NYT reporter admits responsibility for leaking personal information from Jewish business owners

Disciplined, but not abandoned, a New York Times reporter admitted responsibility for leaking the personal information of hundreds of Jewish business owners before they were threatened and vandalized.

College campuses and “Jihad Squad” campaign events may be among the best-known perpetrators of Hamas sympathies following the October 7 terror attack in Israel. However, the corporate media's own prejudices were just as prevalent and, in at least one case, made direct threats to Jews in Australia.

Across Melbourne, reports of vandalism and direct threats followed the leaking of business owners' names, addresses and various internet accounts, all associated with a WhatsApp group, which began specifically after Islamist extremism which left hundreds of men, women and children dead.

Thursday, according to report from the Wall Street Journal, the source of the doxxing was confirmed to be Natasha Frost, a Melbourne Times reporter who admitted to leaking the information, but only to one person before it ended up in the hands of anti-Israelites. protesters

“I shared this document with one person. Its subsequent dissemination and misuse occurred entirely without my knowledge or consent,” a company spokesperson told the Journal. “I was surprised by these events, which put me and many others in terrible danger. I deeply regret my decision.”

Examples of vandalism include graffiti with death threats, including at a school, and stickers calling for boycotts and promoting stereotypes against members of the Jewish faith.

Seen all over Melbourne. Pure hatred that doesn't belong here #racism #Antisemitism pic.twitter.com/eyLnhedzSn

— Keren Zelwer (@KerenZelwer) November 6, 2023

Caulfield, Melbourne, Australia: Jewish cars are 'tagged' with vile anti-Semitic stickers

I am advised that the matter has been reported @VictoriaPolice#Australia#Antisemitism#Israel#Hate crimes pic.twitter.com/O0VRdsxj9l

— Menachem Vorchheimer (@MenachemV) November 7, 2023

WHAT HAPPENED IN AUSTRALIA?

This “JEW DIE” message was left at a Jewish school in Melbourne, Mt Scopus College.

The anti-Semitism crisis has been fueled in part because the current Labor government is the most hostile to Israel we have seen along with its failure to… pic.twitter.com/gG6SQ4diTf

— Dr David Adler (@DrDavidAdler1) May 25, 2024

To all those who have abused me or doubted me for spreading the truth about the rise of antisemitism in Australia, watch this ⬇️. #stopjewhatred pic.twitter.com/cpI5fGYr19

— Peter Horovitz (@Horror1403) August 13, 2024

The paper detailed how a woman “left an expletive-laden voicemail” for Melbourne shop owner Joshua Moshe, “followed by a text message showing a photo of her 5-year-old son”, before the store was vandalized several times, including with graffiti and “stickers with an Israeli flag crossed out with the label 'boycott'”.

Frost had signaled her departure from the group, which she had been invited to join in early November 2023, when she wrote a story about the Australian Broadcasting Corporation providing a platform for Antoinette Lattouf, a contentious issue for Jewish businessmen . for the lack of impartiality.

Around the same time the story was published, so did the information about the members of the WhatsApp group. Speaking about the matter of one of its own reporters being behind the doxxing, a Times spokeswoman told the Journal: “It has come to our attention that a New York Times reporter inappropriately shared information with of a story to help the individual in a private matter, a clear violation of our ethics”.

“This was done without the knowledge or approval of The Times,” he continued, as it was reported that Frost was disciplined to an unknown extent and remained on the staff.

The Gray Lady had notably been among the corporate media who had picked up an easily debunked report that the Israel Defense Forces had bombed a hospital in Gaza, as numerous outlets continued to report an uncorroborated death toll from the Gaza Ministry of Health .

Following the report, they published a editors note acknowledging that “early versions of the coverage—and the prominence it received in a headline, news alerts, and social media feeds—relied too much on Hamas' claims and did not make it clear that those claims could not be immediately verified” .

Meanwhile, cultural clashes around the world were met with crackdowns on free speech rather than trying to address social differences and Australia was no different as Attorney General Mark Dreyfus sought to push for tougher sanctions for doxxing.

“The growing use of online platforms to harm people through practices such as doxxing, the malicious release of their personal information without their permission, is a deeply disturbing development,” he said as he pledged to strengthen privacy protections.

Staff writer

A native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College, where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and seeker of the truth, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and dog, and when he's not researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel the

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