After blowback, NYT public editor walks back criticism of reporters

The public editor of The New York Times says she should have been more restrained in criticizing some of newspaper's reporters' tweets during a recent interview. "In retrospect, I should have held back more, not knowing what the context was for the tweets. I think that's a fair criticism," Liz Spayd said. "But I stand by my view that journalists should be careful, sometimes more careful than they are, with what they say on social media," she maintained. "That includes how it can be interpreted."

On Dec 2's "Tucker Carlson Tonight," Carlson asked Spayd about tweets by Times journalists including Eric Lipton, Peter Baker and Michael Barbaro that appear to be more opinion than straight news reporting. Carlson slammed the Tweets during his interview with Spayd, claiming the reporters were anti-Donald Trump and didn't care to hide their feelings about the president-elect. "We tried to keep this guy from getting elected, but did anyways," Carlson said in characterizing the tweets. "Yes, I think that's outrageous. I think that that should not be. They shouldn't be tweeted," Spayd responded. Progressive journalists and professors took to Twitter to complain about Spayd's comments.