The top editor at the Philadelphia Inquirer resigned after facing backlash for a headline that was a play on the Black Lives Matter name.
Stan Wischnowski, the paper’s executive editor, submitted his resignation on Saturday, according to the paper. Publisher Lisa Hughes said Wischnowski “has decided to step down as senior vice president and executive editor.”
His final day will be June 12. No successor was named.
“We will use this moment to evaluate the organizational structure and processes of the newsroom, assess what we need, and look both internally and externally for a seasoned leader who embodies our values, embraces our shared strategy, and understands the diversity of the communities we serve,” Hughes wrote to staff.
Journalists at the publication took exception with a headline that read “Buildings Matter, Too,” a spin on the Black Lives Matter movement name, in Tuesday’s print edition to call attention to the buildings and businesses that have been damaged and vandalized during the recent wave of protests.
More than three dozen journalists of color wrote an open letter addressed to the Inquirer’s management team expressing their frustration with the headline. In the letter, they said they would be “calling in sick” on Thursday because they were “sick and tired of pretending things are OK. Sick and tired of not being heard.”
“We demand full, transparent commitment to changing how we do business,” the letter continued. “No more ‘handling internally.’ No more quiet corrections. If we are to walk into a better world, we need to do it with our chests forward—acknowledge and accept where we make mistakes, and show how we learn from them. Your embarrassment is not worth more than our humanity.”
The outlet later apologized for “suggest[ing] an equivalence between the loss of buildings and the lives of black Americans.”
The controversy emerged as protests have taken place in dozens of cities across the country and the rest of the world after George Floyd, an unarmed black man, died on Memorial Day after a white Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes.
The officer who pressed a knee to Floyd’s neck, Derek Chauvin, was fired from the department and has been charged with second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. The three other officers who were involved in detaining Floyd, who was suspected of using a counterfeit $20 bill, were also fired and charged with aiding and abetting murder.
