Times pushed ahead to avoid being scooped on Mamdani Columbia story | Semafor

The afternoon before a long holiday weekend isn t always the best time to drop a major scoop. But the New York Times did not want to wait to publish its story about Zohran Mamdani s application to Columbia University in 2009, in which the paper reported that the Democratic nominee for New York City mayor then identified his race on a form as both Asian and Black or African American. Mamdani is of South Asian ethnicity and was born in Uganda.

The story, published late last week, came as the result of the release of hacked Columbia University records that were then shared with the Times. The paper believed it had reason to push the story out quickly: It did not want to be scooped by the independent journalist Christopher Rufo. Two people familiar with the reporting process told Semafor that the paper was aware that other journalists were working on the admissions story, including Rufo, a conservative best known for his crusade against critical race theory.

In a message, Rufo confirmed to Semafor that he had been reporting out the piece before the Times published its version of the story. Rufo said that he would be publishing additional details about the incident on his Substack in the coming days.

A spokesperson for the paper declined to comment on whether Rufo s reporting prompted the paper to push the piece out on Thursday, and pointed Semafor to a statement it first provided to the Columbia Journalism Review outlining its reason for publishing the piece.

via www.semafor.com

It looks like another W for independent media.