Half of New York Times Employees ‘Afraid’ to ‘Say What They Really Think’: Survey

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About half of New York Times employees are uncomfortable expressing themselves around their colleagues, according to a company survey.

Responding to the statement, “There is a free exchange of views in this company; people are not afraid to say what they really think,” 51 percent of employees responded affirmatively. The other 49 percent said they were not comfortable expressing their opinions.

The poll was conducted by the Times and obtained by The New York Post. “Although the majority of us feel well-informed, many indicated that differing viewpoints aren’t sought or valued in our work,” the Times noted in an internal assessment of the study. “Relatedly, we saw some negative responses on whether there’s a free exchange of views in the company, and scored below the benchmark on this question.”

The results come after a year in which more liberal Times staffers sought to jettison moderate colleagues from the publication. Editorial page editor James Bennet resigned in June after one of his staffers published an op-ed by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AK) calling for the National Guard to be deployed to maintain peace in cities ravaged by unrest over the summer. Opinion editor Bari Weiss resigned the next month, writing in a public resignation letter that her colleagues had called her “a Nazi and a racist” and “openly demeaned” her on company-wide channels. And this month, science reporter Donald McNeil resigned after students complained that he had used a racial slur on a trip, though he has maintained he used it in a non-derogatory manner.

The paper refused to publish a column by one of its own columnists, Bret Stephens, criticizing its treatment of McNeil, leading Stephens to publish it in the Post instead.

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