Ex-Rolling Stone editor swept up in disgraced ABC producer's child porn scandal joins New York Times

The New York Times is now in business with the former top editor of Rolling Stone who was swept up in the scandal of disgraced ABC News producer James Gordon Meek.

Noah Shachtman, who served as editor-in-chief of the magazine from 2021-2024 after being the top editor for The Daily Beast, is joining the Times as a contributing writer for its opinion section. According to Semafor, he'll be "writing columns and longer investigative pieces, with a focus on power, politics, and pop culture."

However, questions remain about Shactman's involvement in Rolling Stone's exclusive report on the bombshell FBI raid of Meek's home.

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In September 2023, Meek was sentenced to six years in prison for transportation and possession of child pornography. But the Rolling Stone's initial report on the FBI raid conducted in October 2022 suggested the raid involved Meek's work as a national security investigative producer for ABC News, putting emphasis on alleged classified information that was found on his laptop.

"Meek appears to be on the wrong side of the national-security apparatus," Rolling Stone reported at the time.

Meek abruptly resigned from ABC News after the raid.

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Shortly after Meek's arrest in February 2023, NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik penned a bombshell story of his own that accused Rolling Stone of whitewashing Meek's child pornography revelations, done by Shachtman himself.

"It should have been a coup. Instead, acrimony inside the newsroom over how that scoop was edited led to accusations that the magazine's brash leader pulled punches in overseeing coverage of someone he knew. The reporter who wrote the story, enraged, accepted a position at a sister publication two months later. And her complaints prompted a senior attorney for the magazine's parent company to review what happened," Folkenflik wrote at the time.

Folkenflik revealed that Tatiana Siegel, the reporter who broke the story on the Meek raid and whose name was on the Rolling Stone report, had initially written that Meek was part of a federal child pornography probe, but that detail was scrubbed by Shachtman, who reportedly once considered Meek a peer he was friendly with.

"Shachtman stepped in to edit Siegel's story. It was rare for him to do so for her work," Folkenflik wrote. "When Siegel detailed the seriousness of the allegations against Meek, Shachtman warned her against turning in a story that included the words ‘child pornography’ in it."

"The accounts given by the associates, colleagues and friends of the two key figures — Siegel and Shachtman — diverge here. According to what Siegel told others, Shachtman and she agreed that the article would reflect that the FBI's interest stemmed from concerns of possible criminal behavior outside the scope of Meek's work — that is, it had nothing to do with national security or journalism," Folkenflik later continued. "Shachtman later told others that he did not believe that she had nailed down her sourcing adequately. Rolling Stone parent company Penske Media notes that authority to make such choices for Rolling Stone's coverage lies with Shachtman."

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After Shachtman assured Siegel he would handle the story's publication so she could tend to her ailing mother, "Shachtman changed Siegel's draft to remove all suggestions that the investigation was not related to Meek's reporting," according to Folkenflik. Shachtman additionally instructed his staff to use a generic photograph of "something FBI-y" instead of a photo of Meek.

"He left in the finding that federal agents had allegedly found 'classified information’ on Meek's devices," Folkenflik wrote. "The article left many readers with the distinct impression that the investigation was linked to Meek's reporting — which could lead to a clash of the government and the press... Colleagues and friends say Siegel said she didn't know of the changes to her story until after it appeared online. Associates characterize Siegel as infuriated by what she considered Shachtman's interference in the independence of her reporting."

Siegel left Rolling Stone two months later for a position at sister publication Variety. She is now a writer a large for The California Post. Her Rolling Stone article was updated July 2023 acknowledging Meek's guilty plea to child pornography possession. 

A spokesperson for The New York Times told Fox News Digital, "Noah is a skilled and experienced reporter and editor. We look forward to his contributions to our Opinion report" but did not address questions about Shachtman's involvement in the Rolling Stone report.