Ezra Klein proves The New York Times’ bigotry

At The New York Times, journalists are allowed to cast aspersions on one — only one — ethnic, racial, religious, or nationality group. This rule does not need to exist in writing; it is established through practices.

One of the paper’s most prominent figures, Ezra Klein, recently proved it. In his latest wildly wrong claim, Klein declared that “indifference” has “gripped hearts of Israeli Jews.”

If someone at the Times said this about any other such minority group, the bosses would take action. Internally, journalists representing members of that group would be up in arms demanding the employee be fired — yes, even if the employee professed some kind of association with the group.

But in this era, Klein faces no negative repercussions. The Times continues to promote his work in hopes of getting it in front of even more people. Because when it comes to the tiny Jewish state, across most of the big legacy media, all journalistic standards are ignored.

In the new episode of They Stand Corrected, my podcast and newsletter fact checking the news, I dug into how Klein misrepresents data to creates sweeping, offensive generalizations. It’s a simple, three-step routine that many news outlets use to swing public opinion and radicalize people.

Even when surveys showed that the majority of Palestinians support the October 7 massacres, Klein and the Times had nothing to say about their “hearts.” When an extensive study declared that “52 Percent of all Arabs favor terrorism against the United States,” the Times didn’t dream of looking at it, taking it seriously, or casting aspersions on Arab people as a whole.

But for the Times, Klein can use a Ha’aretz headline with an alleged data point, not bother to fact check it, and use it justify a vile attack on the “hearts” of Israeli Jews.

The separate set of rules just for Israel characterizes much of what the paper has become.  Recently, in covering another example involving Klein, I ran some numbers. About 15% of Black voters supported Trump in the past election; the Times has run zero op-eds from Black voters for Trump. Before the mayoral primary in New York City, polls showed 14% or 20% of Jewish voters would rank Zohran Mamdani (sadly, his support seems to have grown since then).

Within days of the primary, the Times’ opinion team published at least two pieces from their own Jewish staffers praising him — despite his threatened illegal, unconstitutional arrest of Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Neither mentioned that the arrest would be extrajudicial.

The Times is currently ranked as the most visited of all U.S. news websites. It’s also one of the biggest selling newspapers. Massive numbers of people are getting the message that when it comes to hating Israel, anything is fair game — even disdaining the Israeli people as a whole.

The Times won’t fix its institutional bias unless it faces financial consequences. That’s why, if you subscribe, it’s time to cancel. (You can still, most likely, access the web content for free, legally.)