Tech

Bari Weiss Is Leaving the New York Times

The writer and editor has self-expelled from the newspaper, she tells VICE.
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Bari Weiss, a writer and editor for the embattled New York Times Opinion section, has resigned from the paper.

When reached by phone, Weiss did not want to offer any further comment beyond confirming that she was out. According to an internal source, she was removed from the staff directory sometime in the past week.

A controversial figure inside and outside the paper, Weiss leaves in the wake of what she recently described as a civil war at the Times between "(mostly young) wokes" and "(mostly 40+) liberals." That war reached its apex when Opinion head James Bennet, who had been widely tipped as a potential replacement for top Times editor Dean Baquet, left the paper after publishing an op-ed in which Senator Tom Cotton called for the use of military force against protestors.

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Do you work at the New York Times? We'd love to hear from you. Contact the writer at laura.wagner@vice.com or laura.wags@protonmail.com.

Update, 11:01 Eastern: A Times spokesperson sent over a statement from Kathleen Kingsbury, acting editorial page editor:

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. We see every day how impactful and important that approach is, especially through the outsized influence The Times’s opinion journalism has on the national conversation.

Update, 11:22 Eastern: Weiss has posted a letter of resignation addressed to Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger on her website. In it, she denounces the Times for fostering an atmosphere of stifling conformity and accuses her now-former colleagues of bullying:

My own forays into Wrongthink have made me 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.

There are terms for all of this: unlawful discrimination, hostile work environment, and constructive discharge. I’m no legal expert. But I know that this is wrong.

As previously reported by VICE, among the questions top brass was asked at an all-hands the Times held last month was whether Weiss would be fired for "openly bad mouth[ing] younger news colleagues on a platform where they, because of strict company policy, could not defend themselves.”

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