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Andrea Austria / Media Matters

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The New York Times’ recent coverage of university presidents, by the numbers

The Times published 29 articles on the university presidents who attended a December congressional hearing on campus antisemitism, accounting for nearly half of all the articles published by the newspaper and four of its major competitors

Written by Zachary Pleat

Published

Following a December 5, 2023, congressional hearing on alleged antisemitism on college campuses, in which Republican lawmakers grilled the presidents of three major universities — Elizabeth McGill of the University of Pennsylvania, Claudine Gay of Harvard University, and Sally Kornbluth of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology — The New York Times published more than two dozen news articles on the topic. The Times accounted for 29 of the 64 articles published by the newspaper and four competitors, including The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, USA Today, and the Los Angeles Times.

After McGill’s resignation over criticism from her testimony, conservative media took advantage of increased scrutiny on the topic in order to campaign for the removal of Harvard’s Gay. After Gay resigned, they announced plans to use their victory to target other educational institutions.

  • The New York Times covered the hearing and its effects far more than its competitors

    • The New York Times published 29 news articles about the hearing and its after effects — nearly half of the total of 64 from the Times and four other major national newspapers. Out of 64 news articles published between December 5, 2023, and January 8, 2024, by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, USA Today, and the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times published nearly half. The Journal published 17 news articles, the Post published 11, USA Today published 5, and the Los Angeles Times published 2.
  • A vertical bar chart showing that The New York Times published 29 news articles about the hearing and its after effects — nearly half of the total of 64 from the Times and four other major national newspapers
  • A vertical bar chart showing the timeline of articles published by the top 5 newspapers about the hearing and its after effects

  • Right-wing media took advantage of news organizations’ interest in the hearing to target educational institutions

    • Gay, Magill, and Kornbluth were accused during the hearing of not protecting Jewish students on campus during pro-Palestinian protests over the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. Magill resigned after intense backlash from conservatives and donors over her testimony. [The Associated Press, 12/12/23; The New York Times, 12/9/23]
    • After the hearing, right-wing activists pivoted from antisemitism to focus on allegations of plagiarism until Gay’s resignation on January 2. Without defending Gay, American Association of University Professors President Irene Mulvey said that plagiarism accusations could be “weaponized” to have a chilling effect on educators, explaining: “There is a right-wing political attack on higher education right now, which feels like an existential threat to the academic freedom that has made American higher education the envy of the world.” [ABC News, 1/2/24; The Associated Press, 1/3/24]
    • Manhattan Institute fellow and anti-civil rights activist Chris Rufo has bragged about infiltrating the mainstream media’s education coverage to push right-wing talking points to the forefront. The New York Times previously published both an op-ed by Rufo and a soft-lens profile of the activist, amplifying his right-wing attacks on public education. [Media Matters, 7/27/23]
    • Rufo has been clear about his intention to mainstream bad faith right-wing attacks on academia in order to oust progressives from positions of authority. On X (formerly Twitter), Rufo wrote: “We launched the Claudine Gay plagiarism story from the Right. The next step is to smuggle it into the media apparatus of the Left, legitimizing the narrative to center-left actors who have the power to topple her. Then squeeze.” Rufo later told Politico that Gay’s resignation demonstrated “a successful strategy for the political right” and wrote an op-ed in the Journal explaining how he did it. [Twitter/X, 12/19/23; Politico, 1/3/24; The Wall Street Journal, 1/3/24]
    • Rufo and other media conservatives celebrated Gay’s resignation, and Rufo noted that he plans to replicate his attacks with other academic institutions. After Gay’s resignation, Rufo wrote, “Today, we celebrate victory,” adding, “We must not stop until we have abolished DEI ideology from every institution in America.” Rufo also announced a “plagiarism hunting” fund that seeks to charge other academics with similar accusations. [Twitter/X, 1/2/24, 1/2/24; Media Matters, 1/5/24]
    • The Washington Free Beacon followed Rufo in his campaign targeting Harvard’s Gay with plagiarism accusations. The Washington Post reported that Gay’s resignation “marked a major win for the Washington Free Beacon,” noting that it had published its first story on the allegations against Gay a day after Rufo mentioned them on social media. [The Washington Post, 1/4/24]

  • Methodology

  • Media Matters searched print news articles in the Factiva database from the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post for any of the terms “Elizabeth McGill,” “Claudine Gay,” or “Sally Kornbluth” anywhere in the text from December 5, 2023, when the three university presidents in question testified before Congress, through January 8, 2024.

    We included print news articles, which we defined as instances when any one of the three university presidents was mentioned anywhere in the text in the A section of the newspaper. We did not include editorial, op-eds, or letters-to-the-editor.