A former editor of the New York Times has criticized the newspaper’s coverage of the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos as ‘corrupt circle-jerking.’
Jill Abramson, who worked for the newspaper for seventeen years, stated that The Times publishes articles referencing the event’s high-profile speakers in order to stroke their egos and attract them to speak at its own “high dollar” conferences.
She also stated that the publication’s current bias in favor of the conference was a tactic to acquire ‘fake stories,’ and that before to her departure in 2014, editors intended to prohibit their writers from attending.
The World Economic Forum is a lobbying organization that hosts an annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, and gathers the world’s wealthiest and most influential politicians and business leaders.
Former New York Times editor Jill Abramson stated that the Times covers Davos to entice speakers to join NYT conferences.
Abramson stated in an email to Semafor that it was a new trend and that in her day, editors at the New York Times desired to prohibit reporters from attending Davos.
Abramson wrote an email to Semafor co-founder Ben Smith, who also worked for the Times, stating, “I noticed (after I was gone) much more ‘news’ coverage in the Times of Davos, quoting the attendees and speakers at those endless panels.”
She said, ‘Of course, the coverage was intended to flatter the CEOs so that they would appear at high-priced NYT conferences and — of course — submit fabricated news articles from the conferences to the paper.’
It is well-known that The Times organizes its own prominent conferences. In November, it sponsored the DealBook Summit, when it controversially handed a platform to Sam Bankman-Fried, whose cryptocurrency exchange FTX had just suffered a catastrophic failure.
A few weeks before, the newspaper had published an article about Bankman-Fried and the FTX upheaval that, according to many, minimized his misdeeds and failed to hold him accountable by portraying him as a reckless youth.
Abramson, who was sacked from the New York Times in 2014, has previously blasted the newspaper and criticized its “unmistakably anti-Trump agenda.”
Donald Trump previously cited her as saying this, but she responded by praising the Times for its “tough coverage” of the former president.
The Times’ favorable coverage was a tactic to “get fabricated stories from the conferences into the paper.”
Less skeptically, a New York Times article introducing the meeting described Davos as “the wealthy symbol of a globalizing world.”
Abramson’s remarks were in a segment of Semfor’s own daily coverage of Davos, which was quick to attack it for its elitism and inability to influence good policy.
Its author, Liz Hoffmann, argued that despite their annual summit, world leaders were unable to forecast the Great Recession and the COVID-19 epidemic.
‘It’s midweek, which is roughly when the “Davos consensus” begins to solidify,’ writes Hoffman. ‘It’s handed around attendees with plates of toothpicked olives and Gruyère cubes.’
But it is nearly always incorrect. It is overly hopeful prior to crashes. Despite its international guest list, the conference missed the growth of nationalism and economic balkanization. It is susceptible to groupthink,’ wrote she.
Monday, Semafor disclosed that Bill Browder, an anti-Putin campaigner, is being charged $250,000 to attend the conference, compared to approximately $70,000 in the previous.
The article argued that Browner’s longstanding function at Davos has been to raise topics that many guests would like to overlook.
In contrast, a Saturday New York Times article announcing the meeting was less suspicious and described Davos as “long the wealthy symbol of a globalizing world.”
The Business and Policy DealBook newsletter acknowledged on Tuesday that criticism of the conference has reached new heights.
Wednesday at Davos, former Vice President Al Gore spoke on climate change.
Wednesday at Davos, former Vice President Al Gore delivered a ‘passionate’ lecture on climate change. In it, he cautioned the audience about ‘rain bombs’ and oceans that are boiling and discussed the problems the earth faces if severe changes are not implemented.
Gore also expressed his support for climate activist Greta Thunberg following her recent imprisonment in Germany for protesting a coal mine. He stated that the globe will soon be in danger if people continued to treat the environment as if it were a ‘open-air sewer.’
»Ex-editor of the New York Times describes the paper’s coverage of Davos as “corrupt.”«