Erin Marquis New York Times Wirecutter
Courtesy Erin Marquis and Twitter

It must be difficult being a New York Times employee. It can be really hard to know what conduct the company considers acceptable and what will get you canned.

Sarah Jeong has a long history of issuing racist tweets, yet she’s still an editorial writer for the Gray Lady. Reporter Taylor Lorenz has serially embarrassed herself and the newspaper over the years, but still apparently meets the paper of record’s high standards for accuracy and rectitude.

However, when a Wirecutter (a NYT property) editor left some, uh, intemperate voicemails for Great Lakes Gun Rights after a Michigan school shooting, she apparently crossed an invisible line.

Among other things, the unhinged editor said . . .

Again, I am from the New York Times and I’m letting everyone in the New York Times know what kind of f@cking a$$holes you are. Congrats on being a laughing stock. 

You f@cking ghouls. I hope that there is a God in heaven so he judges you when you die.

The Times subsequently suspended Erin Marquis after the National Association for Gun Rights made the voicemails public. Now comes news that the paper has fired her.

As The Washington Post reports . . .

“The employee has been terminated from Wirecutter following our investigation related to inappropriate behavior,” a spokesperson told The Washington Post on Friday morning. “We expect our employees to behave in a way that is consistent with our values and commitment to the highest ethical standards. Repeatedly invoking the New York Times’s name in an unprofessional way that imperils the reputation of Wirecutter, The Times, and all of our journalists is a clear violation of our policies and cannot be tolerated.”

While Wirecutter is a separate subsidiary, its website advises that . . .

Wirecutter employees are expected to uphold the editorial standards of the newspaper when reviewing and writing up product recommendations. “Our approach to journalism remains true to the mission that powers The Times: Seek the truth and help people understand the world,” a guide to the website says.

OK then.

Just for the record, racist, blatantly inaccurate, or downright defamatory comments and reporting aren’t enough to get you tossed from the New York Times. But losing your $hit and leaving voice mails using language that should really be confined to the Times’ newsroom — all while invoking the venerable New York Times name — is beyond the pale.

Got it.

 

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35 COMMENTS

      • Nothing new here. People were smeared whenever they spoke up for Gun Rights for Blacks living in fear of marauding terrorist members of the Gun Control military wing of the democRat Party known as the kkk. The kkk Gun Control nazi sarah jeong was just using slander and libel to carrying on a democRat Party Family Tradition.

  3. IMO, what likely got her canned is the fact that she was just a minion with an associated website owned by NYT’s parent company, but represented herself as being with the NYT.

    The actual NYT employees can’t abide such a slight to their prestige. So under the bus she goes . . . .

      • Her ‘crime’ was letting the mask slip…

      • Dream on.

        My point is that if she *actually* had been a NYT reporter, nothing negative would likely have happened; indeed, she may well have gotten a raise for “speaking truth to power” or something.

        She got fired for *claiming* to be with NYT, which is an unpardonable sin amongst actual NYT employees. They view their status as NYT employees as marking them as members of aristocracy — “how dare some peon claim to be of Our noble status!”

        • I believe you’re right about that. Sarah Jeong received more public backlash than the above young lady, and she didn’t get fired.

  4. Times’ old motto “All the news that’s fit to print”.
    Times’ new motto “All the news that’s shit, we print”.

  5. The New York Times is desperate to prove they are an unbiased and truthful newspaper. Sara Jeong was sacrificed in order to try and put on a public face of morality by this secular news publication. Given the opportunity the intolerant, racist left Winger, will always leave physical evidence of their immorality.

    The New York Times is engaged in public relations damage control.
    Don’t be fooled. She is only speaking the truth about what that newspaper really believes.

  8. Brings a smile to my face. One less screaming Karen with a self important job. Maybe she can get a job as Brandon’s press secretary someday.

  9. If the NYT was really worried about its rep it wouldn’t be publishing outright lies like it does and it certainly wouldn’t be spinning off some cucksoomer ad rag like Wirecutter.

  10. You are correct sir. What we most desperately need is MORE school shootings so “The NEWS” will have more content.
    Something to keep us awake before “The Tonight Show” comes on.

    Good GOD ALMIGHTY!

  13. Your imagined immunity and (theoretical) impunity got you tossed down the road…again….how does it feel to face personal responsibility for your actions Marquis (de Sade?).

    I offer you a parting salutation…AMF.

  14. I don’t much care about anything that happens at NYT. What is most telling, however, in Jeong’s, Taylor’s, or “Marquis’s” case; as well as around here, is that the intelligence of the poster can often be determined by the choice of language being used to “make” their point.

  15. Losing a talented linguist and accomplished public speaker like Erin Marquis, who obviously has superb taste in all matters millinery, will be a body blow that the NYT will never overcome.

    Too bad, so sad.

  16. My wife is a free lance journalist. A few years ago she was contracted to work on a budget sensitive section of a documentary. She was rounding up people for the crew and the client said “I got someone for you maybe, a worker bee, don’t know yet.” So time comes for the site work and my wife and the crew show up and she hasn’t even thought about the clients person because she has everyone she needs, but along comes Marquis. My wife thinks, “ok, the client wanted her here so lets work her in and put her to work.” but nope, not Marquis because she wants to be the boss.

    Wife said she was the most vulgar and vile person she has ever worked with, had a serious anger management issue, a few loose screws, a nasty mean attitude of ‘I’m better than you’, would not follow direction and tried to be the boss, smelled like she had not bathed in a week, every other word from her was a curse word and everyone was a ‘mother fuck3r’ or ‘bit@h’, and she had these sudden outburst of anger and during one of these hit a crew member while flailing her arms around. Wife said she wanted to stomp her into the ground but instead called the client, the client fired her.

  17. Ah, yes, Erin…I remember her “work” (if you wish to call it as such) on the Jalopnik website. Not very automotively-minded, but always ready to spring into a profanity laced diatribe on whatever topic caught her fancy as a new-age parajournalist. But she was part of a pack of likeminded foul-mouthed scribblers who manned that website. Her work, when she did dwell on cars and such, was mediocre at best. Whither will you wander now, Erin?

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