The New York Times announced last week that a reporter resigned after violating the paper’s policy when she signed an open letter condemning Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza. 

Jazmine Hughes, who has written for the paper since 2015, signed a letter from “Writers Against the War on Gaza” that called Israel’s war effort in Gaza a genocide. 

Jake Silverstein, the editor of The New York Times Magazine, said in a statement that he respects Hughes’s “strong convictions,” but her decision was a “clear violation of The Times’s policy on public protest.”

“This policy, which I fully support, is an important part of our commitment to independence,” he said.

The paper reported that Hughes also signed a letter earlier this year to protest the paper’s approach to transgender issues. Silverstein said he spoke with her about her desire to “stake out this kind of public protest isn’t compatible with being a journalist at The Times, and we both came to the conclusion that she should resign.”

WSWS reported that the letter that Hughes signed read:

“We come together as writers, journalists, academics, artists, and other cultural workers to express our solidarity with the people of Palestine.

“We stand with their anti-colonial struggle for freedom, for self-determination, and with their right to resist occupation. We stand firmly by Gaza’s people, the genocidal war of the United States government continues to fund and arm with military aid – a crisis compounded by the illegal settlement of the West Bank and the subjugation of Palestinians within the state of Israel.”

WSWS wrote that Hughes’s resignation was portrayed in the media as a mutual agreement, but “there can be no doubt that coercion was involved.”

The report said there is “no possibility” that The Times, which is an organ of the U.S. “state and of the ruling class which it represents, could tolerate such views within its ranks. The entire U.S. political establishment, encompassing both capitalist parties, has declared its unequivocal support for Israel’s genocidal war against the Palestinian people.”

Hughes did not comment on her resignation. 

TRENDPOST: The Wrap noted that Hughes was not the only notable journalist to sign the letter.

 The letter was also signed by contributing New York Times Magazine writer Jamie Lauren Keiles, journalists from the Los Angeles Times, Jewish Currents, Al Jazeera, Vox Media, and New York Magazine.

The report noted that Keiles said in a post on X that he will no longer contribute to the paper. He called it “a personal decision about what kind of work I want to be able to do.”

Journalism is dead in America and to think that a reporter who signed a letter opposing genocide is a twisted standard in a world where Kaitlyn Collins, a top anchor at CNN, used to write for Tucker Carlson’s Daily Caller about “Hot Syrian Refugees” and Wolf Blitzer, another top CNN anchor, used to write press releases for AIPAC.

There is no profession so sanctimonious as journalists, who pretend to approach life from an unbiased lens. Even journalists with the Taylor Swift beat are forced to defend their objectivity. 

The Times reported last week that Bryan West, Gannett’s first-ever Swift reporter, was criticized for years ago calling himself a Swift fan.

“That remark caused some journalists to question whether or not he could be unbiased when it came to his new beat,” the paper wrote. 

There is only one side allowed in the U.S. when it comes to Israel. (See “STATE DEPARTMENT DIVIDE: DIPLOMATS CALL ON BIDEN ADMINISTRATION TO CONDEMN ISRAEL’S GAZA GENOCIDE” 7 Nov 2023, “UN: ISRAELI ATTACK ON JABALIA REFUGEE CAMP A ‘WAR CRIME’” 7 Nov 2023 and “TOP UN OFFICIAL STEPS DOWN AFTER CALLING ISRAEL’S ACTIONS IN GAZA A ‘TEXTBOOK CASE OF GENOCIDE’” 7 Nov 2023.)

Only allowed to report one side, the side the government is on, Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., a pro-Israel military war hawk, demanded answers on why journalists from CNN, the Associated Press, Thomson Reuters, and The New York Times were embedded with Hamas.

“If your employees, as part of their work, participated in terrorist activities or if your organization or employees provided material support (including any funding) to Hamas, the leadership of your organization may also face criminal penalties under federal law,” he wrote.