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NY Times, July 14, 2020
Bari Weiss Resigns From New York Times Opinion Post
By Edmund Lee
Bari Weiss, a writer and editor for the opinion department of The New
York Times, has resigned from the paper, citing “bullying by colleagues”
and an “illiberal environment.”
In a nearly 1,500-word letter addressed to A. G. Sulzberger, the
publisher, Ms. Weiss offered a deep critique of Times employees and
company leadership, describing a “hostile work environment” where
co-workers had insulted her or called for her removal on Twitter and in
the interoffice communications app Slack.
“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,” she wrote.
Mr. Sulzberger declined to comment. In a statement, Eileen Murphy, a
Times spokeswoman, said, “We’re committed to fostering an environment of
honest, searching and empathetic dialogue between colleagues, one where
mutual respect is required of all.”
After working at The Wall Street Journal and Tablet, an online magazine
of Jewish culture and politics, Ms. Weiss joined The Times as an Op-Ed
staff editor and writer in 2017 as part of the paper’s effort to broaden
the ideological range of its opinion staff after President Trump’s
inauguration.
Ms. Weiss, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment, has
been known to question aspects of social justice movements that have
taken root in recent years. She was critical of a woman who described an
uncomfortable encounter with the comedian Aziz Ansari and questioned
whether the sexual assault charges leveled against Supreme Court justice
nominee Brett Kavanaugh should disqualify him from the post.
She was also criticized for a tweet suggesting that the California-born
U.S. Olympic figure skating competitor Mirai Nagasu was an immigrant.
(Ms. Weiss said in a later tweet that she knew Ms. Nagasu was a daughter
of immigrants.)
In 2018 she wrote on the massacre at the Tree of Life synagogue, where
she became a bat mitzvah, in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood.
The murder of 11 Jews led her to write the book “How to Fight
Anti-Semitism,” which won the 2019 National Jewish Book Award.
Ms. Weiss recently came under fire for online comments on the staff
unrest that followed the publication of a Times Op-Ed piece by Senator
Tom Cotton calling for a military response to civic unrest in American
cities during the widespread protests against racism and police violence.
More than 1,000 Times staff members signed a letter protesting the
Op-Ed’s publication, and James Bennet, the editorial page editor,
resigned days after it was published. An editors’ note was added to the
essay, saying it “fell short of our standards and should not have been
published.” The opinion department of The Times is run separately from
the newsroom.
In a tweet, Ms. Weiss described the turmoil inside the paper as a “civil
war” between “the (mostly young) wokes” and “the (mostly 40+) liberals.”
Many staff members objected on Twitter to her comment, saying it was
inaccurate or misrepresented their concerns.
In her resignation letter, which was posted on her personal website
Tuesday, Ms. Weiss said “intellectual curiosity” was “now a liability at
The Times.” She added: “Twitter is not on the masthead of The New York
Times. But Twitter has become its ultimate editor.”
Kathleen Kingsbury, the acting editorial page editor, said, “We
appreciate the many contributions that Bari made to Times Opinion. I’m
personally committed to ensuring that The Times continues to publish
voices, experiences and viewpoints from across the political spectrum in
the Opinion report.”
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