UNITED STATES
Nancy Levine
Dear Ms. Spayd,
We are a global community of survivors of child sexual abuse and advocates. We were heartened when, under your editorial direction, the Columbia Journalism Review published a piece by Steve Buttry, Director of Student Media at LSU: “The voiceless have a voice. A journalist’s job is to amplify it.” We would like to ask you and The New York Times to consider amplifying our collective voice; we reiterate our request, emailed to you on July 11, 2016.
Our previous correspondence raised questions about The Times’ absence of recent coverage of the Child Victims Act of New York, and an appearance of a conflict of interest. Presumably there is no causal relationship between The Times’ absence of recent reporting on the Child Victims Act and Publisher and Chairman Arthur O. Sulzberger Jr.’s family financial interests in Whole Foods Market. But to quell concerns about an appearance of a conflict, we think this matter warrants further response.
We understand that the public editor is not responsible for The Times’ coverage decisions and deals specifically with issues of journalistic integrity. As advocates working to raise awareness of issues surrounding child sexual abuse, we would like to ask The Times to elevate its editorial sensitivity to covering related news. We believe Executive Editor Dean Baquet’s response to questions about this matter underscores the need for further attention. Scope of impact:
* approximately 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 6 boys are victims of child sexual abuse, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC)
* more than 43 million survivors of child sexual abuse in the U.S.
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