{"id":121493,"date":"2021-02-08T20:30:41","date_gmt":"2021-02-09T01:30:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=121493"},"modified":"2021-02-08T20:42:37","modified_gmt":"2021-02-09T01:42:37","slug":"new-york-times-meltdown-plays-out-in-private-facebook-group","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/new-york-times-meltdown-plays-out-in-private-facebook-group\/","title":{"rendered":"New York Times Meltdown Plays Out in Private Facebook Group"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fnew-york-times-meltdown-plays-out-in-private-facebook-group%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=121493&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The &#8220;resignation&#8221; of star<\/span> <em><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">New York Times<\/span><\/em> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">science writer Donald McNeil Jr. has sparked a furious back-and-forth among<\/span> <em><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Times<\/span><\/em> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">staffers, many of whom are outraged over the Gray Lady\u2019s handling of his departure.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The <em>Washington Free Beacon&nbsp;<\/em>reviewed a series of postings to a Facebook group for current and former<\/span> <em><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Times<\/span><\/em> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">staffers, where a tense debate is unfolding over McNeil&#8217;s exit. One camp argues that his dismissal was justified&nbsp;and another asserts it set a troubling precedent, which the <em>New York Times<\/em> union should have done more to prevent.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"posts-content__category-widget md:hidden -ml-4 -mr-4 my-8 px-4 py-6 bg-gray-100\">\n<h4 class=\"mt-0 text-red-600 font-medium font-sans uppercase\">Recent Stories in Issues<\/h4>\n<ul class=\"list-none p-0\">\n<li class><a class=\"text-black block mb-3 pb-3 border-b border-white\" href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/issues\/inside-the-grey-ladys-meltdown-over-donald-mcneils-resignation\/\"><strong>New York Times Meltdown Plays Out in Private Facebook Group<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<li class><a class=\"text-black block mb-3 pb-3 border-b border-white\" href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/issues\/facebook-reverses-ban-against-virginia-gun-rights-group\/\"><strong>Facebook Reverses Ban Against Virginia Gun-Rights Group<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<li class><a class=\"text-black block mb-3 pb-3 border-b border-white\" href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/issues\/describing-jews-as-privileged-ethnic-studies-curriculum-sparks-backlash\/\"><strong>Describing Jews as \u2018Privileged,&#8217; Ethnic Studies Curriculum Sparks Backlash<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">&#8220;What ever happened to the notion of worker solidarity \u2026 to giving a fellow worker the benefit of the doubt,&#8221; asked Steven Greenhouse, who spent three decades covering labor issues for the<\/span> <em><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Times<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. &#8220;And why didn\u2019t the NewsGuild do far more to defend and protect the job of a long-time Times employee, one who at times did tireless, heroic work on behalf of the Guild to help improve pay and conditions for all NYT employees?&#8221; McNeil had&nbsp;<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.huffpost.com\/entry\/donald-mcneil-new-york-times-contract_n_1950887\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">excoriated<\/span><\/a> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">management\u2019s attempts to freeze pension plans in 2012, calling those involved &#8220;belligerent idiots.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Times<\/span><\/em> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">crossword columnist Deb Amlen accused Greenhouse of an excessive focus on the &#8220;perpetrator,&#8221; arguing that he and others should shift their attention to the people McNeil had &#8220;harmed.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">&#8220;Why is it that the focus in discussions like this almost always [is] on ruining the perpetrator\u2019s life, and not those who were harmed by [his actions],&#8221; she asked.&nbsp;<\/span>Reached for comment, Amlen told the&nbsp;<em>Free Beacon&nbsp;<\/em>this is a &#8220;private group&#8221; and that she would &#8220;appreciate it if you do not use anything I said or wrote.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The back-and-forth provides a window into the latest racial controversy roiling the paper, which saw a revolt among minority staffers over the summer after publishing an op-ed by Sen. Tom Cotton (R., Ark.). Opinion editor James Bennett ultimately lost his job.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">McNeil\u2019s ouster came nearly two years after the incident that precipitated it. While chaperoning high school students on a pricey trip to Peru, the science reporter responded to a question from a student about whether one of her classmates should have been suspended for using the n-word. In the process, he uttered the offending syllables himself. An internal<\/span> <em><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Times<\/span><\/em> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">investigation found his judgment wanting but stopped short of firing him.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Only after the<\/span> <em><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Daily Beast<\/span><\/em> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">published an account of the incident, thrusting it into the public realm for the first time, was McNeil pushed out. &#8220;We do not tolerate racist language regardless of intent,&#8221; Dean Baquet, the paper\u2019s executive editor, told staff in an email.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">McNeil&#8217;s resignation on Friday\u2014and Baquet&#8217;s post hoc explanation that intent doesn\u2019t matter\u2014renewed the bitter debate among staff, with reporters warring with each other in public and private.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A<\/span> <em><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Times<\/span><\/em> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">spokeswoman muddied the waters further on Sunday, telling the<\/span> <em><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Free Beacon<\/span><\/em> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">that racial epithets had no place &#8220;in the newspaper.&#8221;&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">&#8220;Even in ironic or self-mocking quotations about a speaker\u2019s own group (in rap lyrics, for example), their use erodes the worthy inhibition against brutality in public discourse,&#8221; Danielle Rhoades Ha told the<\/span> <em><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Free Beacon<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. She declined to say if that policy extends to social media, where other<\/span> <em><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">New York Times<\/span><\/em> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">writers, including Nikole Hannah-Jones and Astead Herndon, have quoted the slur.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Baquet\u2019s statement in particular came in for scathing criticism in the Facebook discussion. &#8220;\u2018We do not tolerate racist language regardless of intent\u2019 might be the most racist statement I\u2019ve ever read,&#8221; said Lawrence De Maria, an award-winning crime and finance reporter. &#8220;It demeans ALL races.&#8221;<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><br \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">It is also untrue:<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">&nbsp;&#8220;Larry Wilmore did not say, \u2018You did it, my nigger,\u2019&#8221; Hannah-Jones<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/nhannahjones\/status\/727179728164114432\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">wrote<\/span><\/a> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">in 2016, referencing the black comedian\u2019s routine at the White House Correspondents&#8217; Dinner. There<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/nhannahjones\/status\/727180149645561856\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">is<\/span><\/a> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">a &#8220;linguistic difference b\/w nigger and nigga.&#8221;&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-1444096\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Screen-Shot-2021-02-08-at-6.04.56-PM-300x85-1.png\" alt width=\"300\" height=\"85\" \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-1444099\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Screen-Shot-2021-02-08-at-6.07.19-PM-300x109-1.png\" alt width=\"300\" height=\"109\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The<\/span> <em><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Washington Free Beacon<\/span><\/em> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">asked Hannah-Jones whether intent made a difference in her case. She responded by posting this reporter\u2019s inquiry, including his cell phone number, on Twitter, in direct violation of the website\u2019s<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/help.twitter.com\/en\/rules-and-policies\/personal-information\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">terms of service<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Greenhouse argued that the staffers who went after McNeil,<\/span><strong>&nbsp;<\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">including Hannah-Jones and race reporter John Eligon, had their priorities backwards. Many of them, he wrote in the Facebook group, were &#8220;far more willing to sympathize with these privileged 15- and 16-year-olds than with a long time colleague who has done much great work for the Times over the years.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The debate also spilled over onto Twitter.<\/span> <em><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Times<\/span><\/em> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">reporter Michael Powell sparked backlash from colleagues when he<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/powellnyt\/status\/1358476311908483072\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">tweeted<\/span><\/a> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">a statement from the nonprofit literary organization PEN calling McNeil\u2019s ouster &#8220;chilling.&#8221; Eligon responded by&nbsp;<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/jeligon\/status\/1358512181751369730\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">accusing<\/span><\/a> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">him of racism<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">:<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">&#8220;<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">You often wonder what your white colleagues who are lovely to your face are actually thinking or saying about you \u2014 or people like you \u2014 behind your back,&#8221; he wrote.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The lack of clear standards has generated frustration internally. &#8220;I don\u2019t think anybody feels like we have any clarity about what happened with that incident or other alleged incidents,&#8221; one<\/span> <em><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">New York Times<\/span><\/em> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">reporter told the<\/span> <em><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Free Beacon<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. &#8220;[W]e demand transparency of other people, and we don\u2019t have it in our own processes.&#8221;&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">It has also raised questions about who really edits the paper: Baquet or the radicals who work for him. &#8220;Dean and AG [Sulzberger] make a decision, and then are bullied by a vocal minority into changing their minds,&#8221;<\/span> <em><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Times<\/span><\/em> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">contributor Robert Worth said in the Facebook group. &#8220;This is not the NYT I know.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"my-8 hide-print\">\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-1526555381173-4\" class=\"mobile-250 desktop-90\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The &#8220;resignation&#8221; of star New York Times science writer Donald McNeil Jr. has sparked a furious back-and-forth among Times staffers, many of whom are outraged over the Gray Lady\u2019s handling &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1892936,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[4573,5888,5584,4070,4126,3859],"class_list":["post-121493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-facebook","tag-meltdown","tag-plays","tag-private","tag-times","tag-york"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121493\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1892936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}