writer Roxane Gay, culture reporter Dave Itzkoff and Ed Yong, who works for The Atlantic but has contributed to the Times in the past.

BuzzFeed News’ Lil Kalish wrote, “In recent months, the Times has been criticized by trans journalists, trans right advocates, and others who have sounded the alarms about coverage that often frames the existence of trans children as one up for debate. The new letter marks the first time critics have organized to publicly denounce the Times for having an editorial bias in its coverage of trans issues.”

The letter said, “The newspaper’s editorial guidelines demand that reporters ‘preserve a professional detachment, free of any whiff of bias’ when cultivating their sources, remaining ‘sensitive that personal relationships with news sources can erode into favoritism, in fact or appearance. Yet the Times has in recent years treated gender diversity with an eerily familiar mix of pseudoscience and euphemistic, charged language, while publishing reporting on trans children that omits relevant information about its sources.”

The letter — which was addressed to Philip B. Corbett, associate managing editor for standards at The New York Times — used examples of specific articles in the Times that highlighted the letter writers’ concerns. As Kalish wrote, “The letter cites different Times articles as it criticizes the sourcing and terminology used around gender-affirming care and parental rights. The group says these articles fail to mention explicitly how certain individuals quoted are linked to anti-trans organizations.”

For example, in one story, “The Battle Over Gender Therapy,” the phrase “patient zero” was used to refer to a trans child seeking gender-affirming care. The letter said it was a “phrase that vilifies transness as a disease to be feared.”

That’s just one example of many in the letter.

The letter concluded with, “Some of us are trans, non⁠-⁠binary, or gender nonconforming, and we resent the fact that our work, but not our person, is good enough for the paper of record. Some of us are cis, and we have seen those we love discover and fight for their true selves, often swimming upstream against currents of bigotry and pseudoscience fomented by the kind of coverage we here protest. All of us daresay our stance is unremarkable, even common, and certainly not deserving of the Times’ intense scrutiny. A tiny percentage of the population is trans, and an even smaller percentage of those people face the type of conflict the Times is so intent on magnifying. There is no rapt reporting on the thousands of parents who simply love and support their children, or on the hardworking professionals at the New York Times enduring a workplace made hostile by bias—a period of forbearance that ends today.”

NPR’s Mary Yang wrote, “Some advocates see challenging the Times' coverage as part of the broader fight for the rights of trans people.”

GLAAD, the leading LGBTQ media advocacy group, also sent a letter to the Times on Wednesday. It said, in part, “… for more than a year, the New York Times has stood for something else: irresponsible, biased coverage of transgender people. The Times has repeatedly platformed cisgender (non-transgender) people spreading inaccurate and harmful misinformation about transgender people and issues. This is damaging to the paper’s credibility. And it is damaging to all LGBTQ people, especially our youth, who say debates about trans equality negatively impact their mental health, which is a contributing factor to the high suicide rates for LGBTQ youth.”

It went on to say, “It is appalling that the Times would dedicate so many resources and pages to platforming the voices of extremist anti-LGBTQ activists who have built their careers on denigrating and dehumanizing LGBTQ people, especially transgender people. While there have been a few fair stories, mostly human interest stories, those articles are not getting front-page placement or sent to app users via push notification like the irresponsible pieces are. THE LGBTQ COMMUNITY AND OUR ALLIES HAVE HAD ENOUGH AND WE DEMAND THE NEW YORK TIMES TAKE ACTION.”

Those who signed that letter included celebrities such as Judd Apatow, Margaret Cho, Lena Dunham and Gabrielle Union-Wade.

New York Times spokesperson Charlie Stadtlander said in a statement, “We received the letter from GLAAD and welcome their feedback. We understand how GLAAD sees our coverage. But at the same time, we recognize that GLAAD’s advocacy mission and The Times’s journalistic mission are different.

“As a news organization, we pursue independent reporting on transgender issues that include profiling groundbreakers in the movement, challenges and prejudice faced by the community, and how society is grappling with debates about care.

“The very news stories criticized by GLAAD in their letter reported deeply and empathetically on issues of care and well-being for trans teens and adults. 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.”

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Off and running

The “Today” show’s Craig Melvin interviewed former South Carolina Republican Gov. Nikki Haley on Wednesday to talk about her announcement that she is entering the 2024 presidential race. The interview is scheduled to air on this morning’s “Today” on NBC.

Haley kicked off her presidential campaign on Wednesday at an event in Charleston, South Carolina. (Here’s more from The Associated Press’ Meg Kinnard and Michelle L. Price.)

Meanwhile, columnists at The New York Times weighed in on Haley’s chances in 2024. With the understanding that it’s still a long way away, 10 Times columnists rated Haley’s chances on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 denoting that Haley has a very strong chance of being her party’s nominee. Five of the columnists had Haley at 2 or 1. Only two had Haley’s score above 5 — David Brooks at 6 and Bret Stephens at 7.

Stevens wrote, “She still has work to do to win over other core Republican constituencies (above all, evangelicals and Trump sympathizers), but nobody should underestimate her appeal. She looks like a winner to a party that’s desperate to win.”

Jane Coaston, who put Haley’s chances at a 2, wrote, “To borrow a phrase, we should take it extremely literally but not seriously. She is indeed running for president. But Nikki Haley will not be the next president of the United States of America.”

And Liz Mair, who had Haley’s chances the lowest at a 1, wrote, “She could be the next vice president. That’s the reason to take her seriously.”

MSNBC boss comments on the media

MSNBC president Rashida Jones spoke on Wednesday with New York Urban League CEO and president Arva Rice at a public event in New York City.

Jones had interesting comments, including about trust in media and the importance of accountability in journalism to ensure factual and inclusive reporting.

Jones said, “For us, rather than looking at a political culture or a political perspective, what we focus on is the truth. Are the angles that we’re hitting representative of truth and democracy and the rights of humans across the board? We can get stuck into both sides for a fair amount or however you look at it. You can’t sacrifice the truth. Sometimes the truth isn’t pretty. Sometimes the truth might be critical of this group or that group. Rather than trying to keep a scorecard of, well, we had X number of perspectives in this party, and X number of perspectives in this party. It’s gotten a little bit more nuanced than that. That’s one of the things we’ve done really well, that nuance.”

Jones also talked about challenges in creating equity in media and newsrooms across the country. She said, “If it were easy, it would be done, right? It’s always going to be a moving target. There’s always going to be an opportunity to improve and ensure the people in our newsrooms look like the country that we cover. I think if you don’t have processes, or there isn’t the highest level of prioritization, it can feel like it’s one person’s job, not everybody’s job. I think if we think about where we want to be, what does diversity actually look like when you’re done, it is almost an unrealistic goal because you're never done. I think you have to, as an organization, move from the ground up and be fully committed to this environment and you see that this department is not just the right thing to do.”

Twitter’s next CEO might be a real dog

Elon Musk says he hopes Twitter could have a new CEO by the end of the year.

Speaking via a video call to the World Government Summit in Dubai, Musk was asked about naming a CEO and he said, “I think I need to stabilize the organization and just make sure it’s in a financially healthy place. I’m guessing probably toward the end of this year would be good timing to find someone else to run the company.”

Will the unpredictable Musk actually stick to that timeframe?

Who knows, but Musk tweeted a photo of his dog late Tuesday night. The dog was sitting behind a desk while wearing a shirt that said “CEO.” Musk wrote, “The new CEO of Twitter is amazing.” He added, “So much better than that other guy!”

Last December, Musk tweeted a poll asking people whether he should step down as the head of Twitter, and saying he would abide by the results. More than 17.5 million voted, with 57.5% saying he should step down.

Man from infamous photo commits suicide

A memorable image of the 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, was of two men carrying tiki torches and yelling at someone or something out of frame.

One of those men, Teddy Joseph Von Nukem, killed himself on Jan. 30 — the same day he was set to face trial on a federal drug trafficking charge. Von Nukem died at his home in Missouri from an apparent gunshot wound. According to a coroner’s report obtained by The Daily Beast’s Jose Pagliery, “Suicide notes were found at the scene, left for law enforcement and his children, however handwriting was somewhat inconsistent.”

Von Nukem, 35, faced charges in Arizona of trafficking fentanyl across the Mexico border. He was arrested in March 2021 for allegedly having more than 33 pounds of fentanyl pills in his vehicle.

Von Nukem became one of the faces of the hate speech rally in August 2017. Von Nukem was accused of participating in the beating of counterprotester DeAndre Harris. The next day, 32-year-old Heather Heyer was killed and dozens of others were injured when a man in a car plowed into a group of counterprotesters.

The news of Von Nukem’s death was reported first on Twitter by Molly Conger, whom The Daily Beast called “an independent journalist in Charlottesville who has become a key anti-fascism researcher in the years since the rally shook the city.”

For more, The Washington Post’s Timothy Bella has, “Unite the Right marcher captured in viral photo dies by suicide before trial.”

Layoffs at Sports Illustrated

Once upon a time not that long ago, Sports Illustrated was the gold standard of sports journalism and one of the best, most respected and most stable magazines in the world.

These days, after ownership changes and rounds of layoffs over the past several years, the outlet is a shell of its former self. On Wednesday, Sports Illustrated announced more layoffs, including several talented writers and editors.

No official list is out there, but many of those laid off started posting the news on social media. Awful Announcing’s Andrew Bucholtz has a post collecting some of the tweets, as well as some of SI’s recent ownership history.

Media tidbits

• Legendary actress Raquel Welch has died. She was 82. Here are obits from The New York Times’ Anita Gates, The Washington Post’s Harrison Smith and  Emily Langer and The Los Angeles Times’ Gina Piccalo.
• In a piece for Esquire, Brian Stelter talks to New York Times reporters James B. Stewart and Rachel Abrams, who wrote a book about the family behind the Paramount empire. The Esquire story: “The Sordid Family Saga that Makes ‘Succession’ Look Tame.”
• ESPN Films announced Wednesday that it is doing an eight-part documentary on the history of the New York Yankees. “The Yankees Win” will be directed by Jonathan Hock. Executive producers include J.J. Abrams and Connor Schell. No details yet as to when the documentary will air.
• Speaking of baseball, New York Post sports media columnist Andrew Marchand with “Apple not bringing Katie Nolan, Melanie Newman back for MLB broadcasts.”
• The Star Tribune has a new publisher: Steve Grove, who was the founding director of Google News Lab. Grove has been working for Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s administration since 2019 as the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic development commissioner. Grove will take over for Mike Klingensmith, who is retiring after 13 years as publisher. Here’s more from The Star Tribune’s Brooks Johnson.

Hot type

• The Atlantic’s Tim Alberta writes about where he went to school — Michigan State University — in the aftermath of a tragedy in  “Requiem for the Spartans.”
• In The New York Times, writer Corina Knoll (with videos by Isabelle Qian and photographs by Li Qiang) with a story about ballroom dancers in Monterey Park, California: “Before the Gunfire, It Was Their Glittering ‘Dancing Star.’”

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Have feedback or a tip? Email Poynter senior media writer Tom Jones at tjones@poynter.org.