LONDON (Dispatches) — The New York Times, long regarded as the United States’ “paper of record,” is facing a widening revolt from within the global intellectual and artistic community, as more than 300 writers, scholars, and public figures announced a collective boycott of its opinion pages over the newspaper’s systemic anti-Palestinian bias and complicity in Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza.
In a blistering open letter, the group — which includes novelist Sally Rooney, U.S. congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, poet Kaveh Akbar, climate activist Greta Thunberg, writer Viet Thanh Nguyen, filmmaker Elia Suleiman, and journalist Muhammad el-Kurd — pledged to withhold contributions until the Times addresses “a decades-long failure to ethically and truthfully cover Palestine.”
The signatories, identifying themselves as “writers of conscience,” accused the Times of “laundering U.S. and Israeli lies” and “manufacturing consent for mass slaughter, torture, and displacement.” They demanded a public reckoning for what they described as the newspaper’s role in normalizing Israel’s siege and bombardment of Gaza, which UN officials have described as genocidal.
The group’s letter issued three core demands: a full internal review of the Times’ reporting and the creation of new editorial standards for Palestine coverage; a permanent ban on publishing contributions from journalists who served in the Israeli military; and the retraction of the discredited December 2023 article “Screams Without Words.” That story, which alleged sexual assaults by Hamas fighters on Oct. 7, relied heavily on anonymous sources and was later undermined by new evidence, yet remains on the Times’ website.
Independent investigations by The Intercept and Mondoweiss found most of the sexual assault claims unsubstantiated, while families of alleged victims accused Times reporters of manipulating testimonies to “score a journalistic coup.” Despite admitting that video evidence “undercuts” its reporting, the Times has refused to retract the piece — a decision the boycotters say epitomizes the newspaper’s “ethical decay.”
Nearly 150 former Times contributors have joined the protest, arguing that the publication’s influence amplifies its failures. “Editors across the West take their cues from the Times,” the letter said. “When it obfuscates or justifies Israeli war crimes, it sets the tone for an entire media ecosystem of denial.”
The statement ends with a demand for accountability and a call for the Times’ editorial board to endorse a U.S. arms embargo on Israel — a measure, they write, that would mark “the first honest act of journalism the paper has committed in this war.”