Thread by @ClaraJeffery

Not at all happy with this explanation. Basically if we didn't break the story of Trump being accused of rape, we bury it? Bad decision made worse by what seems like professional jealousy. Hire a damn public editor nytimes.com/2019/06/24/rea…

Also how about being "over cautious" about planted stories like Clinton Cash ffs.

I mean, no shit. This is what women have been saying since last Friday afternoon.

Also, the Times has done such good work on sexual assault and #metoo. This decision is a great disservice to all that reporting.

A public editor would make the Times' journalism better. The fact that they refuse to have one, and give that role some real heft is not about being in service to the journalism.

Also you know how the Times is doing this whole series on historical figures/incidents they should have covered better or at all back in the day.

HOW ABOUT APPLY THAT TO NOW

There are smart ways any publication could have—and could still!—cover this story. For example, on Friday the day the @NYMag story broke, MoJo's @msjpauly talked to experts on statue of limitations: motherjones.com/politics/2019/…

(Madison is an expert on statute of limitations, do to the amazing piece she's been working on for six months that we published today) motherjones.com/crime-justice/…

.@ejeancarroll of course is a prominent journalist of long standing, how about a piece that looks back on her advice columns with these allegations in mind? Slate did that: slate.com/news-and-polit…

One has to wonder if there had been an explosive allegation by a man who'd been a famous advice columnist, local anchor, and etc, how the male-dominated media—looking at you, Sunday morning talk shows—would have handled this.

Times finally put national reporters on this...now that she appeared on CNN (which also was slooooow on this story): nytimes.com/2019/06/24/us/…

Upshot: There are likely other credible allegations of sexual assault at the hands of the president out there. Everybody should double down on any leads.

And thank you to all victims who come forward despite incredible risks and credible fears.

To that end I'm going to put a thread about another set of rape cases here. They are not wholly unrelated, as you'll see at the end:

https://twitter.com/ClaraJeffery/status/1143154862139424769

Gabe implies (and did so in tweets yesterday) that the Times threw up Baquet's "interview" when it knew he was reporting this out. Which only makes matters worse if true: cjr.org/public_editor/…

This is because the New York Times failed its readers, full stop.

The Times played rape accusations against the President of Gambia bigger than those against President Trump

Ahem: I was told by folks at the Times that the reason they didn't report @ejeancarroll's accusations is that they didn't have two corroborating contemporaneous witnesses on the record/willing to be named. In this story they spoke to witnesses but granted them anonymity. So.

@ejeancarroll .@ejeancarroll corroborating witnesses—BOTH JOURNALISTS—verified her account to Times and other news outlets. Only Times didn't go with story until called out.

@ejeancarroll Of course the Gambian victim and her corroborating witnesses have reason to fear brutal ex-President and his supporters. Do @ejeancarroll and her witnesses have nothing to fear from our president and his?

.@slate has another great article on what the allegations of @ejeancaroll indicate, aside from the violence done to her. Times—which shared a Pulitzer for #MeToo coverage—still hasn't mustered one good article. slate.com/news-and-polit…

Yeah, I'm not going to let this go until they write something that's actually good or get over their own institutional blinkeredness and provide us with a fuller accounting of what went wrong and how they will ensure doing better the next time.

And the @washingtonpost editorial board (!!!) just issued a searing editorial. "At the least, the country must do for Ms. Carroll what the president will not: Listen to her."

WHERE IS THE TIMES EDITORIAL? washingtonpost.com/opinions/ameri…