Regarding my post about Artin Afkhami’s simultaneous employment at an Iran advocacy organization and as an Iran researcher at the New York Times, Diane McNulty, executive director, community affairs and media relations at the New York Times, e-mails me:
Since July, Artin Afkhami has worked for The Times part time, on a freelance basis, providing translations of articles and speeches and monitoring news reports from Iran. He does not write for The Times.
We are reviewing his other affiliations to determine whether any of them pose the possibility or the appearance of a conflict.
I stand by my earlier post; researchers with demonstrated records of cherry-picking, fabricating, and misreporting for the sake of a political cause do not do the New York Times justice, even if they only provide material to other reporters, and do not write articles themselves.