Lee Zeldin: New York Times’ Double Standard ‘Crushing Their Credibility’

Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY) charged on Sunday that the New York Times‘ double standard on racism and antisemitism is “crushing their credibility.”

Zeldin lashed out at the New York Times in the wake of a Breitbart News investigation which found that the newspaper’s politics editor Tom Wright-Piersanti wrote racist and antisemitic comments on Twitter. The Times’ admitted Sunday that the comments were racist and antisemitic. The paper also admitted that Wright-Piersanti’s remarks were in “violation” of its standards.

New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger issued a lengthy statement Sunday afternoon, stating that the Times will not be “intimated or silenced” by allies of President Donald Trump who expose embarrassing past comments that staffers have made.

Sulzberger said in a statement Sunday:

They are seeking to harass and embarrass anyone affiliated with the leading news organizations that are asking tough questions and bringing uncomfortable truths to light. The goal of this campaign is clearly to intimidate journalists from doing their job, which includes serving as a check on power and exposing wrongdoing when it occurs. The Times will not be intimidated or silenced.

In reaction to the Times’ failure to hold their staffers accountable for past controversial remarks, Rep. Zeldin called on the publisher to hold themselves to the same standards as they hold others.

“Hold yourself to the same standards you hold others! It’s all about double standards or no standard for @nytimes. It’s crushing their credibility,” Congressman Zeldin tweeted Sunday. “Very ugly response & bad look for Times trying to cover for their editor’s anti-Semitism & racism”:

Rep. Zeldin called for the Times to fire Wright-Piersanti for his past racist and antisemitic remarks.

“An editor from the New York Times is scrubbing his [Twitter] account, this guy Tom Wright-Piersanti, because he was self-describing himself as an antisemite and he was going after Jews and others,” said Zeldin, who is Jewish, Thursday before adding that the journalist “should be fired.”

White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham also slammed Wright-Piersanti’s remarks, telling Breitbart News that she was “disgusted” by the racism displayed by the Times editor.