I was going to go with "Dimwit reporter of the Day" but the Delaware Valley Journal headline is less personal. Which is probably as it should be because there is something deeply, institutionally disturbed at the NYT as an organization.
First, a refresher on how we read the news from Michael Crichton:
Michael Crichton On Speculation By (and in) the Media
"....Media carries with it a credibility that is totally undeserved. You have all experienced this, in what I call the Murray Gell-Mann Amnesia effect. (I call it by this name because I once discussed it with Murray Gell-Mann, and by dropping a famous name I imply greater importance to myself, and to the effect, than it would otherwise have.)
Briefly stated, the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect works as follows. You open the newspaper to an article on some subject you know well. In Murray's case, physics. In mine, show business. You read the article and see the journalist has absolutely no understanding of either the facts or the issues. Often, the article is so wrong it actually presents the story backward-reversing cause and effect. I call these the "wet streets cause rain" stories. Paper's full of them.
In any case, you read with exasperation or amusement the multiple errors in a story-and then turn the page to national or international affairs, and read with renewed interest as if the rest of the newspaper was somehow more accurate about far-off Palestine than it was about the story you just read. You turn the page, and forget what you know.
That is the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect. I'd point out it does not operate in other arenas of life. In ordinary life, if somebody consistently exaggerates or lies to you, you soon discount everything they say. In court, there is the legal doctrine of falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus, which means untruthful in one part, untruthful in all.
But when it comes to the media, we believe against evidence that it is probably worth our time to read other parts of the paper. When, in fact, it almost certainly isn't. The only possible explanation for our behavior is amnesia...."
From the Delaware Valley Journal, Nov. 3:
A New York Times reporter who said the oil and gas industry is linked to white supremacy is still on the energy sector beat, despite complaints she can’t provide objective coverage, emails obtained by InsideSources show.
“I’ve been thinking a lot about fossil fuels and white supremacy recently,” Times climate change reporter Hiroko Tabuchi tweeted on Oct. 1. “Almost every single oil executive, lobbyist, spokesperson I’ve dealt with is white and male. It’s difficult not to see the link.”
One day after the tweet, a top executive with the American Petroleum Institute emailed Times climate editor Hannah Fairfield, who in turn tried to allay their concerns.
“We agree that the tweets you cited were overly opinionated,” Fairfield said to the executive. “Hiroko herself made the decision to delete them from her account. However, we are confident that her reporting on the industry has been accurate and fair, and has adhered to the high journalistic standards of the New York Times.”
Times executive editor Dean Baquet added in a subsequent email that he and other “senior editors” had consulted with Fairfield about the response. “We believe strongly that we have taken appropriate steps,” Baquet said.
However, there is no indication that the New York Times has taken any steps. Tabuchi is still covering the petroleum industry for the paper.
“I am at a loss in justifying to our executives why we would engage with a reporter who believes our entire industry and its executives are linked to white supremacy, something we strongly denounce,” the API official fired back to Baquet in response.
The official’s name was blacked out in the emails provided to InsideSources by a source close to the matter who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to divulge the emails or speak on the subject.
The API official added that allowing Tabuchi to simply delete the tweet without any correction or apology was “insufficient” and that Tabuchi’s comments were “in direct violation of your own handbook on ethical journalism.”....
....MUCH MORE
The post I had begun before seeing the DVJ begins:
Ms.
Tabuchi is a climate and energy reporter at the New York Times, topics
with which I am passingly familiar. In June she tweeted this:
"Every oil and gas call I'm on, I'm reminded how almost completely white and male this industry is.Speaking on a just-ended call: three white men called Rob, Rob, and Ed."
The tweet has since been deleted but it's saved at the internet archive.
More recently she had this to say (again, deleted):
I don't know if they have grievance studies classes at the LSE or if Ms. Tabuchi is self taught but beyond the racism/sexism inherent in viewing the world through prisms of race and sex is the fact she exposes herself as ignorant of the topic she supposedly covers.
Let's look at some of the larger oil & gas companies, shall we?
The largest is Saudi Aramco, a hotbed of white supremacy.
And Sinopec the second largest, ditto on the white supremacy.
Then there is China National Petroleum Corporation
And CNOOC
Here come the honkies: BP
Royal Dutch/Shell
India's ONGC (they speak Aryan you know)
Kuwait Petroleum Corporation
And National Iranian Oil Company
