Morris: Emails Show New York Times Collaborating with State Government to Target Orthodox Jews
by EMMA-JO MORRIS8 Aug 2023
The New York Times collaborated with the New York State government to produce its now-infamous series of stories targeting Orthodox Jewish schools, according to over 800 pages of emails obtained by Breitbart News.
The Times’ Eliza Shapiro — self-described “serious reporter who doesn’t pull punches” — is seen in the massive volume of communications, obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, discussing with the New York State Education Department how “we” can craft comment for the first story launching the Times’ series of articles targeting yeshivas, and giving the government almost a full business-week longer than the schools to comment. Emails also show she worked with the government to direct blame for the Times’ allegations, and coordinated timing on publishing with a vote to regulate the religious schools.
The Times’ first story that launched the anti-religious crusade, published in September, alleges Hasidic students “[know] nothing” and grow up “barely [able] to support their own families.” The story was revealed by Breitbart to have been carefully curated by omitting relevant information, shunning sources directly involved with the schools, and declining to publish pertinent on-the-record statements — producing a weapon used by secular political interest groups to attack the Orthodox Jewish community’s most sacred institutions.
As Breitbart previously reported, the “investigation” dropped in what appeared to be unbelievable timing, the day before the Board of Regents held a unanimous vote, without debate, to allow state functionaries heavier say in the education of Orthodox children. Those children happen to be of parents vehemently opposed to the social justice curriculum that has been injected into most other New York schools.
Now, newly obtained emails show the Times working with the New York State Education Department in close collaboration to produce the story with maximum political impact.
In one correspondence, Shapiro is seen working with the government to produce the state’s comment on the reporting, with almost a week longer to respond than the private religious schools being maligned.