(C) Common Dreams
This story was originally published by Common Dreams and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .



N.Y. Times writer quits over open letter accusing Israel of ‘genocide’ [1]

['Avi Selk', 'Samantha Chery']

Date: 2023-11-04

Listen 3 min Share Comment on this story Comment Add to your saved stories Save

The New York Times announced in a note to staff Friday that a writer for its magazine resigned after violating newsroom policy by signing an open letter that accused Israel of trying to “conduct genocide against the Palestinian people.” Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight Jazmine Hughes, who joined the paper in 2015 and has won multiple national awards, was one of the most prominent names on a statement published last week by a group called Writers Against the War on Gaza. It accused Israel of targeting journalists and killing thousands of Palestinians since Oct. 7, when the Israeli government declared war on Hamas after the militant group launched a bloody attack from its base in the Gaza Strip that killed at least 1,400 people in Israel and took dozens of hostages. The death toll in Gaza since the war began is approaching 10,000.

Skip to end of carousel The Style section Style is where The Washington Post covers happenings on the front lines of culture and what it all means, including the arts, media, social trends, politics and yes, fashion, all told with personality and deep reporting. For more Style stories, click here End of carousel

“Israel is an apartheid state, designed to privilege Jewish citizens at the expense of Palestinians, heedless of the many Jewish people, both in Israel and across the diaspora, who oppose their own conscription in an ethno-nationalist project,” read the statement, which specifically criticized a New York Times editorial that offered qualified support of Israeli reprisal attacks while imploring the country to protect Palestinian civilians.

Advertisement

“While I respect that she has strong convictions, this was a clear violation of The Times’s policy on public protest,” magazine editor Jake Silverstein wrote in an email to staff Friday evening. “This policy, which I fully support, is an important part of our commitment to independence.”

Silverstein said Hughes also violated the policy earlier in the year, when she signed an open letter protesting the Times’s coverage of transgender issues. “She and I discussed that her desire to stake out this kind of public position and join in public protests isn’t compatible with being a journalist at The Times, and we both came to the conclusion that she should resign,” he wrote in the email.

Hughes didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment Saturday morning. The Times declined to comment beyond Silverstein’s email.

Advertisement

Hughes has won a string of accolades while working as a writer and editor at the Times, including a National Magazine Award in March for profiles on Viola Davis and Whoopi Goldberg. Forbes named her one of its top “30 under 30” journalists several years earlier, in part for her work to help diversify her newsroom.

Share this article Share

She was prominently involved in criticizing her newspaper’s op-ed desk in 2020, after it published a column by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) urging the military to enter U.S. cities. The paper later said that column failed to meet its standards, and the incident helped push editorial page editor James Bennet out of the company.

The Israel-Gaza war has forced many institutions to contend with members who feel strongly about the conflict, which involves a long history of Israeli occupation and deadly military reprisals on Palestinian territory.

Advertisement

Journalists at various news outlets have quit or been fired in connection with reporting and comments on the Israel-Gaza war.

David Velasco was ousted as editor in chief at Artforum after the arts publication posted an open letter that supported Palestinian liberation and called for a cease-fire. The letter led to several staffers quitting in protest, Vanity Fair reported.

Two BBC reporters resigned last month over disagreements with its war coverage. Noah Abrahams quit after the network failed to call Hamas a terrorist organization. And Bassam Bounenni resigned from his role as a North Africa correspondent, “as required by my professional conscience,” he said on X, formerly Twitter.

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/media/2023/11/04/nyt-jazmine-hughes-resigns

Published and (C) by Common Dreams
Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 3.0..

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/commondreams/