The New York Times may regret firing* Bari Weiss
[NOTE: I think it’s apropos to note that today is Bastille Day.]
Journalist Bari Weiss resigned today from The New York Times. She may ultimately become more damaging to the Times as a voice on the outside than she ever was when she was on the inside. In other words, the Times may end up regretting not having heeded the words of the inimitable LBJ: “It’s probably better to have him inside the tent pissing out, than outside the tent pissing in.”
Weiss was one of the few remaining sort-of-centrist voices left at the Times. Therefore, of course, the tumbrils came for her. She is not going gentle into that good night; here’s her scorching resignation letter:
But the lessons that ought to have followed the [2016] election—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—have not been learned. Instead, a new consensus has emerged in the press, but perhaps especially at this paper: that truth isn’t a process of collective discovery, but an orthodoxy already known to an enlightened few whose job is to inform everyone else.
When James Bennett was forced from the Times for having the audacity to publish an editorial by Tom Cotton, I noticed on Twitter that the New Jacobins were calling for Bari Weiss’ head next. It was not long in coming. Here’s Weiss’s resignation letter again:
Twitter is not on the masthead of The New York Times. But Twitter has become its ultimate editor. As the ethics and mores of that platform have become those of the paper, the paper itself has increasingly become a kind of performance space. Stories are chosen and told in a way to satisfy the narrowest of audiences, rather than to allow a curious public to read about the world and then draw their own conclusions. I was always taught that journalists were charged with writing the first rough draft of history. Now, history itself is one more ephemeral thing molded to fit the needs of a predetermined narrative.
That last sentence also feels like a reference to the Times’ mendacious rewrite of American history, the 1619 Project.
Weiss gets into some details:
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.
Will anyone ever be charged with such things regarding their treatment of Weiss? I’m sorry to have to say I doubt it, particularly if the offenders are from any of several protected groups.
However, in this next part, Weiss seems to indicate that she doesn’t quite get it – not fully, anyway:
I do not understand how you [the editor to which the note is addressed] have allowed this kind of behavior to go on inside your company in full view of the paper’s entire staff and the public. And I certainly can’t square how you and other Times leaders have stood by while simultaneously praising me in private for my courage. Showing up for work as a centrist at an American newspaper should not require bravery.
And yet in a later passage she shows that she actually does understand exactly what’s going on:
Perhaps [other people working at the Times have allowed the behavior of those who have been trying to cancel Weiss] because they believe the ultimate goal is righteous. Perhaps because they believe that they will be granted protection if they nod along as the coin of our realm—language—is degraded in service to an ever-shifting laundry list of right causes. Perhaps because there are millions of unemployed people in this country and they feel lucky to have a job in a contracting industry.
Or perhaps it is because they know that, nowadays, standing up for principle at the paper does not win plaudits. It puts a target on your back. Too wise to post on Slack, they write to me privately about the “new McCarthyism” that has taken root at the paper of record.
That is the saddest thing of all – the private stand of some supporters of Weiss versus their craven public caving. It’s an old story; courage is in short supply.
I wish Weiss well. I think she will find another place to write, although I’m not sure where it will be. And the Times will go on – and on and on – purging itself of its actual thinkers, making itself more and more into the voluntary Pravda of our times, and wreaking its tremendous damage on our country and the world.
[* NOTE: I’m aware that the title of this post is technically incorrect. The paper didn’t fire Weiss; she resigned. But I’m using the word “firing” instead because she obviously was driven out. I suppose to be more accurate I could say “forcing Bari Weiss to resign,” but that’s unwieldy and doesn’t express the situation perfectly either. So I let “firing” stand, with this note to clarify.]
Voluntary Pravda of our time. That tells it all, doesn’t it? Certainly crystallized for me what I have been trying to say in words, what I have been feeling in my soul. As horrible as the Cuban communist party is (or North Korean, etc) those are all done by the government to their people at the point of a gun or sword. What we are seeing here in the US is not the government (or certainly not by the central government- certainly some mayors or governors and certainly many AG or DA’s are sanctioning it) but by private corporations and individuals. So far, Goya is the only corporation that I know of that has pushed back.
Again, there is one person responsible for this, and that’s AG Sulzberger. He calls the tune. All he has to do to put an end to the trouble is (1) replace the hiring managers who saddled the company with so many woke-tards, (2) tell the woke-tards to tend to their assignments and get out of his office, and (3) fire the harassers. He Just.Does.Not.Feel.Like.It.
It has been recently announced that Oprah will be producing (in collaboration with Lionsgate) a series of films, television programs, and “documentaries” based upon the mendacious 1619 project. Thus does Pravda-on-the-Hudson extend its tentacles into every segment of contemporary American culture, and no-one on the conservative side seems to have the slightest idea of how to win the battle for the soul of the republic.
Viva Bari Weiss. A great and scorching letter. Let her words singe Sulzberger’s short hairs.
I wonder what Times opinion scribblers such as gourmet sandwich guru David Brooks and the vile cancelista Michelle Goldberg think ?
“The New York Times may regret firing Bari Weiss”
As a title this is wonderful, but … of course they won’t. Historically, yes perhaps, but literally? Not enough integrity, not enough wisdom.
” … the Times will go on – and on and on – purging itself of its actual thinkers”
Precisely correct.
ps, your text says “its actual ALL thinkers” (my caps) which is likely a typo?
A very small victory in a minor battle. I also applaud her courage and wish her well. But, the NYT won’t change at all; and neither will the rest of the MSM until it really hits them financially. Like academia, they are a lost cause. 50% of the people continue to watch, read and believe, just like 50% keep sending their kids to Yale, Wesleyan, etc.
As I mentioned in another thread, Weiss is talking about one problem but actually demonstrating another.
After castigating the NYT, Weiss then reflexively pledges to KEEP READING IT.
That is what is truly wrong and dysfunctional here. Not that the NYT is becoming a woke piece of garbage. It’s that supposedly educated and grown-ass adults who literally have access to virtually all of human knowledge with a flick of their finger still genuflect before a damn newspaper like it is the oracle of the gods.
Mike
I read Ms. Weiss’s resignation with great interest, and believe it is indeed a big deal. I then shared it with my partner, who is a liberal Democrat (I know I’m being redundant, but she is NOT far left.) Unfortunately, she declared herself not impressed or sorry for Ms. Weiss, reminding me that black staffers at the Times declared that they felt unsafe because of the editorial. She also expressed her view that Cotton was advocating using the military against peaceful protesters. (I know, Cotton’s editorial specifically distinguished between peaceful protesters and rioters and looters.)
I hope that the Times will ultimately regret this, but it will be a Herculean task to get the Democrats who can be reasoned with to see what is happening.
Ms. Weiss, reminding me that black staffers at the Times declared that they felt unsafe because of the editorial. She also expressed her view that Cotton was advocating using the military against peaceful protesters. (I know, Cotton’s editorial specifically distinguished between peaceful protesters and rioters and looters.)
You cannot reason someone out of a position they were never reasoned into.
“some coworkers insist I need to be rooted out if this company is to be a truly ‘inclusive’ one”
That pretty much sums up TimesWorld, at least as it looks from out here on Planet Earth –
War is peace
Freedom is slavery
Ignorance is strength
Purging is inclusivity
Or…”you can’t fire me, I quit!”.
N.B. Andrew Sullivan also “quit” today (effective Friday, if I understood correctly).
Is there basis for a preference cascade yet?
As Rod Dreher observed today, she could be an outstanding asset for some kind of upstart centrist publication funded by someone who had a deep interest in breaking the established media powers (specifically, he noted Thiel). Maybe, maybe not.
And heeeere’s another feather in their cap:
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/07/14/media/andrew-sullivan-resigns-new-york/index.html
H/T Instapundit
(Though perhaps Sullivan really does need more time to ponder the progeny of Alaskan politicians….)
With this key example of mealy-mouthed (if mostly meaningless) liberal boilerplate:
‘ “I am trying hard to create in this magazine a civil, respectful, intellectually honest space for political debate,” Haskell [“NY” Magazine editor-in-chief] said. “I believe there is a way to write from a conservative perspective about some of the most politically charged subjects of American life while still upholding our values. I also think that our magazine in particular has an opportunity to be a place where the liberal project is hashed out, which is to say not only championed but also interrogated.” ‘
Ah yes, “respectful, intellectually honest SPACE”!!; and “upholding OUR VALUES”!!; “where the liberal project is HASHED OUT”!!; “CHAMPIONED”!! and “INTERROGATED”!!
(They ought to hand out prizes for specimens like this! Pukelitzer perhaps…?)
…Keeping in mind that according to the same (CNN) article (above),
“…Bari Weiss [is] a controversial opinion columnist for the New York Times…”
(Obviously, the wrong kind of “controversial”…. Alas, if she had only signed on with the 1619 “Project”…though who knows? maybe she did…. On the other hand, she is vocal in her belief that the State of Israel has a right to exist, which may well be unforgiveable under the circumstances….)
Who is Bari Weiss and why should I care? What did she think the politics of the NYT is when the exalted Thomas Friedman, chief foreign correspondent, could go on network TV and say, without an ounce of pushback, that he’d prefer to be governed by the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party than the US Congress? She thought somehow she’d be immune to the fury of the Party if she were perceived to be a wrecker and hoarder or whatever the current thought crimes and wrong think are. Hah! Deal with it, and I hope it’s very painful and lasts long enough that you will realize what a foul bunch your former colleagues are and how destructive their beliefs will be when put into action.
Bright intellectual that he is (just ask him), Tom Friedman thought he was being “clever” and “provocative” (and in that particular instance, “pragmatic”) by spouting such obviously monumental silliness.
But honestly, is it his fault that the Democratic Party decided that “Hell Yeah! that’s a terrific idea, Tom!”…?
(He probably had a—frightening, no doubt—“Yikes, they’re actually taking me seriously” moment.)
JimNorCal:
Thanks, will fix.
“N.B. Andrew Sullivan also “quit” today (effective Friday, if I understood correctly).”
What’s the over/under on how long Sullivan and Weiss will be able to go without mindlessly trashing Donald Trump after these changes to their employment status? I don’t mean criticizing him for something he did but the sort of childish OrangeManBad smears employed to signify tribal loyalty? I believe they both had few qualms about cancel culture when it was targeting at Trump and his supporters.
Mike
Excuse my french, but what the F did Bari Weiss expect when she went to work for the Times.
Did she really believe the Times would welcome different viewpoints?
Is she really that stupid?
Maybe she should have sought a journalist job with “The White Worker;” the official newspaper of the American Nazi Party.
There she could have written articles expressing views encouraging tolerance and support for blacks and jewish folks.
Yep, that would have gone over real well with the editor and “reporters” of “The White Worker.”
She reminds me of that Evergreen College Professor who was shocked,
shocked !!!, that if he disagreed with the Stalinist student body and Stalinist professors at Evergreen, that he would be a threatened with bodily harm and hounded out of his job.
What a total F****n idiot.
Unfortunately for both of the above morons, they will refuse to see the connection betwixt their left liberal / progressive views and what these views have wrought; intolerant, Stalinist, violent-prone , storm-trooper ideologues.
Rest assured that Weiss and the moron of a professor will be casting their votes for the Biden/AOC/anit-Semite demokrats..
Reminds me of battered wife syndrome. The wife is beaten by her husband and then tells the cops, “he loves me”. She hasn’t learned that capitulation never saved a Jacobin from the guillotine or a Bolshevik from the Gulag.
“…reminds me…”
Some related synchronicity (or perhaps “close encounters of the bizarre kind”):
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/nyt-chief-threat-democracy-eric-weinstein-takes-flamethrower-paper-record-after-bari
(…could use a spell-checker, though…but then, so could I…)
She has a new book coming out, so this is a perfect time to resign.
I don’t think she was forced out, I think she just realized it was no longer a fit. It has helped her to have the Times on her resume, and she wrote some good stories there. Now it’s time to move on. She has the skill and the experience to be a successful author now, and her name is reasonably well known.
When she says “I do not understand how you have allowed this behavior to go on” my interpretation is that she is being, in a sense, polite — calling him out for it in a sort of bless-your-heart manner.
I don’t think she was foolish to move to the Times. Her work there reinforces her credibility as a centrist. She probably figured that maybe she could help them, and if not, at least it would help her career.
She seems to be a very honest, level-headed grown-up. Refreshing.
John Tyler:
Weiss is not on the right. She’s just not on the left. I believe she actually thought that the Times had some journalistic integrity left, and that they hired her for that purpose. Weiss is young, only 36 years old. She was hired three years ago, and the climate was a little more open back then.
Also, if by “moron professor” at Evergreen you mean Bret Weinstein, he is voting neither for Biden nor for Trump. He’s trying to come up with some alternative slate, which I think is an idea that won’t gain much support.
“…no longer a fit…”
It’s what happens when the NYT, in essence, “fundamentally transforms” itself into “Mondoweiss” Lite.
Here’s a classic hit piece from that illustrious site from March 2018:
https://mondoweiss.net/2018/03/israel-advocacy-ideology/
Yes, a real classic. (For a bit of fun, one might want to find out more information on those “poor”, “victimized” Columbia professors that Weiss went up against while a student there.)
“…just not on the left.”
Ummmm, of course she’s on the Left.
She just hasn’t moved as far left as “the Left” has moved. (IOW, she’s still ON the cliff.)
The reason for that is, as far as I understand it, her—honest—support of, and relationship to, Israel. It keeps her relatively sane, at least on that issue, and it’s likely (I will be be bold to assume) that it moderates her stance on other issues (though by how much? And which issues?).
Note that she also signed on to the Harper Letter, which despite its “serious” intent was TOTALLY unable to discard elemental, built-in Leftist wackiness (some may prefer “lunacy”) even as it attempted to address the crocodile—I mean problem—that’s been out there for a long time but which has “suddenly” became “real”…when the signers finally understood that they were either about to become potential victims of the “phenomenon” or were already victims.
On this last point, here’s a withering (if accurate) polemic from Conrad Black:
https://amgreatness.com/2020/07/13/the-conspicuous-fatuousness-of-the-harpers-letter/
…balanced (to be fair!) by an absurd (to the point of laughable) “reading” in “The Atlantic”:
https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2020/07/harpers-letter-free-speech/614080/
Or should that be, “misreading”…?
He’s trying to come up with some alternative slate, which I think is an idea that won’t gain much support.
Kanye! Kanye! Kayne!
You know you want it to happen!
Churchill tempered the celebration of Dunkirk by noting that wars are not won by evacuations; similarly the culture dominated by progressive media outlets will not be won by resignations.
If getting woke really does result in going broke, that’s what’s going to do it. Very few people who buy the New York Times know or care who Bari Weiss is. If by continuing to limit the range of expression the NYT alienates enough of its subscribers and advertisers that it can’t stay in business… but the advertisers are just as woke these days (look at all the models and stock photos in your Costco newsletter), and the subscribers to the NYT include institutions (such as libraries and universities) already captured by the progressive left, and of course there’s always billionaires like Carlos Slim and Jeff Bezos who may not care if they lose money…
@Chester:
Kanye! Kanye! Kayne!
I’ve been saying since 2016 that in history the Trump Administration will be a footnote in the chapter titled “The Age of Kanye”. Trump is his John the Baptist.
I’m pretty much on the side of those who don’t have much sympathy for Weiss, or Andrew Sullivan. They should have known a long time ago what was going on. I quit voting Democrat many years ago because I saw the “moderates” were letting the hard leftists have free rein. But if their firing/resignation wake some people up it will have done some good.
Weiss writes, “..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.”
I know that it’s old fashioned, but she has to be aware of the five w’s,and she’s pointedly ignoring number one.
I’d been more impressed with her supposed “fight” if she actually fought. Not naming her tormentors says, “I don’t really mean it.”
I’m pretty much on the side of those who don’t have much sympathy for Weiss
I don’t get the impression she’s asking for sympathy. Publicity, maybe, but she’s right to call out the NYT for its descent into madness. She may have been naive, but she wouldn’t be the first person to join a decadent organization thinking she could be at least respected if not impactful. I’ll give her credit for writing the letter, which has rightly embarrassed the Times, and not impugn her motives.
Burn NYTimes Burn
Another reference to Ms Weiss appeared in a July 14, Conservative Treehouse article concerning the March, 2017, leaked Carter Page FISA application. See here,
‘Ms. Ali Watkins was at Buzzfeed when she received the 82 pictures, one per page, of the March 17, 2017, unredacted FISA application from SSCI Director James Wolfe. Ms. Watkins then parlayed that information, through Weiss, to get a gig at the New York Times. Soon after, to cover their tracks, the NYT filed a FOIA request for the document they had obtained unlawfully.’
Sometimes when you fly with the crows you get shot with the crows?
One tool to keep from patronising far Left leftists:
Web site http://www.defundwoke.com
Also cites pro-Christian businesses.
Judith Miller adds something to the Weiss saga that I didn’t see on other reports.
https://www.city-journal.org/bari-weiss-new-york-times
I scanned the list of signatories, but didn’t catch her name.
Too many people I didn’t know, with a smattering of those I did.
I hope she files a bit lawsuit. It’s too bad she didn’t stay and make he boss fire her. I feel the same with professors who resign.
They should stay and fight and sue if they get wrongly fired. In the meantime, fighting back really means naming those who wronged you.