American opinion writer Bari Weiss, who sees herself as a centrist and a conservative, joined The New York Times in 2017 after working for The Wall Street Journal. The Jerusalem Post named her among the world’s 50 most influential Jews in 2019.
Bari Weiss, who worked for The New York Times as an opinion editor for three years, announced her resignation from the paper in a letter, claiming that she has been subject to “bullying” for her views and had experienced “unlawful discrimination” in a “hostile work environment”.
According to her letter, The NYT failed to learn “lessons about the importance of understanding other Americans, the necessity of resisting tribalism, and the centrality of the free exchange of ideas to a democratic society”.
She lashed out at the outlet, suggesting that Nytimes.com had allowed Twitter to become the “ultimate editor” of the paper, turning it into “performance space”.
Denouncing what she described as “bullying” by her colleagues, Weiss offered that her coworkers had failed to defend her in public, despite supporting her “privately”, while discussing what she characterized as a “new McCarthyism” that has “taken root at the paper of record”.
Weiss lambasted what she referred to as the editorial police at The New York Times for “extreme selectivity” and a lack of tolerance towards those who divert from “the new orthodoxy”.
She also referred to the NYT’s policy towards the stories that cost several people their jobs and were supplied with an editorial note – and those that were not, outlining that the latter includes an interview with a “proud anti-Semite”.
A man rappels down the side of the Port Authority Building after hanging a sign during a climate change rally outside of the New York Times building
The column, written by Sen. Tom Cotton for the NYT and seen by the outlet as “calling for deploying troops” to tackle anti-racism and anti-police-brutality protests in the US, caused former opinion editor James Bennet step down from his position.
The NYT Response
Cited by The Hill, acting editorial page editor Kathleen Kingsbury did not cover much of the Weiss resignation letter in her response.
NYT spokeswoman Eileen Murphy told The Hill that the outlet is “committed to fostering an environment of honest, searching and empathetic dialogue between colleagues, one where mutual respect is required of all.”
Sourse: sputniknews.com
