No Evidence NYT Journalist is a Communist Spy
The Claim
A journalist who called Trump supporters “enemies of the state” is an operative of the Chinese Communist Party.
News posted on
Emerging story
New York Times journalist Katie Benner recently posted a series of now deleted tweets regarding the January 6 Select Committee. These tweets highlighted the difficulty of the government combating a national security threat without violating its policy of not working against a political figure, political party, or the political party’s supporters. Specifically, she emphasized that the January 6 Select Committee must now call a politician’s supporters, “enemies of the state.”
Soon, a number of users on social media had declared that Benner was actually an operative of the Chinese Communist Party. These posts have since gained hundreds or even thousands of interactions.
Misbar’s Analysis
Misbar’s investigation found the accusation to be baseless. The only supporting evidence that social media users or news reports give to support the accusation is that she once wrote for a magazine called the Beijing Review. This is not confidential information. In fact, The New York Times stated it in an update when she joined their staff.
If the fact that Benner has written for the Beijing Review did indicate that she was a Chinese Communist Party operative, it is unlikely that she would publicly list this experience. Also, for the majority of her career, Benner has worked for American media companies such as Bloomberg, Fortune, The Street, and CNNMoney.
Benner has only spent a short time in China. She grew up in Vermont and was an English major at Bowdoin College in Maine. As an interview with one of her former classmates states, she traveled to Beijing after she graduated to teach English. She then became a journalist and began writing about Americans who were living abroad. This and her later career moves indicate that Benner is not a spy but a journalist who has worked for a number of news organizations, her work for the Beijing Review is only a footnote.
Additionally, the false news report linked in this investigation speculates that Benner may have deleted her tweets due to the alleged “real people behind Ms. Benner '' instructing her to, as it revealed that she was a foreign spy. However, she stated that she deleted the tweets due to unclear wording.
