📧 NYTimes Update
Hey Diane [Brayton](et al.) [Marc Lacey, Carolyn Ryan, David Philipps, Lauren Katzenberg, Michael Barbaro];
I meant to send you an updated email outlining the problems of employing civilian saviors like Dave Philipps, but I got sidetracked when the Oregon Senate Committee on Veterans offered me time to address anti-military bias like yours before a State Legislative Assembly. What I had planned to tell you is that Philipps was not the only problem you had, he's just one link in a chain of civil bias that silences veterans who don't fit the narrative your journalists try to shape.
You also had a civilian editor, Lauren Katzenberg (CCed), with a conflict of interest that I suspect she (probably) didn't report. Namely her spouse, Kristopher Goldsmith, whom Philipps repeatedly featured in stories about trauma (in Feb. 2016 and May 2017, for example). On August 22, 2018, her veteran influencer partner called me "a coward and a moron" in a public Facebook post for standing up locally for military civil rights. A month later, she turned down my tip about the same exact subject.
Are all civil rights the domain of cowards and morons, or was Katzenberg's decision to turn down multiple tips from me reflective of a Conflict of Interest?
According to NYT Code of Conduct, a Conflict of Interest occurs “when a private or personal interest interferes with an employee’s ability to act in the company’s best interests.” If you agree that civil rights for military families are the exclusive domain of cowards and morons, then by all means keep silent. But if any of "All the" bias in your paper is "News" to you, then a rational person must conclude that NYTimes Managing Editors only see civil rights as "Fit to Print" if they exclude rank and file military families like mine.
Today a Legislative body will hear that the NYTimes only reports on violent hate crimes when veterans perpetuatethem, not when military families are targeted for them. (I've CCed Maichael Barbaro because he picked up Philipps' story for The Daily, and made the same mistake of not actually doing the research on HCPA before reinforcing a caricatured association between violence and veterans). Maybe I've missed some coverage, but since canceling my NYTimes subscription, I've lost access to the archives... Maybe have your reporters double check my work? 🤷
By the way, y'all can join the livestream if you like, but my prepared remarks are already available online; https://gijustice.com/blog/orla-testimony
Thank me for my service,
Logan M. Isaac, HoSM
