Do Mention It | 3 Quarks Daily 3quarksdaily.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from 3quarksdaily.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
By now you’ve heard of what the
New York Times did to 47-year veteran science reporter Donald McNeil. The short version is, he was on an educational trip to Peru with some 15- and 16-year-old students in 2019. During one of those teachable moments the trip was supposed to be about, McNeil “was asked at dinner by a student whether I thought a classmate of hers should have been suspended for a video she had made as a 12-year-old in which she used a racial slur. To understand what was in the video, I asked if she had called someone else the slur or whether she was rapping or quoting a book title. In asking the question, I used the slur itself.” Some students complained and the incident was investigated. He was reprimanded in some way but kept his job. That was on January 28.
‘This Is Not the NYT I Know’: Staffers Fight over Paper Forcing Out Longtime Reporter
Staff members at the
New York Times are reportedly clashing after its longtime reporter Donald McNeil Jr. was forced to resign last week for using “racist language” in 2019.
In posts to a private Facebook group, the Washington Free Beacon reportedly discovered
Times staffers heatedly arguing about whether the ousting of McNeil, a science reporter who had been at the paper for 45 years, was justified.
“What ever happened to the notion of worker solidarity … to giving a fellow worker the benefit of the doubt?” asked Steven Greenhouse, who worked as a labor reporter at the
AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews, File
The New York Times has officially decided that context and linguistic intent do not matter. If one of the paper’s employees even a veteran reporter who has worked at the
Times for 45 years dares to mention a racial slur for any reason, the paper may terminate his or her employment, especially if a cancel culture mob rears its ugly head.
Take Donald McNeil Jr., for example. McNeil joined
The New York Times in 1976, the same year Jimmy Carter got elected president. He had been serving as the
Times‘ lead pandemic reporter during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Donald G. McNeil Jr., The New York Times science reporter whose fame grew during the COVID-19 pandemic, is stepping down following allegations that he used