CitizenVectron Posted June 16, 2022 Share Posted June 16, 2022 Under NYT Ownership, The Athletic Lays Down "No Politics" Rule For Staff | Defector DEFECTOR.COM As one Athletic staff member told Defector succinctly, "This makes no sense." Quote A memo from cofounder Alex Mather said that The Athletic would operate "as a standalone editorial unit, separate from the newsroom of The New York Times." Six months later, this promise is already being broken. Quote As of June 8, that has changed. In a meeting last week addressing editorial changes including the new mandate, Chief Content Officer Paul Fichtenbaum acknowledged the no-politics policy was a "departure" from previous operating guidelines. He stated that in accordance with the new policy, staff members should not express their political beliefs on social media or any platform. NYT being losers again. Hopefully they lose subscriptions due to this acquisition. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
b_m_b_m_b_m Posted June 16, 2022 Share Posted June 16, 2022 “Instead read our politics published as fact in the paper of record” Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeneticBlueprint Posted June 16, 2022 Share Posted June 16, 2022 Quote As of June 8, that has changed. In a meeting last week addressing editorial changes including the new mandate, Chief Content Officer Paul Fichtenbaum acknowledged the no-politics policy was a “departure” from previous operating guidelines. He stated that in accordance with the new policy, staff members should not express their political beliefs on social media or any platform. In giving an example about what would count as political, he said: Quote We don’t want to stop people from having a voice and raising their voice for appropriate issues. But there comes a point where something that is a straightforward, “Hey, I’m concerned about guns in America,” for instance, right, that’s an apolitical statement. It becomes political when you say, “I’m concerned about guns in America and this political party is the reason why we’re having an issue,” right? That’s when it tips over. So again, we don’t want to stop people from having a voice and expressing themselves. We just need to keep it from tipping over into the political space. The Athletic Chief Content Officer Paul Fichtenbaum The vast gray area between and outside of these two silly hypothetical statements went unaddressed, as did the question of who gets to decide what counts as the “political space.” In response to a question from a staffer seeking clarification on this question, Fichtenbaum said, “I don’t personally view matters of race as politics. Again, like, it could become a matter of politics if it goes that way. But on its own, I don’t think that race is a political thing in what we’re talking about.” I've been subscribed to The Athletic for the past several years because it really is great sports writing. But I feel like this could really hamper some of their longer investigative and historical pieces. That will be fucking lame. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thewhyteboar Posted June 16, 2022 Share Posted June 16, 2022 Dumb as hell. One of my favorite Seahawks beat writers works there and I like seeing his take on politics. All this will do is drive away talent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
b_m_b_m_b_m Posted June 16, 2022 Share Posted June 16, 2022 1 hour ago, thewhyteboar said: Dumb as hell. One of my favorite Seahawks beat writers works there and I like seeing his take on politics. All this will do is drive away talent. Where would they go? Vox???? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris- Posted June 16, 2022 Share Posted June 16, 2022 1 minute ago, b_m_b_m_b_m said: Where would they go? Vox???? I’m sure 2-3 will end up at Defector. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thewhyteboar Posted June 17, 2022 Share Posted June 17, 2022 1 hour ago, b_m_b_m_b_m said: Where would they go? Vox???? Hopefully the Defector (if you haven’t subscribed yet, you should! [Normal Gossip is a great podcast]). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeneticBlueprint Posted June 17, 2022 Share Posted June 17, 2022 7 hours ago, thewhyteboar said: Dumb as hell. One of my favorite Seahawks beat writers works there and I like seeing his take on politics. All this will do is drive away talent. Dugar? I love him. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thewhyteboar Posted June 17, 2022 Share Posted June 17, 2022 Just now, GeneticBlueprint said: Dugar? I love him. My man. Yup. Dugar is awesome. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kal-El814 Posted June 17, 2022 Share Posted June 17, 2022 Sports writers not being able to “cover politics” as team owners fleece taxpayers for billions to build new stadiums seems bad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 18, 2022 Share Posted June 18, 2022 I don’t want political coverage in my sports section, except where directly relevant to the sports themselves, which turns out is very often. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kal-El814 Posted June 18, 2022 Share Posted June 18, 2022 Keep politics out of sports! Now rise for the national anthem performed by some dude in the Marines and watch fighter jets buzz the stadium that taxpayers subsidized to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars. 4 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted June 18, 2022 Share Posted June 18, 2022 It worked for Deadspin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CitizenVectron Posted June 18, 2022 Author Share Posted June 18, 2022 3 hours ago, sblfilms said: I don’t want political coverage in my sports section, except where directly relevant to the sports themselves, which turns out is very often. The issue isn't politics inside articles (which, though it doesn't happen as often, still should be allowed in the sense of political movements within sports, such as kneeling for the anthem, etc), but rather in other areas such as social media: Quote in accordance with the new policy, staff members should not express their political beliefs on social media or any platform. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Posted June 18, 2022 Share Posted June 18, 2022 shut up and play write Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeneticBlueprint Posted September 15, 2022 Share Posted September 15, 2022 Cancelling this subscription. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subzwari1987 Posted September 15, 2022 Share Posted September 15, 2022 You don’t even need a subscription to read an article. They use JavaScript to hide most of the article, so disabling JavaScript will let you read the whole article. The reader mode in Safari does too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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