New York Times used left-wing activist to report on story

Some details:

For the second time in six months, The New York Times is answering questions about a freelancer who seems to be more of an activist. The Times-Picayune reports that Jordan Flaherty, who contributed to Campbell Robertson’s April 4 New York Times article about the sentencing of five former New Orleans police officers, led a demonstration last summer against the defendants.

Reached by email and telephone, Flaherty disagreed with being called a leader of the protest, but he did speak there, exhorting the crowd to chant “guilty!” 25 times after he described being in the courtroom as the former officers were convicted.

Robertson, who was unable to get into the courtroom in time, used Flaherty’s “notes of what the judge said” during the sentencing, Times Deputy National Editor Rick Lyman told the Picayune.”We were unaware that Mr. Flaherty might have been involved in public protests involving the killings and, if we had known, we would not have used him,” Lyman wrote.

According to his Huffington Post profile, Flaherty is “an editor of Left Turn Magazine, and a staffer with the Louisiana Justice Institute.” According to this profile in the Pittsburgh City Paper, Flaherty is a “community organizer.”

Twitter reaction:

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