Dan Banquet, the executive editor of the New York Times, defended his paper’s decision to release key details about the identity of the Trump-Ukraine whistleblower.
“The president and some of his supporters have attacked the credibility of the whistle-blower, who has presented information that has touched off a landmark impeachment proceeding. The president himself has called the whistle-blower’s account a ‘political hack job,'” Banquet said Thursday in the New York Times. “We decided to publish limited information about the whistle-blower — including the fact that he works for a nonpolitical agency and that his complaint is based on an intimate knowledge and understanding of the White House — because we wanted to provide information to readers that allows them to make their own judgments about whether or not he is credible.”
The paper wrote Thursday that the whistleblower was a CIA officer along with that fact that he “was previously detailed to work at the White House and had expertise on Ukraine.”
Dean Baquet, our executive editor, explains why we chose to publish the information about the whistle-blower https://t.co/5BtDXYpoiz pic.twitter.com/s0mZaivG3t
— The New York Times (@nytimes) September 26, 2019
The Times received a barrage of criticism over the decision, with some claiming it could put the whistleblower’s life at risk.
i disagree w the NYT’s decision to release information about a government whistleblower who was recently threatened by the president w possible execution but i can see how that’s a judgement call i guess
— ☕netw3rk (@netw3rk) September 26, 2019
Our country’s heroes are worth far more than clicks and views. Doxxing the whistleblower endangers the individual’s life, which is especially heinous considering the whistleblower went through proper government channels. The NYT protects Trump sources better than this. #CancelNYT
— Eugene Gu, MD (@eugenegu) September 26, 2019
Note that @MarkSZaidEsq , the lawyer of the whistleblower, added the phrase, “wrong person.” That seems like a subtle warning to NYT about their reporting. But central point is that no one need be reporting on, and no one in the USG should be leaking about, ID of whistleblower. https://t.co/wYm4iCyevK
— Michael McFaul (@McFaul) September 26, 2019
The lawyer of the whistleblower, Mark Zaid, hit back at the Times saying that publishing the information created a “dangerous situation” for the whistleblower, or the person the Times identified as the whistleblower.
Publishing details about whistleblower will only lead to identification of someone, whether our client or wrong person, as whistleblower. This will place individual in much more dangerous situation, not only in their professional world but also their possible personal safety. https://t.co/txAIQqaEjy
— Mark S. Zaid (@MarkSZaidEsq) September 26, 2019
Trump said Thursday that the person who helped the whisteblower obtain information was “close to a spy.”
