‘Intent Matters’: NYT’s Baquet Walks Back Policy on Racial Slurs
11th February 2021
After stating last week it would “not tolerate racist language regardless of intent,” the New York Times reversed course Thursday and said “intent matters” in speech and writing.
“In our zeal to make a powerful statement about our workplace culture, we hamhandedly said something that some of you saw as threatening to our journalism,” executive editor Dean Baquet said in a meeting. “Of course intent matters when we are talking about language in journalism.” NBC News’s Dylan Byers originally reported the remarks.