A New York Times opinion writer and editor announced her resignation on Tuesday, castigating the newspaper for its obsequious embrace of social media.
Bari Weiss, who had been at the newspaper since 2017, posted her resignation letter, which was addressed to A.G. Sulzberger, the paper’s publisher, on her personal website.
Recommended Stories
“Twitter is not on the masthead of the New York Times,” she wrote. “But Twitter has become its ultimate editor. As the ethics and mores of that platform have become those of the paper, the paper itself has increasingly become a kind of performance space. Stories are chosen and told in a way to satisfy the narrowest of audiences, rather than to allow a curious public to read about the world and then draw their own conclusions.”
Weiss noted the vitriol she faced from coworkers who disagreed with her columns and viewpoints. She also specified how her frequent columns about Judaism and anti-Semitism were derided by others in the newsroom.
“My own forays into Wrongthink have made me the subject of constant bullying by colleagues who disagree with my views. They have called me a Nazi and a racist; I have learned to brush off comments about how I’m ‘writing about the Jews again,'” she added. “Several colleagues perceived to be friendly with me were badgered by coworkers. My work and my character are openly demeaned on company-wide Slack channels where masthead editors regularly weigh in.”
She said the behavior of her former colleagues amounted to “unlawful discrimination, hostile work environment, and constructive discharge. I’m no legal expert. But I know that this is wrong.”
“I do not understand how you have allowed this kind of behavior to go on inside your company in full view of the paper’s entire staff and the public,” Weiss added. “And I certainly can’t square how you and other Times leaders have stood by while simultaneously praising me in private for my courage. Showing up for work as a centrist at an American newspaper should not require bravery.”
The New York Times did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Weiss’s resignation comes a month after James Bennet, the head of the opinion section, resigned after the publication of a controversial opinion article from Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas.
In the article, the Republican lawmaker encouraged President Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act — a law that gives the president the authority to deploy the U.S. military and National Guard troops domestically in order to rein in the violence, looting, and destruction that has taken place alongside peaceful protests after George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis police custody on May 25.
A number of employees found Cotton’s piece to be tantamount to endangering the lives of minorities, and the piece was given a lengthy editor’s note and an acknowledgment “that the essay fell short of our standards” and should not have been published after internal fighting.
