Workplace bullying pushes 2 New York Times journalists to quit

CAIRO – 18 July 2020: In 2017, Journalist Bari Weiss started work at the New York Times only to resign three years later in a public letter accusing her liberal co-workers of harassment for her ideas describing the workplace as "hostile."

Weiss, who self identifies as centrist, said on July 14 she was hired to attract readers adopting different ideas to the publication after incumbent U.S. Presient Donald Trump had been elected.

The journalist had worked for The Wall Street Journal for four years before she was brought by former opinion editor James Bennet to work as op-ed staff editor and writer about culture and politics at The New York Times.

Bennet himself was fired after publishing an op-ed by U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton that "advocated using federal troops to quell unrest in the wake of George Floyd's death," as reported by The Associated Press.

The article set off objection by a number of Black reporters who thought they were "endangered by the piece," and were supported by dozens of colleagues.

In parallel to Weiss crisis, Andrew Sullivan – British American conservative journalist who has been working at The New York Magazine for 22 years – also quit expressing "concern that a “woke” culture is crowding out dissenting opinion," according to The Associated Press.

Weiss shared the same viewpoint writing, “Intellectual curiosity is now a liability at The Times.” “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,” she added.

Sullivan supported Weiss on Twitter saying she was bullied by "the mob" for her thoughts and that "her editors stood by and watched."

"David Haskell, editor-in-chief of New York magazine, said he and Sullivan both agreed that his ideas and the magazine's were no longer a match," The Associated Press reported.