Shannon Stapleton/Reuters
A day after open letters from both celebrities and New York Times contributors blasted the paper for its coverage of transgender people, executive editor Joe Kahn hit back with a newsroom memo defending the coverage and condemning contributors and staffers who railed against it.
“Participation in such a campaign is against the letter and spirit of our ethics policy,” Kahn wrote, later adding: “We do not welcome, and will not tolerate, participation by Times journalists in protests organized by advocacy groups or attacks on colleagues on social media and other public forums.”
Kahn argued the open letters ignored the paper’s “strong commitment to covering all aspects of transgender issues, including the life experience of transgender people and the prejudice and violence against them in our society.”