No one is being told to “stick to sports” at The Athletic, but the publication has told its writers to avoid being political.
A memo obtained by Defector shows Paul Fichtenbaum’s desire to remain neutral on divisive issues. The Athletic’s chief content officer differentiated between social conversations and political stances.
“We don’t want to stop people from having a voice and raising their voice for appropriate issues,” Fichtenbaum writes. “But there comes a point where something that is a straightforward, ‘Hey, I’m concerned about guns in America,’ for instance, right, that’s an apolitical statement. It becomes political when you say, ‘I’m concerned about guns in America and this political party is the reason why we’re having an issue,’ right? That’s when it tips over. So again, we don’t want to stop people from having a voice and expressing themselves. We just need to keep it from tipping over into the political space.”
The anonymous writer for The Athletic that leaked the memo to Defector’s Laura Wagner expressed concern and confusion about what this will lead to in terms of the site’s editorial policies.
“What about Black Lives Matter? Is that a social cause? Who will write about athlete protests? What about trans athletes in sports?” this person wrote. “Where this policy gets you is that the people who care the most about a particular issue, the people who are most informed about a particular issue, are now the ones who are banned from covering the issue.”
The New York Times purchased The Athletic earlier this year in an effort to boost its digital subscriber numbers. Fitchenbaum joined the site in 2017 and has served as the Chief Content Officer the entire time.
