Former Rolling Stone Editor Joins The New York Times Amid Controversy

The New York Times has brought on board a former editor-in-chief of Rolling Stone, who faced allegations related to a child pornography scandal involving ex-ABC News producer James Gordon Meek.

Noah Shachtman, who held the top editorial position at Rolling Stone from 2021 to 2024, will now contribute to the Times’ opinion column. Back in October 2022, Rolling Stone published a piece indicating that Meek’s role as a national security investigative producer and certain classified information found during a raid on his residence were linked to child pornography allegations, as reported by NPR in March 2023.

NPR’s media correspondent, David Folkenflick, noted that Shachtman had removed mentions of child pornography from an initial draft by reporter Tatiana Siegel, who covered the raids, after they had been included. Prior to the arrest, Shachtman reportedly considered Meek a friend. Ultimately, in September 2023, Meek received a six-year prison sentence for the transportation and possession of child pornography.

Details shared by Siegel suggested she was struggling to make headway in uncovering facts about the case and, at a staff meeting, Shachtman inquired about her progress. Notably, he intervened to edit her work, which was somewhat out of character for him. Reports also indicated that Shachtman instructed that Meek’s photo be excluded from the article’s featured image.

The Times stated that they view Shachtman as a “skilled and experienced reporter and editor,” and expressed eagerness about his potential contributions. However, they did not provide immediate comments when approached by the Daily Caller News Foundation for feedback.