Well, here's a fun little journalism pretzel for you. One of the New York Times' biggest opinion stars apparently spent years singing Bill Gates' praises as a philanthropic hero while conveniently forgetting to mention that Gates hung out with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein roughly 30 times. You know, minor detail.
As recently reported, the spotlight is now on veteran columnist Nicholas Kristof, a guy who literally built his career writing about human trafficking and sexual exploitation. Those are his signature topics. His whole brand. And yet, when it came time to hold up Gates as a shining example of charitable leadership, the Epstein connection apparently just slipped his mind. Repeatedly.
The Washington Free Beacon brought this to everyone's attention, noting that Kristof praised Gates on multiple occasions across columns and books while never once connecting the dots to Epstein, even in pieces specifically about Epstein's victims. In February, Kristof penned an opinion piece criticizing powerful institutions for failing to protect vulnerable women. Gates, whose documented relationship with Epstein generated years of headlines, somehow didn't make the cut for that particular column. Fascinating editorial choices all around.
But wait, it gets better. Both Bill and Melinda Gates each dropped $50,000 into Kristof's failed 2022 gubernatorial campaign in Oregon. That's a cool hundred grand from the Gates household flowing to someone who kept writing nice things about them in one of the world's most influential newspapers. Semafor previously reported that Kristof quoted multiple former campaign donors in his Times columns without telling readers about those financial relationships. The Times apparently had an understanding that Kristof would either avoid writing about contributors or disclose those connections. Spoiler alert: neither happened consistently.
After Semafor's reporting came out, a Times spokesperson said the paper was reviewing those columns to figure out if editor's notes were warranted. So basically, the self-proclaimed paper of record is now doing homework on its own columnist's transparency.
For his part, Gates has acknowledged meeting with Epstein numerous times after Epstein had already pleaded guilty in Florida to soliciting prostitution from a minor. Gates called those meetings a "grave error in judgment" and says they were about philanthropy. An independent review commissioned by the Gates Foundation found approximately 30 meetings between Gates, foundation representatives, and Epstein from 2011 to 2014. The review concluded there was no evidence the foundation knowingly participated in criminal activity, but it did reveal that foundation employees repeatedly raised red flags about the reputational dangers of keeping Epstein in their orbit.
Whether Kristof's omissions represent a genuine ethical failure or just remarkably convenient blind spots is still being debated. But when your entire career revolves around fighting sexual exploitation, and you keep praising a billionaire whose Epstein connections are basically common knowledge, people are going to have questions. Lots of them.
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