NY TIMES PUBLIC EDITOR: Some tweets from our politics reporters 'outrageous' and there 'ought to be some kind of consequence'

New York Times public editor Liz Spayd criticized tweets authored by Times journalists during an exchange with Fox News host Tucker Carlson on Friday night.

During a segment on Tucker Carlson Tonight, Carlson read three tweets authored by Times journalists during the presidential campaign that he suggested were indicative of the Times becoming an "advocacy organization" for Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

Spayd said the tweets, which were written by journalists Eric Lipton, Peter Baker, and Liam Stack, were "over the line" and should have been me with "some kind of a consequence."

(It should be noted Stack merely tweeted the headline of a story from The Atlantic)

Here are the tweets:

Carlson was incredulous that "news reporters" authored the tweets. Spayd went on to call the tweets "outrageous" and said that they "shouldn't" have been tweeted.

 

 

"I mean, everybody has got to have their personal political views. We all do. But they ought to be personal. And if you sign up to be a journalist, then that's what you ought to be," Spayd added.

That answer did not quell Carlson, who went on to bring up tweets by Michael Barbaro, a New York Times reporter and host of The Run-Up, a Times' political podcast, and Peter Baker, the Times' Jerusalem bureau chief and former White House correspondent:

Carlson said that the tweets sent the message that "we tried to keep this guy from getting elected, but did anyways." 

"That suggests they don't understand the mission of a newspaper, which is to bring you the news, not to affect the outcome of a political race," Carlson concluded.

The Fox News host asked why the reporters had not been disciplined.

"Where are the editors here?" he asked. "I mean, if my -- you know, If I was the New York Times and my editors were tweeting crap like that, I would say you stop that right now or I'm firing you. Why don't they do that?"

"I don't know," Spayd replied. "I don't know that any of those people should be fired, but I do think that when people go over the line like that, and I think some of those are over the line, that there ought to be some kind of a consequence for that."

Trump has repeatedly hammered the Times since launching his campaign last summer. He threatened to file a lawsuit against the newspaper during the campaign and, since winning, has accused it of bias.

The Times, simultaneously, has seen its subscriptions spike amid Trump's criticism.