New York Times reporter Nikole Hannah-Jones says 'all journalism is activism'
'I don't know how you can be fair and accurate if you pretend publicly that you have no feelings about something that you clearly do,' Hannah-Jones said
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}New York Times Magazine reporter Nikole Hannah-Jones declared that "all journalism is activism" as the Gray Lady faces constant criticism that it favors liberals.
Hannah-Jones won a Pulitzer Prize for commentary last year for the controversial 1619 Project that aimed to "reframe the country's history" by saying the country's legacy of slavery underpins every facet of American life. The Times has long claimed to be an unbiased, nonpartisan paper, but readers have seen it draft further and further to the left in recent years and Hannah-Jones doesn’t seem particularly concerned.
"All journalism is activism," Hannah-Jones told CBS News on Saturday.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}NIKOLE HANNAH-JONES CLAIMS OPPOSITION TO 1619 PROJECT NOT ABOUT 'ACCURATE RENDERING OF HISTORY
New York Times reporter Nikole Hannah-Jones declared that "all journalism is activism" as the Gray Lady faces constant criticism that it favors liberals. (Photo by Monica Schipper/Getty Images for Tribeca Festival) (Monica Schipper/Getty Images for Tribeca Festival)
"When you look at the model of The Washington Post, right? "Democracy dies in darkness,’ that's not a neutral position. But our methods of reporting have to be objective," the left-wing reporter addd. "We have to try to be fair and accurate. And I don't know how you can be fair and accurate if you pretend publicly that you have no feelings about something that you clearly do."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Hannah-Jones’ comment came after a series of incidents that have created a reputation that the New York Times is heavily influenced by outspoken liberals at the paper.
The New York Times did not immediately respond when asked if the paper agrees with Hannah-Jones’ comments.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Former Times columnist Bari Weiss ripped the paper’s staffers last month as "activist journalists who treat the paper like a high school cafeteria."
Weiss said the once-proud paper foments "rage, polarization, distrust" which betrayed her values. She famously quit the Times in 2020 with a scathing resignation letter in which she detailed bullying in an "illiberal environment."
It seems Hannah-Jones agrees with her theory that the paper’s reporters don’t have a neutral position. However, critics don’t think Hannah-Jones is accurate when claiming activist reporters try to be truthful.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"The New York Times journalist might have a point if she actually strived to be "fair and accurate." She doesn’t," NewsBusters associate editor Scott Whitlock wrote. "The problem with The 1619 Project is a problem with facts. Distinguished historians, including Pulitzer Prize-winners, hammered the errors."
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"We are dismayed at some of the factual errors in the project and the closed process behind it," a group of professors and historians wrote about Hannah-Jones' work in 2019. "These errors, which concern major events, cannot be described as interpretation or ‘framing.’ They are matters of verifiable fact, which are the foundation of both honest scholarship and honest journalism."