The New York Times Sarah Jeong Hiring Controversy
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Overview
The New York Times Sarah Jeong Hiring Controversy refers to an online backlash directed at The New York Times for hiring journalist Sarah Jeong to the publication's editorial board in late July 2018. Jeong was accused of posting tweets viewed as derogatory toward white people, which were published on her Twitter account in 2014.
Background
On August 1st, 2018, The New York Times[2] announced that journalist Sarah Jeong would be joining their editorial board as the "lead writer on technology." Shortly after the announcement was made, a collection of tweets posted by Jeong in which she makes several remarks about "white men" and "white people" began circulating online (shown below).
Developments
Online Reaction
That evening, screenshots of the tweets were reposted by Twitter user @GarbageHuman_[6] and on the /r/The_Donald[5][8] subreddit.
On August 2nd, Edward Snowden tweeted[7] an article written by Jeong along with the message that her articles were "insightful" and "often important" (shown below, left). Additionally, Verge editor-in-chief Nilay Patel tweeted a defense of Jeong, adding "digging for old, out-of-context tweets in bad faith to drum up outrage is bad for the news and society at large (shown below, right).[10]
Meanwhile, others accused The New York Times of hypocrisy for refusing to terminate Jeong after firing journalist Quinn Norton over tweets revealing she had a relationship with Andrew Auernheimer (shown below).
Sarah Jeong's Response
On August 2nd, 2018, Jeong tweeted that she had "a statement about the tweets that have been going around," followed by a screenshot of two tweets referring to her as a "dog eating gook" and threatening to "sock" her in her "lesbian face." The screenshots were accompanied by an message claiming she had previous engaged in "counter-trolling" and that her tweets were "intended as satire" (shown below).[9]
The New York Times' Response
The same day, the @NYTimesPR[3] Twitter feed posted a statement regarding the controversy, claiming Jeong had been the target of harassment campaigns and was "imitating the rhetoric of her harassers." The statement revealed the publisher had spoken with Jeong about her social media history and that Jeong "understands this type of rhetoric is not acceptable at The Times" and that she "will be an important voice for the editorial board moving forward" (shown below). Within three hours, the tweeted gained over 1,800 likes and 500 retweets.
That day, the news site The Verge published an article titled "A note from the editorial leadership of The Verge," which compared the tactics used against Jeong to Gamergate.
Search Interest
External References
[1] Twitter – @GarbageHuman_
[2] NYTco – Sarah Jeong Joins The Times Editorial Board
[3] Twitter – @NYTimesPR
[5] Reddit – /r/The_Donald
[6] Twitter – @GarbageHuman_
[8] Reddit – /r/The_Donald
[9] Twitter – @sarahjeong
[11] The Verge – A note from the editorial leadership of The Verge
![sarah jeong @sarahjeong Ma I know that opinion has different editorial procedures than other parts of the ah jeong @sarahjeong-Apr 17 t's almost like she had to work twice as hard to get to the same place in which case yes she should have the job lol sarah jeong Follow Mozfest 2017 compared to my experience in 2015-the awareness of race&gender inequality in tech & its importance is noticeably heightened antifa account made it into bari weiss's column This is like. Of course what happens when you bring in a white man because "meritocracy" slate.com/articles/news . sarah ieon @sarahjeong Follow Speakers and participants alike feel comfortable to throw out phrases like "white men in Silicon Valley" without softly couching it My surmise, trom what I'm hearing, is that Justice [Elena] Kagan really has taken [Gorsuch] on in conference. And that it's a pretty tough battle and it's going to get tougher. And she is about as tough as they come, and I am not sure he's as tough-or dare l say it, maybe not as smart. I always thought he was very smart, but he has a tin ear somehow, and he doesn't seem to bring anything new to the conversation I once went back and forth with a NYT fact-checker over whether I could call someone white since I couldn't *really* idk white men think we're out here grifting when everyone i know is working harder because they assume (well, really *know*) we have to 9:55 AM 17 Apr 2018 :07 AM-29 Oct 2017 be sure 1 Retweet 27 Likes ar 10 Retweets 119 Likes Tweet your reply 7 Retweets 74 Likesea sarah jeong @sarahjeong 29 Oct 2017 In 2015 I was part of a special track around gendered digital harassment, brought in specifically because it wasn't being talked about Tweet your reply sarah jeong Follow sarah jeong @sarahjeong 29 Oct 2017 2017: countless sessions about how technology harms or helps marginalized groups, along all kinds of intersections sarah jeong we even got into a discussion of whether it was okay for me to call someone who is jewish white The Internet of White People 81 sarah jeong @sarahjeong 29 Oct 2017 Maybe not all things are moving backwards. sara like you probably don't need that level of fact check for an opinion piece but like 1/100 of that rigor would have prevented this disaster 5:00 AM 25 Oct 2017 tl sarah jeong @sarahjeong Mar 7 I made some mayonnaise at home and of course the minimum amount is *way too much* for me, so now i'm looking up ideas for using up homemade mayo 48 Retweets 131 Likes and like yeah, opinion pieces etc etc etc, but it's the paper of record!!! sarah jeong @sarahjeong 25 Oct 2017 Remember all the white male handwringing over "lowering the bar" for Sotomayor? And she's turned out to be pretty brilliant actually? apparently some people use it as hair conditioner sarah ieon @sarahjeong ow 87 eon i'm just trying to celebrate white culture sarah jeong I gave up on the search for ideas after one list suggested I use it to alleviate sunburn and to make my household plants shinier do you like corned beef Some of my best friends and mentors are old white men! Whose intellect I do A Smart Doorbell Company Is Working With Cops to Report Suspicious' Peo... Ring claims its new app Neighbors will fight crime, but it could also become a platform for profiling and discrimination. motherboard vice.com course I do But vo... some of your brethren Oh and btw do you like kimchi???? HOW'S IT FEEL!? are so overrated too white for me 11:38 AM-14 Mar 2018 :59 PM-8 May 2018 5:03 AM-25 Oct 2017 1:48 PM -7 Mar 2018 6 Retweets 184 Likes 99 Retweets 316 Likes 9 Retweets 97 Likes 123 Likes 123](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/list/001/398/780/9d3.jpg "Sarah Jeong tweet set #40")
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