Former New York Times reporter Donald McNeill claimed executive editor Dean Baquet to “bend his arm” and intimidate him to resign from the N-word debacle – even though the executive editor assured him, “I know that You are not a racist. ”
In more than 20,000 words, the four-part post on the medium, a journalist who spent 45 years in the newspaper, issued a full-blown defense in view of comments made during the 2019 student trip to Peru.
“I never even dreamed that one of the two Peru trips I took – that was just the blips in my life, something that I had largely done in favor of a friend who had experts to sell the trips to. Was needed – that would sink my Times career, “McNeil, 67, Wrote a post.
He blamed the upper management on the Gray Lady for intensifying the scandal in late January – when he was publicly accused of dropping the N-Word and making other allegedly objectionable comments – “full message- Control mode “and demanded that he apologize.
A few days after the allegations were published in the Daily Beast, McNeill said he got on a call with Boxet, his longtime colleague and deputy managing editor, Carolyn Ryan.
“Donald, I know you,” Beckett reportedly told the leading COVID-19 reporter on the call on 1 February. “I know you are not racist.”
Baquet said the paper would still go ahead with presenting its work on the epidemic for the Pulitzer Prize.
“But Donald, you’ve lost the newsroom,” Baquet continued. “People are hurt. People are saying that they will not work with you because you did not apologize. “
McNeill also alleged that Baquet and Caroline refused to give details of “other complaints you have made people uncomfortable” – leading them to believe they were trying to “scare” them .
Then, he asked for his resignation.
According to McNeill, “We’re not firing you,” Baquet said. “We are asking you to consider resigning … We are not twisting your arm.”
McNeil’s resignation – along with the exit of Andy Mills – was co-host of the “Calipeth” podcast. On February 5, a Times statement said that “this is the right next step.”
Veteran science scribe admits to using the N-word during the trip, but a student asked him “Did I think one of his classmates should be suspended for a video that he made as a 12-year-old Was made. Which he used “slurry.
He was accused by Sophie Shepherd of proclaiming one of the students, “racism is over”, on a Times-sponsored jaunt and that black people could “get out of the ghetto if they wanted to.” McNeill said that his other comments were misinterpreted.
The events, which occur during the paper’s “Student Journey” program, undergo internal scrutiny in 2019.
Around the same time, McNeil, in an email to a friend, blasted Charlotte Behrent, the Times’ associate managing editor for employee relations handling the investigation.
“She makes a Times newsroom like North Korea every day,” McNeill said.
McNeil has been surrounded by the allegations since his resignation last month, but he published his blow-by blow account on Monday, the day he formally left the paper.
He also blasted the Times for responding to his drawn-out reactions to the Daily Beast, when he initially asked her for comment on January 28.
“If the Times had not panicked and had been given permission to send me some version of it, the animal might have rewritten its story or even written its story.” “Almost undoubtedly, the response within the Times itself would have been different.”
He defended himself against allegations that he was racist, calling him “quite shocking and painful”.
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