Sheās been assigned to a new beat āin New York.ā As what, a Metro reporter?
Yes, maybe she made some poor choicesāwho of us doesnāt? But this smacks of giving in to pressure from the Trumpettes. She might not have been able to continue covering the Senate Intelligence Committee, but what about assigning her to cover State, or even CIA?
Iām bothered by this. Where did she GO? How did they help her LEARN? Is this just giving Trump more āfake news ā ammunition when there isnāt a one of these guys that donāt have conflicts of interest.
This is a little like the person who said something anti-zionist when he was messaging on Jdate 5 years ago, and now he canāt get hired anywhere, let alone find somebody to love. One must avoid even the APPEARANCE of having a mind with opinions sloshing around in it, since obviously the only person who can report about all the news thatās fit to print is someone who is empty inside, a walking tape-recorder with a very short memory capacity.
OT, Alex Jones has uncovered a plot to start a second civil war scheduled (?) for the Fourth of July.
She exercised poor judgement by sleeping with a potential source. I donāt think it is wrong for her to be romantically involved with Wolfe, but she should have asked for a new assignment when they started dating. She damaged both her and Wolfeās careers.
I guess if you work for the New York Times, write snappy, punchy prose, and are a really fast typist you donāt need no stinking judgment.
āAs we learn more, it is clear that the government leak investigation was an attempt to interfere with the work of journalists by an administration whose leader has called the media āthe enemy of the peopleā and has pledged an unprecedented crackdown on disclosures about government activities, threatening to undermine reportersā ability to inform the public.ā
You are not Gleichschaltung. You must be made Gleichschaltung.
Some of these are hilarious! 
So 1.) this stinks of Dean-O walking back (but not too far back!) the Timesā throwing Watkins under the bus in response to Jill Abramsonās ripping them a new one, and 2.) LOL this from the paper that let Judy Miller, who was boinking key source Les Aspin right through the Reagan Administration, frame their decisively fawning Iraq War coverageā¦ WTH is going on over there? Abramson and Michelle Wolf nailed it ā a narcissistic shitshow trolling for clicks at the cost of breaking news.
I was wondering how many NYT reporters had personal relationships with people they cover.
The Judy Miller stuff goes back a ways. But Iād bet itās not uncommon. And Iād bet that, as with many things, IOKIYAR.
in other words, NYT wanted to fire her and probably would have. but when bacquet found out sheād previously disclosed the relationship, he didnāt want to risk a dreaded lawsuit.
Every New York Times reporter would happily use any other colleagueās relationship with a source for their own advantage.
She clearly did disclose to past employers and NYT. Josh actually covered this in his recent podcast. She claims he wasnāt her source. Obviously TBD.
If she was boinking the doorman of an exclusive club whose members she was reporting on, sheād be hailed (inside the newsroom of course) as resourceful.
He was 57. She is 26. Aside from all the other issues, ew.
Iām in hospital waiting room as my mother is having her gallbladder removed. Laughing my ass off (quietly) for last 20 mins. Thanks for the post.
This is terrific. Maybe Lin Manuel Miranda can put them to rap.
Yeah, canāt believe NYT didnāt fire her for not disclosing her records had been seized as well as her prior conduct (since itās reasonable to ask if she did the same thing while employed at NYT).
The DOJ told Watkins in February that years worth of her phone and email records had been seized by the FBI, but she did not inform the Times about the seizure until her colleagues reported on Wolfeās arrest last month. Since she joined the Times, Watkins has been covering law enforcement in Washington, D.C.
āWe are troubled by Aliās conduct, particularly while she was employed by other news organizations,ā Baquet said. āFor a reporter to have an intimate relationship with someone he or she covers is unacceptable.ā
I know very little about the culture there, but Iād like to more at some point.
On the āassigned a new beatā thing, one of the weird things about the NYT culture is that they seem to think almost anyone can cover almost anything. Politics, restaurants, medicine, same thingā¦
On the one hand, general assignment reporters are supposed to be versatile, but on the other hand this is ostensibly valuable intellectual real estate.