CNN: Sarah Jeong leaves NYT editorial board under weird circumstances, becomes a stringer

September 28, 2019 • 10:30 am

Brian Stelter at CNN reports that Sarah Jeong, controversial tech writer for the New York Times and member of the paper’s editorial board, has left that board.  Note that although this was reported on CNN’s “Reliable Sources” site, I haven’t been able to confirm it anywhere else, including on Jeong’s Twitter feed (the New York Post did echo CNN’s report). However, as you see below, the paper apparently confirmed it to someone else. (Click on screenshot).

As you may recall (see my posts here), Jeong came under fire for her social-media posts criticizing white people, men, and the police, but apologized—as did her paper—saying that she was merely responding in kind to people harassing her because she was a woman of color. Despite the social media outcry, the Times retained her as a writer and editorial-board member.

What’s strange about this is the circumstances of Jeong’s “resignation”, which are recounted below in Stelter’s report:

Oliver Darcy emails: Sarah Jeong is no longer a member of the NYT editorial board. A spokesperson for NYT told me Jeong is no longer an employee, but has shifted to being a contracted contributor for NYT Opinion. “Sarah decided to leave the editorial board in August,” said Kate Kingsbury, deputy editorial page editor, “but we’re glad to still have her journalism and insights around technology in our pages through her work as a contributor.”

In an emailed statement, Jeong said the change in role will allow her to “go back to reporting and writing long features while still being involved with NYT Opinion section on tech issues.” Jeong added, “The decision was hard because of the many wonderful colleagues I would have to leave behind, but I made the change so I can work on what I want to work on in the immediate moment.”

…says eyebrow-raising tweet wasn’t a call to unsubscribe

Darcy adds: Jeong raised eyebrows on Friday afternoon when she weighed in on calls for people to cancel their NYT subscriptions over the newspaper’s decision to identify the whistleblower as a CIA officer. Guardian columnist Siva Vaidhyanathan had urged people to not cancel, saying it would “hurt many great journalists” who work at NYT like Jeong.

“You’re wrong,” Jeong responded. “NYT does pay attention to subscriber cancellations. It’s one of the metrics for ‘outrage’ that they take to distinguish between ‘real’ outrage and superficial outrage. What subscribers say can back up dissenting views inside the paper about what it should do and be.”

The comment was read by many as a NYT employee urging people to cancel their subscriptions. But Jeong said it was not a “call to unsubscribe.” She told me, “I’m just weary of having my name and my work invoked as a reason to not boycott. A lot of people have done and continue to do great work at the Times. But if a reader has real, good-faith objections to certain editorial decisions, the fact that the paper has done great work doesn’t negate those objections.”

Once again, Jeong opened her mouth when she shouldn’t have. If it wasn’t a “call to unsubscribe,” it was surely unwise to assert that she was tired of having her work invoked as a reason not to boycott her own paper. What kind of an attitude is that?  It doesn’t even make any sense, unless she was tired of being on the editorial board. And that doesn’t make sense, either. Even if she wasn’t fired but did resign, these statements will surely put her in bad odor with the paper.

At any rate, I guess other people are as “frustrated” with the NYT as I am, though perhaps for a variety of reasons.

Here’s the exchange mentioned above:

There is, however, this tweet. It suggests that Jeong was fired, though her tweet from above appeared just yesterday, and the paper says she decided to leave the editorial board in August.

Sarah Jeong (from her Wikipedia bio)

h/t: cesar

4 thoughts on “CNN: Sarah Jeong leaves NYT editorial board under weird circumstances, becomes a stringer”

  1. “Sarah Jeong departs NYT editorial board”

    Can’t tell you how disappointed I am in such a quotidian headline from The New York Post — from The New York Post! At the least, I’d’ve expected:

    JEONG GOES WRONG, SINGS SWAN SONG

    Shame to say, but Mr. Murdoch’s tabloid seems to be shedding its vaunted pizzazz.

  2. I was surprised to learn that Jamell Bouie was a writer for the NYT. He used to pen things for Slate about how the enlightenment was responsible for racism and prolonging slavery, and how a manager at a Starbucks asking a couple of table hogs to buy a coffee or leave proves we still live under Jim Crow.

  3. Let’s remember that Sarah Jeong didn’t criticize white people, men, etc. in her tweets, she said horrible, racist, sexist things about them (and most were not in reply to anyone, to say nothing of someone “harassing” her). And while she expressed “regret” in her statement, she never really apologized.

    Tweets like ““Oh man, it’s kind of sick how much joy I get out of being cruel to old white men.” Like “#CancelWhitePeople.”

    Rejoicing at the idea of people — elderly people, in particular — simply because of their race and sex is sick. And she had a whole lot of tweets that were just as bad and in no way counted as criticism, but just blatant racism and sexism.

    1. “Rejoicing at the idea of people — elderly people, in particular — simply because of their race and sex is sick”

      Should say “Rejoicing at the idea of people — elderly people, in particular — suffering simply because of their race and sex is sick”

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