Hire Misfire

Noah Shachtman lands at the Times, somehow. 

On Monday, Noah Shachtman, the former editor in chief of Rolling Stone and the Daily Beast, announced on X that he had a new gig: contributing opinion writer for the New York Times. But his appointment seems at odds with the Times’ stated journalistic standards, at least to some former colleagues, who view his tenure at Rolling Stone in the shadow of editorial interference that they feel raised serious ethical concerns. In 2022, Rolling Stone published a story about an FBI raid on James Gordon Meek, who was then an investigative producer for ABC News, that strongly implied he was being targeted for his national security coverage and framed his arrest as a potential press freedom story, reporting that classified information had been found on his computer. The portrait of Meek was largely sympathetic and at times admiring: “With nine years at ABC under his belt, a buzzy Hulu documentary poised for Emmy attention, and an upcoming book on the military’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, the 52-year-old bear of a man seemed to be at the height of his powers and the pinnacle of his profession.”

What the piece notably omitted is a key fact. The same FBI source who confirmed the existence of classified information on Meek’s computer also said that he was under investigation for a matter unrelated to his work as a journalist, and confirmed the focus was child sexual abuse material (CSAM). Tatiana Siegel, the writer whose byline appeared on the Rolling Stone article, shared the full scope of her reporting with Shachtman. (A screenshot of the exchange was provided to me.) He replied, “Wow.”