NYT opinion writer Bari Weiss (signer of original anti-cancel culture letter with Rowling) resigns with scathing letter

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[–][deleted] 44 insightful - 1 fun44 insightful - 0 fun45 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

A snippet "Twitter is not on the masthead of The New York Times. But Twitter has become its ultimate editor,” Weiss wrote in her resignation letter. “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”

alternate feature in wapo https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2020/07/14/bari-weiss-resigns-new-york-times/

edit: tbh, I don't know anything about this writer beyond these two articles, but regardless of opinions on her work, press freedom and the freedom to challenge orthodoxy is an issue far bigger than her

judging within the scope of her letter alone, she makes good points

edit 2: while reading more, found this profile back from September already talking about cancel culture then https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/04/bari-weiss-the-new-york-times-provocateur

"But Twitter is something else. There lives a non-negotiable doctrine, in which there’s only “good” opinion and “bad” opinion. Anyone who strays must be called out, but “called out” is too gentle a term. The targets must be taken down, not just hated but hated on. And the trolls aren’t random. Some have platforms beyond Twitter, including HuffPost, Esquire, and lefty news sites. For writers hoping to gain a following, slamming Bari Weiss has become an easy way to be seen. It wouldn’t matter if she were writing for The Wall Street Journal. The problem—or opportunity, really—is that she’s writing for The New York Times, which is supposed to be their paper, and that she’s getting famous for it."

[–]materialrealityplz 38 insightful - 2 fun38 insightful - 1 fun39 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

Diversity in everything but opinion. Scary stuff.

[–]Sun_bear 24 insightful - 3 fun24 insightful - 2 fun25 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

The weird thing is what they call 'diversity' looks like a group of straight, white men with the same haircut in matching suits.

[–]vitunrotta 34 insightful - 1 fun34 insightful - 0 fun35 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Just read the letter as well and it really resonated with me. I always dreamed of being an investigative journalist (why I never become one is a whole other story...) and I really believed that the moral obligation of any publication (and any individual journo) was to cite facts - not their own opinions. Like, that was the Rule Number 1. Find the truth and expose wrongdoings, no matter who did them and where, so on... Ah, those idealistic dreams one tended to have once.

What we have now in every country, it seems, are people who have the power to report, yet they don't have the courage to report honestly. Each side just spouts their own agenda while truth & facts are a merry fucking mess for these "gatekeepers." Bah! They are no gatekeepers, they aren't guardians anymore. Not sure they ever really were but nowadays they certainly aren't. They're wannabe politicians who didn't have the balls or money to become actual politicians, so they spout their extremely political opinions disguised as "news and reporting."

They also seem to be quite selfish people who think they know best, and therefore must only let their audience hear about their correct opinion. Dissonance will be silenced and ridiculed. Wow, does this sound familiar...?

Here's another quote from her resignation letter: "-- But the lessons that ought to have followed the 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."

Bye bye to exchanging ideas, free thinking, debate. The correct opinion already exists, and you best obey.

[–]MarkTwainiac 14 insightful - 1 fun14 insightful - 0 fun15 insightful - 1 fun -  (10 children)

Seems like it's an apt time to take a relook at Bari Weiss's infamous appearance on Joe Rogan, in which she made a lot of accusations meant to smear Tulsi Gabbard, but when challenged could not back any of them up with any facts or evidence:

https://youtu.be/jzTzDzDkam8

https://youtu.be/jS-sxJFn6O0

[–][deleted] 18 insightful - 3 fun18 insightful - 2 fun19 insightful - 3 fun -  (1 child)

Tulsi wants to replace women in law with autogynephile males. She can kiss my ass.

[–]Lucretia 8 insightful - 3 fun8 insightful - 2 fun9 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

She is also clearly a plant and has direct connections with (woman-hating, uun-progressive) Putin.

[–]Lucretia 11 insightful - 1 fun11 insightful - 0 fun12 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

This is utter bullshit — the comments about homophobe (and Putin favoured daughter) Tulsi Gabbard were absolutely correct. I see the Veles-pushed “walkaway” propaganda unit has infiltrated GC said-it. Just great.

[–]vitunrotta 6 insightful - 2 fun6 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 2 fun -  (4 children)

Sorry to ask but could you paraphrase? (My headphones are missing and my partner is sleeping, and my lip reading skills are rather rusty).

I'm especially curious because people in the comments of the second video seem to say she was "the reason people voted for Trump" yet her resignation letter sounds very different. I'm not familiar with U.S. journalists that much (being a European) but usually it's pretty black and white there, so this is interesting. Ah, the US of A, planet Earth's very own Jerry Springer Show... :D

[–]sallyseton 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Lol the Tulsi hate makes me like Bari Weiss more. Tulsi is pro Assad, anti-gay, and didn't vote for impeachment.

[–]DogeWalker 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Lol, won’t someone think of poor Tulsi Gabbard?

I don’t know what claims Weiss made about Gabbard, but it’s not exactly difficult to find sources on Tulsi. It just depends how far down the rabbit hole you want to go...

Even from the top of the rabbit hole, I think most would agree that skipping over 80% of House votes is not a good look for an elected representative.

[–]PassionateIntensity 13 insightful - 1 fun13 insightful - 0 fun14 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

They bullied her out. But CaNcEl CuLUre DoESn'T ExIsT.

[–][deleted] 9 insightful - 1 fun9 insightful - 0 fun10 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Bari Weiss was never a free speech defender. She has spent her career smearing and cancelling multiple people, even trying to get a professor fired for having a different opinion (on Israel, specifically). I'm against censorship but Bari Weiss is no hero of free speech and open debate. https://theintercept.com/2018/03/08/the-nyts-bari-weiss-falsely-denies-her-years-of-attacks-on-the-academic-freedom-of-arab-scholars-who-criticize-israel/

[–]SanityIsGC 7 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 0 fun8 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

Was the hostility that she experienced and writes about in her resignation letter the result of her signing Rowlings' letter?

[–]Anna_Nym 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

No, as far as I know, the hostility to her started when she wrote an article about the IDW back when that was a thing. It may have been with the Mirai Nagasu tweet, but I think the Nagasu tweet only became a thing because she was already disliked due to the IDW article.

[–][deleted] 7 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 0 fun8 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

That and also what she describes as

"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."

[–]aqrylix 7 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 0 fun8 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

She's a massive hypocrite.

[–][deleted] 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Seriously. This is the same woman that has spent her career cancelling other people. Now she's mad when it comes for her?

[–]jkfinn 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

Actually, I breathe a sigh of relief to learn that twitter, despite the fact that it has suspended many of us, is aligned with the NYT. I blame the Trumpsters for the Times stronger liberal slant, because its readers demand this as a minimal, half-way respectable way of combating Fox, Trump, & the right-wing radio talk jocks. All the terrible divisiveness have been driven by these rightists forces, or at least promulgated far more openly and deeply than ever before. (I don't subscribe to either the Times or twitter, but I can hardly find anyone who cites no pro-Trump stuff as lack of diversity, worth listening to, because that's exactly what I expect them to do)

[–]PassionateIntensity 15 insightful - 1 fun15 insightful - 0 fun16 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

It's not the political slant that's the problem, it's the lack of truth. If you tell lies to push a liberal agenda it's not going to help the left. It's going to make people who trusted you feel betrayed and distrust you and undermine your position.

[–][deleted] 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

There’s a whole twitter thread up now about this.

[–][deleted] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Any highlights?

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Not sure how to link it from mobile.