New York Times executive editor Dean Baquet admitted to staffers during a Monday newsroom meeting that the recent debacle about a changed headline was a “f—ing mess.”
Regarding a presidential speech made in the wake of recent mass shootings, the original headline for the paper’s print edition read “TRUMP URGES UNITY VS. RACISM.” The framing sparked backlash online and even earned condemnation from Democratic presidential candidates.
The Times then changed the headline to “ASSAILING HATE BUT NOT GUNS.”
Unbelievable. https://t.co/rLgaacttDS
— Beto O’Rourke (@BetoORourke) August 6, 2019
Lives literally depend on you doing better, NYT. Please do. https://t.co/L4CpCb8zLi
— Cory Booker (@CoryBooker) August 6, 2019
That’s not what happened. https://t.co/m6eIZOARcZ
— Kirsten Gillibrand (@SenGillibrand) August 6, 2019
The Daily Beast reported Baquet also urged staffers not to overreact to Twitter comments about the paper’s editorial decision and warned against giving online mobs too much sway.
Of the editor who penned the first headline, Baquet said, “He’s sick. He feels terrible.”
The meeting also briefly mentioned the online behavior of Times deputy Washington editor Jonathan Weisman, whose tweets have caused a lot of outrage in the newsroom.
“The thing that surprised me was that the Jonathan Weisman issue didn’t come up more, because it has had the newsroom in absolute meltdown for the past week,” one Times staffer said. “I think the big question that people have right now is, ‘Is this guy going to get suspended?’ What’s going to happen to him? It’s a really big deal.”
“He’d already been told to shut the f— up on Twitter,” the person added.
