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Union members at The New York Times and Reuters are publicly feuding with the influential NewsGuild of New York after one of the group’s representatives made a controversial post on social media.
Guild organizer Nastaran Mohit declared her hatred for Israeli “Zionist butchers” in a post on X that is no longer public: “All these Zionist butchers know how to kill. Children. Families. The next generation. Depraved monsters who will meet their fate one day,” she wrote, according to a New York Post report.
“The fiscally irresponsible and political activist arm of our union is now firmly in control of how our dues are spent,” Reuters NewsGuild unit chair Tim McLaughlin said in a message shared with Semafor following Mohit’s comments online.
Union members at The New York Times and Reuters are publicly disputing with the influential NewsGuild of New York after one of the groups representatives made a controversial post on X. (Getty Images)
The Guild, McLaughlin wrote, “have forgotten that we are a union for journalists, not activists,” adding that journalists in the Guild have “effectively lost our voice, or any power, in our own union, the NewsGuild of New York.”
Other union members of the Guild, including New York Times opinion editor Parker Richards, disagreed with McLaughlin’s harsh criticism of the Guild.
“We are part of a Guild of journalists to advocate for journalists,” he said. “I am happy and proud that some of my dues money, or perhaps a lot of it, is going to fight for colleagues whose jobs are in jeopardy.”
Jeremy Peters, a New York Times reporter, told other unionized staffers that their dues were going to supporting staffers like Mohit.
“When we pay dues, they go toward salaries of Guild organizers. They represent you. This is one of them,” he wrote.
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The New York Times published a lengthy editor’s note in October explaining its mistakes with coverage of the explosion that occurred at a Gaza hospital. (Fox News Photo/Joshua Comins)
The NewsGuild of New York told Semafor that one person’s posts do not reflect the views of the entire organization.
“Their social media accounts are personal ones that reflect their own views and not those of the NewsGuild of New York. Our staff is made up of people who come from different cultural, racial, religious and economic backgrounds with opinions that may conflict with some of our members but we take our jobs serving our members seriously and work hard to do so,” a spokesperson for the NewsGuild’s New York chapter told Semafor.
The story has caused a reckoning at the Guild, as leadership has indicated that it would speak to staffers about the matter.
“Our Guild’s administrative committee is going to schedule a meeting in the near future to address concerns our members have on this issue,” NewsGuild of New York treasurer Anthony Napoli said in a statement.
The NewsGuild did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
Jeffrey Clark is an associate editor for Fox News Digital. He has previously served as a speechwriter for a cabinet secretary and as a Fulbright teacher in South Korea. Jeffrey graduated from the University of Iowa in 2019 with a degree in English and History.
Story tips can be sent to jeffrey.clark@fox.com.
