I don’t want to come across as supporting the NYT, but this sounds like the memo is a style guide against biased language which is pretty common.
News is supposed to give you information, not persuade you to take an opinion and normally a style guide helps do that in a consistent voice. I’d be interested in seeing the entire memo.
That being said it seems like the NYT does a poor job of following its own guidelines in presenting unbiased news.
steer clear of the term “refugee camps” to describe areas of Gaza historically settled by displaced Palestinians expelled from other parts of Palestine during previous Israeli–Arab wars. The areas are recognized by the United Nations as refugee camps and house hundreds of thousands of registered refugees.
It really doesn’t seem the guidance aims for not persuading you to take an opinion
I don’t want to come across as supporting the NYT, but this sounds like the memo is a style guide against biased language which is pretty common.
News is supposed to give you information, not persuade you to take an opinion and normally a style guide helps do that in a consistent voice. I’d be interested in seeing the entire memo.
That being said it seems like the NYT does a poor job of following its own guidelines in presenting unbiased news.
It really doesn’t seem the guidance aims for not persuading you to take an opinion