Natasha Lennard: OWS Activist AND NYT Reporter

Journalistic ethics. We know how journalists love to tout their ethical standards.

It appears that New York Times reporter Natasha Lennard has thrown hers out the window.

From Lee Stranahan, Big Government:

A newly-discovered video–filmed by Occupy Wall Street supporters themselves–reveals that New York Times reporter Natasha Lennard is not merely covering the protests, but is also apparently taking part in planning and executing them.

In the video, Lennard is seen participating as a featured speaker in a discussion among anarchists, communists, and other radicals as they examine the theory, strategy and tactics of the Occupy protests.

The discussion was held at the left-wing Bluestockings book store in New York on Friday, Oct. 14, and filmed and promoted by the radical magazine Jacobin. The audience included participants in, and apparent organizers of, the Occupy Wall Street demonstration in lower Manhattan.

Lennard, who has also written for Politico and Salon, is identified in the video by the panel’s moderator as a freelancer for the Times, and also as the Times reporter who was arrested along with seven hundred activists on the Brooklyn Bridge on Oct. 1.

When Lennard reported on her arrest at the time, she appears to have concealed her own apparent role in the Occupy protests, implying that her arrest was an abuse of press freedom. She used her affiliation with the Times to win her early release.

Sympathetic media expressed shock that a reporter had been taken into custody by allegedly overzealous police. Only sources like Newsbusters questioned that narrative at the time. The video suggests that the skeptics were correct in their suspicions.

Here's the video:


Stranahan writes:

Lennard’s “outing” of herself at the panel discussion demands an immediate response from the New York Times.

...The Times should not allow Lennard to use her purported credentials as a reporter to shield her from revealing intimate knowledge of any apparent crimes being formulated against people and businesses in New York.

Nor should the Times allow Lennard to abuse her status as a reporter to avoid the legal consequences of her actions as an active participant in illegal Occupy actions.

I agree.

Lennard shouldn't be given a pass. She should face the consequences of her actions.