New York Times executive editor praises Mamdani college application report amid liberal outrage

New York Times executive editor Joe Kahn defended the paper’s unflattering report about Zohran Mamdani on Monday despite widespread backlash from liberal readers. 

The Times irked supporters of the socialist New York City mayoral candidate last week by reporting that he checked off that he was both "Asian" and "Black or African American" on his 2009 college application to Columbia University. Mamdani, who is of Indian descent and was born in Uganda, confirmed he was "trying to capture the fullness" of his background because "most college applications don’t have a box for Indian-Ugandans." 

Liberal readers blasted the Times for going out of its way to make Mamdani's college application a story and for relying on a source only identified by an anonymous social media username, whom the Times described as "an academic who opposes affirmative action." 

NY TIMES GRAPPLES WITH LIBERAL OUTRAGE OVER ITS MAMDANI COLLEGE APPLICATION REPORT

New York Times executive editor Joe Kahn defended the paper’s unflattering report about Zohran Mamdani. (photo by El Pics/ Getty Images)

Backlash was so intense that Patrick Healy, the paper's assistant managing editor for Standards and Trust, issued a lengthy statement on the Fourth of July, justifying the news value of the report. 

Kahn, who was promoted from managing editor to the top job in 2022, praised the report during a Monday daily news meeting, Fox News Digital has confirmed. 

Legal scholar Jonathan Turley examined the backlash to the Times report. 

"The New York Times experienced an uprising in its ranks and among its readers. The paper was denounced by its own staff and liberal pundits called for the entire editorial staff to be canned. Why? Because The New York Times actually reported news that was deemed harmful to the Democrats, specifically Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani," Turley wrote. 

"For liberals, it was an utter nightmare. For a party still defined by identity politics, Mamdani’s false claim over his race left many uncertain about how to react," Turley added. "The left has always maintained a high degree of tolerance for false claims by its own leaders, from Sen. Elizabeth Warren claiming to be a Native American to Sen. Richard Blumenthal claiming to have served in the Vietnam War."

NY TIMES ADDRESSES BACKLASH OVER REPORT ON NYC MAYORAL CANDIDATE MAMDANI'S COLLEGE APPLICATION

The New York Times published a report on Thursday about Zohran Mamdani's Columbia University college application. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images, NYT)

Among the outspoken critics of the report was ex-MSNBC host Keith Olbermann, who believes the Gray Lady is "campaigning against Mamdani." 

"Utter failure," Olbermann wrote. "Then again, if you don't realize NYT is perceived as actively campaigning against Mamdani, you're all lost anyway." 

Times columnist Lydia Polgreen sympathized with Mamdani, writing on X, "I can see why a political young man like Zohran might fill out his college application the way he did. Because if you are like me, you struggle to be known in this country. Our visual sorting is so simplistic and quite brutal." 

NY TIMES PUBLISHED MAMDANI COLLEGE APPLICATION STORY TO AVOID GETTING SCOOPED BY CHRISTOPHER RUFO: REPORT

New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani is of Indian descent and was born in Uganda. (REUTERS/Bing Guan)

Mamdani has said he identifies as "an American who was born in Africa," and stated that checking multiple boxes was an effort to reflect his "complex background," not to gain an advantage in the competitive admissions process.

He was ultimately not accepted to Columbia even though his father was a professor at the elite school.

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Fox News Digital’s Peter Pinedo contributed to this report.