The New York Times issued a tweet explaining why it removed a line from an article highlighting accusations of sexual misconduct against Joe Biden.
In the Sunday article, the New York Times examined the sexual assault allegations against Biden from his former staffer Tara Reade. Reade accused Biden of placing his hand up her skirt and penetrating her with his fingers in 1992 while she worked in his senate office. The report noted that Reade was the only woman to accuse Biden of sexual assault.
“No other allegation about sexual assault surfaced in the course of reporting, nor did any former Biden staff members corroborate any details of Ms. Reade’s allegation,” the authors, Lisa Lerer and Sydney Ember, wrote, adding, “The Times found no pattern of sexual misconduct by Mr. Biden.”
However, that paragraph had been changed from a previous version of the story, in which the second sentence read, “The Times found no pattern of sexual misconduct by Mr. Biden, beyond the hugs, kisses and touching that women previously said made them uncomfortable.”
Without an editor’s note explaining the situation, the New York Times edited the paragraph to exclude multiple allegations of sexual misconduct against Biden, including the accusation from former Nevada state Assemblywoman Lucy Flores, who was one of several women to speak out against Biden for making them feel uncomfortable by sniffing their hair, hugging them from behind, or otherwise touching them in an unwelcome manner.
A quote from Flores was included in the original story. The New York Times also noted that it had spoken with women who came forward with stories similar to Flores and who said that they believed Reade’s accusations against Biden.
Several people condemned the New York Times for both its original language and for editing out a part of the story that could benefit Biden. In response, the newspaper released a statement on Twitter, writing, “We’ve deleted a tweet in this thread that had some imprecise language that has been changed in the story.”
We’ve deleted a tweet in this thread that had some imprecise language that has been changed in the story.
— The New York Times (@nytimes) April 12, 2020
An editor’s note has not yet been added to the piece, however, and many found the outlet’s clarification to be insufficient. Several took to Twitter to criticize the outlet for its decisions.
What would the correction even say? “An earlier version of this story contained a true statement that the Biden campaign demanded we remove so we cut it without alerting our readers.” Something like that?
— jeremy scahill (@jeremyscahill) April 12, 2020
Wow – first the @nytimes deleted this “beyond” language from their story about sexual assault accusations against Joe Biden (☝️).
Now they deleted their own tweet that had that language in it. Amazing retroactive whitewashing after they published their own story. pic.twitter.com/ekOz25uzop
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) April 12, 2020
This language actually seems pretty precise.
What’s the real reason for the deletion, @nytimes? https://t.co/1lxlKTTi3e pic.twitter.com/wWnEiX8GX7
— Boris Epshteyn (@BorisEP) April 12, 2020
The Biden campaign has denied Reade’s accusations of sexual assault. Kate Bedingfield, a spokeswoman for the campaign, said, “Women have a right to tell their story, and reporters have an obligation to rigorously vet those claims. We encourage them to do so because these accusations are false.”
