NYT Employees Reportedly Vented About Company in Leaked Chat Messages: ‘Obsessed With Poaching Stars’
It looks like New York Times opinion writer and staff editor Bari Weiss is still dealing with the fallout over a tweet about U.S. Olympic skater Mirai Nagasu, in which Weiss labeled Nagasu an immigrant despite her being born in California.
Many NYT employees do not participate in social media, due to the company’s strict guidelines on the matter. Therefore, they did not get to weigh in on Weiss’s tweet and her subsequent refusal to acknowledge that it may have been, for lack of a better word, wrongheaded.
These employees, however, do have access to chat services, such as intra-office stalwart Slack. The Huffington Post’s Ashley Feinberg got ahold of some of Tuesday’s chat transcripts, shining a light on what some of The Gray Lady’s staffers think about the hiring of Weiss, her tweet and the editorial direction of the newspaper, among other sensitive topics (names were redacted).
“I guess it’s too much to even expect a ‘we’re sorry you’re offended’ apology since Asians don’t matter,” one message read. “I guess you get full Twitter privileges at NYT when you are consistently, factually wrong.”
One employee said they felt Weiss’s tweet “denied Mirai her full citizenship just as the internment did, and nothing will be done because no one was offended! (since we don’t count.)”
The conversation turned to general working conditions at the venerable publication.
“Here at the times, some people are allowed to make mistakes and offend. Others are not ever afforded one chance,” a staffer stated. “I will no longer remain silent about our hostile work environment just so that it will be pleasant for others.”
Another staffer spoke of “microaggressions and people being obtuse,” which allegedly happen “daily.”
That same employee continued to pile on the hiring practices of the newspaper, alleging they were “obsessed with poaching stars and nepotism.”
“The diversity efforts here are nothing but lip service,” they wrote. “Let’s hire more tokens we can put in their place!!!!!”
Finally, a staffer alleged that the publication keeps everyone in line with implicit threats.
“I think we are supposed to just read and weep for fear of reprisals such as being blacklisted for promotions or being targeted for the next round of buyouts/layoffs.”
Yesterday NYT hired Quinn Norton, an Internet celebrity of some renowned who has boasted about conducting friendships with neo-Nazis on Twitter, along with using various slurs. She was fired hours later.
[image via Getty Images]
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