The left-wing news site The Intercept has attacked the New York Times over allegations of bias in its coverage of the Israel-Hamas war, and the nonprofit is reportedly in such dire financial straits that it could close next year. ing.
Intercept, which was co-founded by Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras a decade ago and originally funded by eBay billionaire Pierre Omidyar, has been losing about $300,000 a month and will close in May 2025. Funds may run out by then. According to Mr. Semaphore.
Last year, Mr. Omidyar ended his support and the site was spun off by parent company First Look Media to become an independent nonprofit newsroom that could raise money from philanthropists and solicit donations from readers.
The spinoff was made possible with a $14 million grant from First Look Media.
Semafor reports that Intercept is on track to have less than $1 million in balances by November.
The development comes as financial woes have heightened tensions in newsrooms, as the business seeks to suppress some of the site’s overtly left-wing reporting in hopes of raising more money. This has angered staff, who say it violates editorial independence.
The Post has reached out to The Intercept for comment.
One of the fundraising emails sent by The Intercept included Adam Rasgon, the Times’ Israel correspondent, speaking in an interview on the paper’s podcast, The Daily, about “how the paper disregards Palestinian lives.” The content was quoted.
The Times has asked The Intercept to correct and apologize for mischaracterizing Rasgon’s comments to podcast host Michael Barbaro.
Separately, The Intercept highlighted a controversial Times article by Jeffrey Gettleman and a freelance writer that revealed that Hamas used sexual violence as a weapon in the October 7 attack on Israel. He accused the Gray Lady of killing an episode of “The Daily” that he guessed.
On Monday, The Times concluded its investigation into whether staff leaked classified information about its coverage of the Gaza war without any conclusive findings, but editor-in-chief Joe Kahn told staff: . According to the Wall Street Journal.
The uproar at the Times pales in comparison to the seeming confusion at The Intercept over possible impending doom.
Mr. Greenwald, along with Mr. Poitras, broke the Edward Snowden story, but left in 2021 as the group moved further to the left, alienating many of the donors it was currently seeking.
Interecept CEO Annie Chabel told Semafor that the site has “significant revenue goals that will allow it to continue for a longer period of time.”
Last October, Shavel told staff the news site was on track to meet its fundraising goal.
But since then, Intercept has struggled to raise enough charitable donations. The site laid off 30% of its staff earlier this year.
Semaphore said the site’s editor-in-chief, Roger Hodge, was reportedly fired after clashing with Mr. Shabell over job cuts and reluctance to cooperate on business matters.
Mr Hodge denied the allegations, telling Semaphore: “It is simply not true that I resisted cooperating with the fundraiser.”
“I spent countless hours talking to them about journalism and writing notes, and helping them brainstorm how they could explain the work we were doing.” he said.
“I spent far more time working on it than editing the piece.”
In the absence of an editor-in-chief, Mr. Chavel, with the board’s approval, restructured the organization so that the new editor-in-chief would report to the CEO rather than the board.
Semaphore then reported that Mr. Shabell asked associate editor Nausicaa Renner and senior news editor Ali Gharib to serve as interim co-editors while he searched for Mr. Hodge’s full-time successor. Ta.
Both Mr. Renner and Mr. Ghalib declined. A short time later, Renner resigned, according to Semaphore.
Renner told Semaphore that the editorial restructuring was “disturbing” and that Chavel threatened The Intercept’s editorial independence.
“Editor hiring and prioritization should not be determined by the CEO,” she said of Shovel.
“Regardless of her politics as an individual, the effect of her cuts and leadership is to silence outspoken speech in Gaza.”
The Intercept’s four veteran journalists (co-founder Jeremy Scahill, Washington, D.C., bureau chief Ryan Grimm, editor Maryam Saleh and Ghalib) have since left the Intercept while it searches for a new editor. , proposed forming an interim committee to run the editorial side of the site. -Secretary.
This proposal was rejected by the board.
Earlier this year, Mr. Scahill was highly critical of Mr. Shabell in an all-hands meeting and said he should resign.
Last week, The Intercept reportedly hired former Los Angeles Times assistant editor Ben Meussig as interim editor-in-chief, a decision that did not go down well with staff.
“It’s not surprising that there are traditional funders who aren’t interested in our particular brand of journalism,” Shabel told Semaphore.
Still, she said it takes time for nonprofits to find major donors.
Chavel said The Intercept has a “unique position” in the media world and can find funding sources even from people who don’t agree with everything The Intercept publishes.
“I think a lot of donors care about who’s in power, and whether it’s on the right or the left, that power is being questioned,” she said.
Meanwhile, the feud between The Intercept and the Times over fundraising emails stemmed from Rasgon’s comments about the deaths of World Central Kitchen aid workers killed in Israeli missile strikes.
WCK was founded by celebrity chef Jose Andrés.
“Frankly, if a group of Palestinian aid workers had been killed, we wouldn’t be having this conversation,” The Intercept email quoted Razgon as saying.
But the Times sent a memo to The Intercept’s legal and fundraising teams accusing them of mischaracterizing Rasgon’s statements.
According to a transcript of the interview, Barbaro noted that “the speed with which Israel says it’s wrong here” is “not a typical Israeli response to many of these situations.”
“I think it has something to do with this particular group,” Razgon pointed out.
“This is an organization led by a very well-known celebrity chef that provides food aid to conflict zones and disaster areas around the world.”
Razgon went on to say that he also believes that “it concerns the people who were killed, most of the people.” [whom] They were foreign aid workers from Western countries. ”
“Frankly, if a group of Palestinian aid workers had been killed, we wouldn’t be having this conversation,” he said.
Barbaro added that the Israeli government would not have reacted in the same way.
“I agree with that,” Razgon said.
