Brooks never disclosed to Times readers that he takes a full-time salary for his work on Weave, or that its funders include Facebook, the father of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, and other wealthy individuals and corporations. Brooks recently wrote a blog post for Facebook’s corporate website in praise of Facebook Groups, a product that has often been a fount of misinformation and hate speech.
Brooks's behavior raises thorny ethical issues for the Times. By appearing in videos for Weave funders, he's lending the paper's credence to entities in which he has a stake. The revelations of these entanglements has angered the Times’ newsroom, where reporters, who are typically not allowed to maintain outside jobs that would be perceived as jeopardizing their news judgment, have reported critically on Facebook. Murphy told BuzzFeed News that Brooks did not inform the paper that he was blogging for Facebook, or that Weave received funding from the company. His Weave salary was revealed by BuzzFeed News earlier this week.
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Investigative Issues: NYT Columnist Brooks Was Paid by Nonprofit He Praised Without Disclosing His Conflict
