‘New York Times’ Releases 8-Part Podcast Series Exposing Commentator Who Called Them Irrelevant

NEW YORK—In what newspaper sources described as an important corrective to a rising source of dangerous misinformation, the New York Times released an eight-part podcast series Wednesday exposing a commentator who called them irrelevant. “On October 19, 2020, a man named Tyler Whitson left a response to a report that day about unrest in the U.S. intelligence community where he impugned the paper’s reporting by saying ‘The New York Times sucks now.’ Here’s why that matters,” said Michael Barbaro at the beginning of No Comment, the special podcast series he was co-hosting with Kara Swisher and Ezra Klein, informing listeners that they needed to know that the 34-year-old gig worker from Spokane, Washington had a long history of rude comments, poor hygiene habits, and even some embarrassing romantic failures, which would be discussed in depth in part six. “SoccerFan86, if that’s even his real screen name, would have you believe that he’s an informed citizen offering fact-based statements when he says this like ‘no one cares,’ while our millions of paying subscribers to both print and digital clearly show otherwise. Over the next eight episodes, we’ll take you on a journey where we spoke to former coworkers, family members, customers, and ex-lovers of the embattled commenter to turn the mirror back on him and paint a fuller picture of who he is. Journalism, while Mr. Whitson may disagree, is built on a careful examination of the facts, and the uncovering of difficult truths, however unpleasant. So when someone says ‘your paper is dogshit, dunno why I even read it’ to the New York Times, we take that as an opportunity to use that as a starting point to engage our listeners, who might be interested to hear what kind of porn Mr. Whitson has been watching the last few months.” In addition to the eight-part series, the New York Times unveiled an hour-long video special documenting the struggles of journalists who had to read mean things that people said about their newspaper.

The Onion