Media

Former NYT Editor Claims Outlet Tried To Appease Chinese Government With Apology Letter

Getty Images

Amber Athey Podcast Columnist
Font Size:

Former New York Times Executive Editor Jill Abramson claims in her new book, “Merchants of Truth,” that the newspaper’s publisher authored an apology letter to the Chinese government after publishing a particularly critical investigative report on the country’s corruption.

Abramson says her “blood pressure rose” when she caught wind of a draft apology letter to the Chinese government by publisher Arthur Sulzberger, which she believes was written to bolster The NYT’s business interests in China.

The tensions between The NYT and the Chinese government arose when a reporter started digging into how the Chinese ruling class amassed its wealth. The Chinese government was allegedly “enraged” by the story and met with Sulzberger to stop its publication — Sulzberger refused and the story went on to win a Pulitzer Prize.

While Sulzberger publicly supported the story, Abramson claims in her book that privately he was concerned about how its publication was affecting The NYT’s new venture in China.

The NYT had recently launched a Chinese-language site that employed 30 Chinese journalists, but after publication of the corruption story, the Chinese government blocked the NYT’s website, refused to issue any more visas to employees, and detained some of its reporters.

Abramson then allegedly found out that Sulzberger wrote a letter “all but apologizing” for the story “with input from the Chinese embassy.”

The pair met at a Starbucks and got into a spat over the letter.

“[Sulzberger] seemed startled that I had [the letter] and he kept saying, ‘I didn’t do anything wrong.’ He tried to slip the letter into his folder, but I snatched it back,” Abramson writes in her book.

The NYT disputed Abramson’s version of events in a statement to Fast Company:

No, the account isn’t accurate and the publication of this 2012 story is a powerful example of the Times’s deep commitment to publishing stories in the public interest without regard to potential financial impact. We published this story knowing in advance that our Chinese-language website, which had launched just months before, would be shut down–it remains shut down today. We’ve vigorously protested the shutdown and continue to fund the website to send a clear signal that our journalists cannot be silenced in retaliation for their coverage.

Abramson made waves with another excerpt from her book in which she called the paper’s coverage “unmistakably anti-Trump” and said that the paper has financial incentive to bash the president. (RELATED: Former NYT Editor Says Her Comments On The Paper Were Taken ‘Totally Out Of Context’)

The former editor later claimed that those words were taken “out of context” and added that the book is “full of praise” for The NYT.

Follow Amber on Twitter

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel