(New York) Flagship of the American progressive press, the New York Times Does it give too much echo to concerns about the care and treatment of transgender adolescents, feeding a “panic” on the subject? This is what two collectives accuse it of, but the newspaper firmly defends its “independence” on a politically sensitive subject.
Such a questioning may come as a surprise for the prestigious daily, on the front line in the defense of individual rights during the Trump years and at the origin of the #metoo movement against sexual violence thanks to its investigation into film producer Harvey Weinstein.
“But for more than a year, the New York Times represents something else: a biased and irresponsible coverage of transgender people”, asserts the GLAAD organization which defends LGBT + people in the media and which leads the revolt with more than a hundred other associations.
The campaign was launched in mid-February with another collective, behind another open letter claiming the signatures of more than 1000 “contributors” of the New York Times and “more than 34,000 media workers” or newspaper readers.
Concretely, they reproach the daily for having multiplied the articles exaggerating ethical and medical fears about the care and treatments received by young transgender people, such as hormonal inhibitors, or puberty blockers.
“Part taken”
The newspaper would also give too much echo to the idea according to which the number of teenagers manifesting a sexual identity different from their birth – they would be 300,000 in the United States according to a study – would come from a social tendency or a fashion. Ditto for the idea that some would have regrets after a treatment.
“We aim for editorial bias. It is not necessarily each article as such. But where the New York Times puts emphasis and resources, over time there is an accumulation of bias,” says Jo Livingstone, 35, a literary critic who is one of the letter’s authors and uses the gender-neutral pronoun “iel” to refer to to present.
The newspaper immediately “dismissed” the charges and its editor, Arthur Sulzberger, defended his teams during a speech on Thursday, highlighting their work on “the disturbing wave of anti-trans legislation that is advancing through the country” and “the horrific violence and discrimination that transgender people face.”
But the New York Times also defends the highlighting of debates on treatment and care.
“Our duty is to be independent. We go to the facts, wherever they lead. We are journalists, not activists, ”said several dozen editors, in an internal letter to their union, revealed by Vanity Fair.
powerful actor
The initiative criticizing the New York Times aims to weigh on the line of the newspaper, powerful and influential on the American media and political scene, and which flirts with the ten million subscribers to its sites.
All in a context where several conservative states have passed laws prohibiting care and treatment for transgender adolescents. The GLAAD organization also notes that certain articles from the “NYT” have been used by elected officials in Texas, Alabama or Arkansas, to support their arguments.
“But it happens all the time that people twist the scientific literature for their own interest,” said Columbia University clinical psychiatry professor Jack Drescher, known for having fought against conversion therapy for homosexuals, and who observes the debate by refusing to say that “everything is black or white”.
“The articles of New York Times seek to cover a very complicated subject without being content with only one side of the story”, he judges.
But he warns against the tendency to want to present as controversial subjects that are no longer controversial according to him: “In the United States, the medical community is clearly on the side of care” to allow transgender people to flourish.
The problem, he adds, is that “a medical subject has become a subject of culture war”.
For his part, the New York Times holds to its reputation as a space for debate. Two days after receiving the criticism, he released a column by his columnist Pamela Paul entitled “In defense of JK Rowling”, a text deeming the accusations of transphobia against the author of the Harry Potter saga unfair.
And the next day, he posted mixed reactions from his readers.