Media News

Death threat on the NY Times biz news desk

May 7, 2025

Posted by Chris Roush

Lachland Cartwright of Breaker reports on an argument between New York Times business editor Ellen Pollock and one of her reporters.

Cartwright reports, “On April 22, under the headline ‘As Harvard Is Hailed a Hero, Some Donors Still Want It to Strike a Deal’ journalists Rob CopelandMaureen Farrell and Michael S. Schmidt reported on which of the school’s well-known donors wanted to fight with the Trump administration over its draconian demands, and which did not.

“The story was high stakes and high pressure. It contained a raft of big names including Jared Kushner, John Paulson, Bill Ackman, Len Blavatnik, Larry Summers, Joe Bae, Ken Frazier, Ken Chenault, Lloyd Blankfein, Ken Griffin, Condoleezza Rice and Theodore V. Wells Jr.

“But we’ve learned that behind the scenes two key players did not cope well with the deadline pressure. According to two people familiar with the matter, Copeland and the New York Times business editor Ellen Pollock had an epic blow-up before the Harvard story ran. It resulted in a HR complaint about a “death threat.”

Read more here. A subscription is required. The New York Post has also posted this story.

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