LONDON: Nearly half of New York Times employees feel that they are not able to speak freely within the paper, a recent internal survey found.
According to reports, 49 percent of employees are not comfortable saying what they really think, while only 51 percent do — 10 percent lower than the average benchmark among similar companies.
While the paper issued a statement saying that “there is a free exchange of views in this company; people are not afraid to say what they really think,” the survey’s results say otherwise.
“Although the majority of us feel well-informed, many indicated that differing viewpoints aren’t sought or valued in our work,” the internal assessment of the data by the New York Times stated.
“Relatedly, we saw some negative responses on whether there’s a free exchange of views in the company, and scored below the benchmark on this question.”
The survey also found that 74 percent of employees felt that leaders and colleagues within the paper were accepting and embracing of different religions, races and ethnicities — another 10 percent drop from the previous survey in 2019.
“We saw steep declines in answers about leaders and colleagues accepting and embracing differences in race, gender, identity and religion. Responses from Black and Latino colleagues declined at an even greater rate,” the New York Times statement read.
The newspaper has recently found itself in hot water over the ousting of freelance editor Lauren Wolfe last month over a tweet she posted alluding to a liberal bias within the paper. The tweet in question showed her support for US President Joe Biden on inauguration day and read: “Biden landing at Joint Base Andrews now. I have chills.”
The New York Times, however, issued a statement insisting that they “didn’t end someone’s employment over a single tweet.”
