The New York Times Company recently reported that it was close to hitting its target subscriber base by reaching 9.1 million subscribers. After the acquisition of the sports website The Athletic, it added a new subscriber base of 387,000. The Times is now closer to its target of hitting 15 million subscribers by the end of 2027. However, there seems to be a catch. A recent Fox News investigation reveals that The Times may be committing widespread subscriber fraud. The investigation was aired on the show Tucker Carlson Tonight on the 14th of May 2022.
The Tucker Carlson show that aired on the 14th of May 2022 was shared by Twitter handle @ColumbiaBugle. In the video, Tucker Carlson details how The New York Times essentially does not allow its subscribers to unsubscribe and continues to charge them $17 month after month.
Tucker Carlson Reveals The Secret Behind The NYT Subscriber Numbers
— The Columbia Bugle 🇺🇸 (@ColumbiaBugle) May 14, 2022
“So if you ever cancelled your NYT subscription, and certainly you have because you’re not insane, go check your monthly statement. There’s a pretty good chance the NYT is still taking your money.” pic.twitter.com/IzvMdYKEuT
The show details how another employee at Fox News tried to unsubscribe and was neither allowed to do so nor was there any provision for a refund after the system refused to allow him to unsubscribe.
What the Tucker Carlson show found about The New York Times committing subscriber fraud
Tucker Carlson starts his segment by asking a basic question that perhaps every Indian echo – We know The New York Times is unreadable. Then how does its subscriber base continue to grow?
One of the producers of the Tucker Carlson show subscribed to The New York Times about a year ago. When The Times increased its subscription rate to $17 a month, the producer tried to cancel his subscription. In April, the producer spoke to the representatives of The Times and they were assured that the cancellation of the subscription would go through. However, this month (May), the producer got billed $17 again.
On Wednesday, the producer called again to ensure that the cancellation goes through and was assured that it would. However, yet again, this did not happen. Tucker Carlson says on the 14th of May, the producer was charged another $17. When the producer called again to find out what was going on, Tucker Carlson says that the customer care representative essentially admitted that The New York Times was committing fraud. The show then proceeds to play the entire conversation that took place between the producer and The New York Times customer service representative.
First, the customer service representative confirms to the producer that the system “rejected” the request for cancellation. The reason they cited for the rejection of cancellation was that a transaction was already in progress.
On the 11th of April, there was another attempt to cancel the subscription but that was rejected by the system too, said the representative.
Essentially, so far, it appears like The New York Times does not let its subscribers cancel their subscription even if they want to given that the producer’s request was “rejected by the system” on two separate occasions.
The producer, having failed to cancel his subscription, then demanded for a refund. For this as well, he was told that the “system does not allow refunds”.
In this event, the customer service representative seemed as confused at The New York Times chicanery as the producer. She first says that she would process the refunds, however, she quickly realises that the system does not allow it. “Why is there another event being processed, that doesn’t make any sense?”, she says.
Foxed, the representative says that the system needs work and “this is not okay”.
The representative admits that “customers have been charged after cancellation too”.
Essentially, The New York Times representative admitted that first, the system does not let one cancel their subscription and if the individual assumes that NYT would be ethical enough to do the needful, they would soon realise that they are being charged repeatedly for a subscription they wanted to cancel. To top that, there is no option of giving customers a refund.
Laughing, Tucker Carlson then wonders if anyone would file a class action law suit against The New York Times.
It is pertinent to note here that China Daily, a propaganda outlet of the Chinese government, has reportedly paid $19 million to American newspapers in advertisement and printing charges in 4 years. As per the documents filed by China Daily with the Justice Department, the Communist party mouthpiece had paid over $6 million to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), $4.6 million to the Washington Post, $2,40,000 to Foreign Policy, $50,000 to the New York Times, $34,600 to The Des Moines Register and $76,000 to CQ-Roll Call. In fact, The Communist party mouthpiece had also spent $2,65,822 on advertising on Twitter.
In 2018, both the New York Times and the Washington Post ran a sponsored news item titled, “Belt and Road align with African nations.” The same news story was accompanied by another story, critical of the Trump administration. It read, “Tariffs to take a toll on U.S. homebuyers.” The news item emphasised how the rise in US tariffs on China would raise the cost of building homes in the US. China’s attempt to use foreign papers as a tool to further its interests had been pointed out by organisations such as the Freedom House, Hoover Institution, and other pro-democracy groups.
