NY Times biz news desk taps Hsu to cover misinformation

New York Times business editor Ellen Pollock and technology editor Pui-Wing Tam sent out the following on Tuesday:

When we went looking to add to our team covering misinformation, we wanted someone with big ideas, a penchant for digging and toughness. As it turned out, we didn’t need to look far.

We’re happy to report that Tiffany Hsu has joined the team after a strong run in the media group, covering advertising and a wide variety of other parts of the media world.

“The only thing that was more fun than reading Tiffany’s latest report on the ad industry — or frankly, whatever media world assignment that was thrown at her — was learning that you were going to be paired up with her on a story,” said John Koblin, who has worked with Tiffany on dozens of stories. “The best colleague, and the best sense of humor. Tiffany’s the dream teammate.”

Tiffany joined The Times in 2017, and since then has never met a story that she wouldn’t jump at enthusiastically: The surge in shopping right after Christmas, computer-generated influencers, Johnson & Johnson’s baby powder problems, the plight of Subway’s franchisees.

And yes, she has covered misinformation before — so well, in fact, that Tiffany and Sheera Frenkel just won a Mirror Award for their reporting on false and misleading information about vaccines and mask mandates.

Tiffany will be based in San Francisco, working closely with Steve Myers and Stuart Thompson, our other reporters focused on misinformation. She’s already gotten off to a strong start, debunking rumors about the travesty in Uvalde, Texas, and writing about how one man’s picture has been attached to a fake name and numerous bogus reports of his death.

Please join us in congratulating her on the new role.