Postcard From Peru: Why the Morality Plays Inside The Times Won’t Stop

Postcard From Peru: Why the Morality Plays Inside The Times Won’t Stop

The Coronavirus OutbreakliveLatest UpdatesMaps and CasesSee Your Local RiskNew Variants TrackerVaccine Rolloutthe media equationPostcard From Peru: Why the Morality Plays Inside The Times Won't StopOther news organizations have their own personnel dramas. But none attract the spotlight like The Times.There have been several recent high-profile firings and departures at The New York Times.Credit...Jeenah Moon for The New York TimesBy Ben SmithFeb. 14, 2021, 6:55 p.m. ETIn 2012, when The New York Times was panicked about its financial future, this newspaper went into the travel business. It began selling “Times Journeys,” on which an expert beat reporter would be your guide to Berlin or the Galápagos Islands.The trips brought in some money, but were expensive to run and complicated to manage — particularly in the summer of 2019, after The Times began hosting teenagers. In Seoul, two were detained by the police at an arcade after they were accused of stealing, a Times spokeswoman said.Nor were the reporters always ready for the confident, hothouse politics of elite American high school students. One reporter was chided by counselors on a trip to Israel for his tone in an exchange about the future of the oil industry.And then there was the trip to