NY Times throws writer Emily Bazelon ‘under the bus’ over Kavanaugh story

The New York Times said Tuesday that it should not have assigned a New York Times Magazine writer who had openly criticized Brett Kavanaugh to report a news story about the Supreme Court nominee. (Politico)

The writer Emily Bazelon, who helped to report the scoop along with Ben Protess in an article published Monday titled “Kavanaugh Was Questioned by Police After Bar Fight in 1985,” previously bashed the SCOTUS nominee on Twitter, deeming him a threat to democracy and society. (Mediaite)

A spokesperson for the Times said in a statement Tuesday afternoon that the story Bazelon contributed to was “straightforward, fact-based and we fully stand behind it.” The spokesperson, however, said the reporting should have been assigned to another person. (CNN)

Late Monday night, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders re-tweeted Bazelon’s tweet on Kavanaugh, commenting, “Democrats desperately attack Judge Kavanaugh for throwing ice during college. What motivated New York Times reporter to write this ridiculous story? Throwing ice 33 years ago, or her opinion of Judge Kavanaugh in July?”

On Tuesday, a New York Times spokesperson said, “Emily Bazelon is a writer for The New York Times Magazine who occasionally writes op-eds for the opinion section. She is not a newsroom reporter. Her role in this story was to help colleagues in the newsroom gather public documents in New Haven, where Emily is based. In retrospect, editors should have used a newsroom reporter for that assignment. To be clear, the story is straightforward, fact-based and we fully stand behind it.”

photo/ John Hain