To: Margaret Sullivan, Public Editor, New York Times and Trish Hall, Op-Ed editor

NYT: Investigate Daley’s Pro-TPP Claims

New York Times editors should review William Daley’s pro-TPP op-ed in the New York Times to see if it contained grossly misleading claims which warrant a correction, clarification, or editor’s note.

Why is this important?

On May 19, former Commerce Secretary William Daley had an op-ed in the New York Times in support of the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement. [1] About this op-ed, New York Times columnist and Nobel prize-winning economist Paul Krugman has written, [2]

“William Daley’s pro-TPP op-ed in today’s Times is just awful, on multiple levels…But what really annoyed me, even if it’s not necessarily the worst bit, was this: ‘But today, of the 40 largest economies, the United States ranks 39th in the share of our gross domestic product that comes from exports. This is because our products face very high barriers to entry overseas in the form of tariffs, quotas and outright discrimination.’ Actually, no. We have a low export share because we’re a big country… claiming that the relatively low US export share says anything at all about trade barriers makes me want to bang my head against a wall.”

The New York Times fact-checks the op-eds that it publishes. Should the New York Times have published such a grossly misleading claim? Can NYT editors dispute that the claim was grossly misleading, if Paul Krugman attests that it was? Should the NYT publish a correction, clarification, or editor’s note to accompany the op-ed? Urge NYT editors to investigate by signing and sharing our petition.

References:
1. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/19/opinion/free-trade-is-not-the-enemy.html
2. http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/05/19/the-mis-selling-of-tpp/