A controversial New York Times op-ed editor resigned from her post Monday, citing bullying and harassment for her political views as the impetus for her departure from the paper.
In a nearly 1,500-word resignation letter posted on her personal website, Bari Weiss, whom the New York Post called “one of the few conservative voices” at The Times, accused the paper of abandoning its journalistic principles to “satisfy the narrowest of audiences, rather than to allow a curious public to read about the world and then draw their own conclusions.”
“Twitter is not on the masthead of The New York Times. But Twitter has become its ultimate editor,” Weiss wrote.
“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.”
She added: “I was always taught that journalists were charged with writing the first rough draft of history. Now, history itself is one more ephemeral thing molded to fit the needs of a predetermined narrative.”
Weiss said she’s been “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.’ 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. There, some coworkers insist I need to be rooted out if this company is to be a truly ‘inclusive’ one, while others post ax emojis next to my name. Still other New York Times employees publicly smear me as a liar and a bigot on Twitter with no fear that harassing me will be met with appropriate action. They never are.”
Here is the full text of the letter.
WIBC host Tony Katz discussed Bari Weiss’ resignation in today’s Popcorn Moment.
https://omny.fm/shows/tony-katz-and-the-morning-news/the-popcorn-moment-the-bari-weiss-resignation
