“Time for another blogger ethics panel.”<\/p>\n
It’s a catch phrase of his dating back to the early aughts, that he used, and still uses<\/a>, whenever a reporter or columnist at one of the major news outlets is caught profiting off of an undisclosed conflict of interest.<\/p>\n This time, it’s David Brooks, who was caught taking a full time salary from the Aspen Institute as well as running the Weave Project<\/a>, both of which have taken money from Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, the Walton (Walmart) family, and a plethora of corporate sources that he routinely shills for. <\/p>\n Brooks has resigned from the Aspen institute, the status of the rest of his affairs is unclear: <\/p>\n<\/p>\n David Brooks has resigned from his position at the Aspen Institute following reporting by BuzzFeed News about conflicts of interest between the star New York Times columnist and funders of a program he led for the think tank.<\/p>\n Eileen Murphy, a spokesperson for the Times, said in a statement that editors approved Brooks’s involvement with Aspen in 2018, when he launched a project called Weave<\/a>. But current editors weren’t aware he was receiving a salary for Weave.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Spoiler, he is receiving a salary for Weave.<\/p>\n \u2026\u2026\u2026<\/p>\n Brooks\u2019s resignation comes after BuzzFeed News discovered further evidence of conflicts of interest and entanglements with corporate and billionaire donors to Weave.<\/p>\n Brooks did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n BuzzFeed News first revealed Brooks never disclosed to Times readers that he takes a full-time salary for his work on Weave<\/a>, or that its funders include Facebook, the father of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, and other wealthy individuals and corporations. Brooks recently wrote a blog post for Facebook\u2019s corporate website<\/a> in praise of Facebook Groups, a product that has often been a fount of misinformation and hate speech.<\/p>\n \u2026\u2026\u2026 <\/p>\n If you know someone who lives alone ask them to join NextDoor, which is Facebook for neighborhoods. It helps them stay in touch with those right around them. Vital in a crisis.<\/p>\n \u2014 David Brooks (@nytdavidbrooks) March 14, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote><\/div>\n Over the past 24 hours, BuzzFeed News discovered new evidence of potential conflicts. On March 15 of last year, as Americans faced a deadly pandemic, Brooks appeared on \u201cMeet The Press\u201d<\/a>and offered some advice.<\/p>\n “We need to take moral steps to make ourselves decent neighbors to each other as we go through this thing. I think people should get on Nextdoor, this sort of \u2018Facebook for neighbors,\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Left unsaid by Brooks was that Nextdoor, a social network for neighborhoods, had donated $25,000 to Weave. A day before his appearance on the nationally televised NBC program, Brooks also tweeted<\/a>to his nearly 250,000 followers, \u201cIf you know someone who lives alone, ask them to join NextDoor.\u201d<\/p>\n\n