A.G. Sulzberger says The New York Times still values “diversity of opinion” despite conservative claims of left-wing bias.
The New York Times Company chairman told shareholders at a meeting Wednesday that his news organization reports “without fear or favor” and commits resources to “fairly characterizing and representing multiple viewpoints” in its opinion pages.
“This type of independent journalism is especially important at a moment when the country is so polarized and so much political debate is made in bad faith,” Mr. Sulzberger said.
“One of the most important things we can do as an independent news organization is to help a diverse and divided country understand itself. So fairly representing a diversity of view and experiences is and will remain an essential part of our mission,” he added.
Mr. Sulzberger was responding to a question from conservative shareholder-activist Ethan Peck, an associate of the National Center for Public Policy Research’s Free Enterprise Project, which advocates for conservative values.
Mr. Peck had asked the chairman to affirm the newspaper’s commitment to viewpoint diversity above racial diversity. He expressed concern over the July 2020 resignation of former New York Times opinion editor Bari Weiss, who wrote in her departure letter that “bullying by colleagues” forced her out for not being liberal enough.
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“Will the Times now either commit to hiring writers and editors of all political persuasions or at least be forthright by rebranding itself as the exclusively hard-left publication that it is?” Mr. Peck asked.
He complained later that Mr. Sulzberger evaded the question.
“The issue is that the Times sees itself as the ministry of truth and makes an intentional effort to hide behind a veil of neutrality and objectivity,” Mr. Peck said in a statement.
“All we asked of the board was to be transparent about its obvious biases with the shareholders paying their checks,” he added.
• Sean Salai can be reached at ssalai@washingtontimes.com.
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