New York Times executive editor Dean Baquet couldn’t care less if Edward Snowden is a traitor or not, he just regrets missing out on getting an exclusive. He told PBS host Charlie Rose, on his November 9 show, that he would’ve gone as far as giving Snowden a “back massage” to land the story for the Times.
Dean Baquet
By Mark Finkelstein | October 11, 2015 | 12:51 PM EDT
Yeah, that's been our big beef with the New York Times: it's too tough on top Democrats . . .
So we'll all sleep better now that Times Executive Editor Dean Baquet has assured us that the paper is not "too aggressive" or "unfair" in its coverage of Hillary Clinton. On CNN's Reliable Sources today, Bacquet, as proof of the paper's even-handedness, noted to host Brian Stelter a Times story on Benghazi that "did not point a finger at her" and another story probing problems within the Benghazi committee.
By Randy Hall | July 31, 2015 | 4:55 PM EDT
An official with the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign sent a lengthy missive to Dean Baquet, executive editor of the New York Times, indicating “grave concern” over a controversial report the newspaper carried regarding the former secretary of state's private email account.
That's pretty audacious when Mrs. Clinton destroyed her own e-mail server and the State Department's getting scolded by judges over her department's slowness to respond to record requests from Hillary's tenure as Secretary of State.
By Clay Waters | January 9, 2015 | 11:05 AM EST
The New York Times smugly explained to Buzzfeed why it refuses to rerun the "offensive" images of the Prophet Muhammad published by Charlie Hebdo: "we do not normally publish images or other material deliberately intended to offend religious sensibilities." So why has the Times previously run cartoons that offend Christian and Jewish sensibilities, without any apparent concerns?
By Tom Blumer | May 19, 2014 | 11:25 AM EDT
Last night (at NewsBusters; at BizzyBlog), I pointed to the track record of Dean Baquet, who has ascended to the hallowed perch of executive editor at the New York Times, and observed that "someone who has clearly been a troubling and disruptive presence is now in charge."
Two incidents spanning seven years support my contention. The first occurred in 2006 at the Los Angeles Times, where Baquet, then that paper's editor, petulantly refused to make budget cuts the paper's Tribune Company parent demanded, took his complaints public in the paper itself, metaphorically barricaded himself in his office, and dared the Trib to fire him (they did, two months later). The second occurred in April of last year, when Baquet, now at the New York Times, got into an argument with now deposed Executive Editor Jill Abramson, "burst out of Abramson’s office, slammed his hand against a wall ... stormed out of the newsroom ... (and was) gone for the rest of the day." Now we learn from David Carr at the Old Gray Lady itself that, in essence, Baquet did an "it's her or me" number on Abramson (HT Ann Althouse) to grease the skids for her firing.
In Lionizing NYT's Baquet, Press Ignore Childish Insubordination Which Led to His Firing at the LA Times
By Tom Blumer | May 18, 2014 | 11:49 PM EDT At the Politico, concerning Dean Baquet, the new Executive Editor at the New York Times, Dylan Byers wonders: "How will ... (he) handle the necessary digital transformation facing 'All the news that’s fit to print.'?" The better question is: How will he handle the financial constraints Times management will almost inevitably have to impose on a stagnant if not shrinking newsroom operation?
To say that Baquet didn't deal with such matters well when he was in a similar position at the Los Angeles Times eight years ago is an understatement. The working press seems to consider him some kind of hero for standing up to senior management at the Tribune Company, the paper's owner. The fact is that his childish, passive-aggressive posturing made his firing inevitable, and that he should have been sent packing months earlier than he was.
By Clay Waters | April 25, 2013 | 11:04 AM EDT
Politico media reporter Dylan Byers stirred up media indignation with an unflattering article Tuesday on Jill Abramson, the New York Times executive editor, "Turbulence at the Times", based largely on anonymous Times sources who snipe that Abramson is detached, brusque, and a "very, very unpopular" presence in the newsroom.
One Monday morning in April, Jill Abramson called Dean Baquet into her office to complain. The executive editor of The New York Times was upset about the paper’s recent news coverage -- she felt it wasn’t “buzzy” enough, a source there said -- and placed blame on Baquet, her managing editor. A debate ensued, which gave way to an argument.
Politico's Byers Writes a Tome on NYT's Baquet-Abramson Conflict, Omits Baquet's Outrageous 2006 Insubordination at the LA Times
By Tom Blumer | April 24, 2013 | 10:57 AM EDT In a 1,700-word report on conflict and office politics at the New York Times, the Politico's Dylan Byers omitted critical context about the apparent personality clash between Jill Abramson, the paper's executive editor, and Dean Baquet, its managing editor.
Byers could have remedied the situation by including these seven words at an appropriate point: "Baquet, who has a history of insubordination ..." This history is not a secret, as illustrated in the following writeup at the (I'm not kidding) New York Times in September 2006 (bolds are mine):
By Clay Waters | August 30, 2011 | 10:44 AM EDT
The New York Times so far has issued three corrections to reporter Eric Lichtblau’s August 15 front-page hit piece on conservative California Rep. Darrell Issa of California, but the paper won't consider a retraction because, as the Times's Washingtion bureau chief says: “The article was carefully reported, written, and edited, and we stand by the story both in its broad thrust and, except as noted, in its particular details.”
Lichtblau, who along with James Risen is notorious for printing the sensitive details of classified terrorist surveillance programs on the front page of the Times, is not known for his fairness to conservative subjects; his 2008 book “Bush’s Law” bluntly accused the administration of lying about the “war on terror” (quotation marks are Lichtblau’s).