Mick Hartley

Nasty stuff from the New York Times:

The ad, which was spotted in the Washington DC subway, does not mention author JK Rowling by name but features an image of an apparent NYT subscriber, with the words: “Lianna is imagining Harry Potter without its creator”. 

Ms Rowling has found herself on the receiving end of an ongoing hate campaign after being accused of transphobia….

The NYT ad was met with criticism online, with one person asking: "Are they actually trying to get subscribers like this?"

Another Twitter user said she found the advert "chilling".

One person wrote: "This feels libelous @jk_rowling" while another questioned whether the New York Times agrees with its target demographic that J.K. Rowling is a "pantomime villain". 

The advertisement is part of the paper’s new brand marketing campaign, ‘Independent Journalism for an Independent Life’, which according to a press release aims to give an insight into the lives of several New York Times subscribers.

Amy Weisenbach, senior vice president and head of marketing at The New York Times Company, said the campaign highlights how there are “several ways our readers connect with and engage with our journalism to inform their lives”.

The intent clearly is to play up the characterisation of Rowling as a despicable transphobic bigot, thereby appealing to what they obviously see as their ideal readership. Yep, we hate Rowling too!

Steerpike in the Spectator:

It looks like the New York Times is at it again. In recent years, America's least-reliable news source has developed a strange view of Britain — or at least since the Brexit vote in 2016. In the NYT’s world, the UK is a desolate place, where locals huddle round bin fires on the streets of London, gnawing on legs of mutton and cavorting in swamps during the summer, ever fearful of the despot Prime Minister, Boris Johnson. Just last month the paper's international edition ran a front-page comment piece claiming the country would 'sleepwalk into tyranny' thanks to our 'ever more spiteful nationalism.'

Now though it seems the Brit-bashing has a new outlet: attacking this country's greatest living writer. In their rush to identify themselves with fashionable elite opinion, the New York Times has decided to take aim at J.K. Rowling, persona non grata in the woketariat for her comments about sex and gender. The paper has launched a new achingly right-on advertising campaign, ostensibly based around one of its subscribers and their passions.

A new YouTube ad introduces us to 'Lianna', who, we are told, has subscribed to the NYT since 2020 and is described as a 'harmony of flavours.' We are introduced to her various passions for articles on themes such as 'a week in crossword land' and 'queer love in colour' before another suggested newspaper title flashes up: 'Imagining Harry Potter without its creator.' It's the only implicit reference in the 30-second clip to any notable individual and is clearly something of a deliberate swipe at the outspoken author whose critics have indeed tried to erase her works.

Indeed, the line has been carefully picked out to adorn advertising boards in New York too, suggesting that the paper knows exactly what it is doing by highlighting Rowling. The NYT is running its campaign under the tagline of 'independent journalism' — even though by blindly following the herd on this one it doesn't exactly suggest much in the way of independent thought.

Clearly, being well-informed isn't one of the benefits of subscribing to the NYT. For, without its creator, 'Lianna' wouldn't be imagining anything about Harry Potter at all.

The NYT does indeed publish some strange stuff about the UK, but this is surely more about polishing up its "woke" credentials – at the expense of JK Rowling.

Update: fine Twitter thread from James Barry.