Breaking news: Nikole Hannah-Jones is a terrible person.
OK, that’s not really breaking news. But that doesn’t mean her terribleness is not remarkable.
There is apparently no low to which she will not stoop, as evidenced by what she’s done to Washington Free Beacon reporter Aaron Sibarium.
First, let’s set the stage: Sibarium wrote a piece about the New York Times’ hanging longtime science writer Don McNeil Jr. out to dry after he was spotlighted for using a racial slur:
McNeil’s ouster came nearly two years after the incident that precipitated it. While chaperoning high school students on a pricey trip to Peru, the science reporter responded to a question from a student about whether one of her classmates should have been suspended for using the n-word. In the process, he uttered the offending syllables himself. An internal Times investigation found his judgment wanting but stopped short of firing him.
Only after the Daily Beast published an account of the incident, thrusting it into the public realm for the first time, was McNeil pushed out. “We do not tolerate racist language regardless of intent,” Dean Baquet, the paper’s executive editor, told staff in an email.
The notion that intent shouldn’t be taken into consideration apparently sparked a heated internal discussion among New York Times employees in a Facebook group.
"‘We do not tolerate racist language regardless of intent’ might be the most racist statement I’ve ever read," said Lawrence De Maria, an award-winning crime and finance reporter. "It demeans ALL races."
Dean Baquet could not be reached for comment.https://t.co/wmwKUkHnyn
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) February 9, 2021
"Why didn’t the NewsGuild do far more to defend and protect the job of a long-time Times employee, one who at times did tireless, heroic work on behalf of the Guild to help improve pay and conditions for all NYT employees," Steven Greenhouse asked.
Good question.
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) February 9, 2021
It was a good question.
"What ever happened to the notion of worker solidarity," asked Steven Greenhouse, who spent three decades covering labor issues for the Times. "And why didn’t the NewsGuild do far more to defend and protect the job of a long-time Times employee?" https://t.co/pKNQCfi7dG
— Batya Ungar-Sargon (@bungarsargon) February 9, 2021
"Whatever happened to worker solidarity?" asks longtime NYT reporter.https://t.co/ilQbOhpmkr pic.twitter.com/y81VfisOxM
— Wesley Yang (@wesyang) February 9, 2021
It was a great question particularly in light of this:
"A Times spokeswoman muddied the waters further on Sunday, telling the Free Beacon that racial epithets had no place 'in the newspaper.' The paper printed the same epithet as recently as last week"https://t.co/iRBpvSoI0P
— Matt Welch (@MattWelch) February 9, 2021
.@nytimes spokeswoman Danielle Rhodes Ha tells @aaronsibarium that racial epithets have no place "in the newspaper." The Times printed them as recently as…six days ago in a profile of the Princeton classics professor Dan-el Padilla Peralta – https://t.co/YcPRnplaqo
— Eliana Johnson (@elianayjohnson) February 9, 2021
What made McNeil’s offense worth a forced resignation?
Well, this is where Nikole Hannah-Jones comes in:
“Even in ironic or self-mocking quotations about a speaker’s own group (in rap lyrics, for example), their use erodes the worthy inhibition against brutality in public discourse,” Danielle Rhoades Ha told the Free Beacon. She declined to say if that policy extends to social media, where other New York Times writers, including Nikole Hannah-Jones and Astead Herndon, have quoted the slur.
…
[…] “Larry Wilmore did not say, ‘You did it, my n*gger,’” Hannah-Jones wrote in 2016, referencing the black comedian’s routine at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. There is a “linguistic difference b/w n*gger and n*gga.” [Editor’s note: N-word censored by Twitchy.]
It’s not unreasonable to gather that the New York Times might have highly subjective standards for different employees.
.@aaronsibarium got access to a Facebook group for NYT reporters, where the Donald McNeil controversy was all the rage. Literally, in some cases. Bottom line: the NYT is every bit the identity politics-riven hellhole it seems to be. https://t.co/gqplSNJ7zf
— Varad Mehta (@varadmehta) February 9, 2021
Emphasis on “hellhole”:
??? New York Times Staff Meltdown! Leaks from Facebook Chat Group! Plus Screenshots from 2016 of Nikole Hannah-Jones tweeting n-word. When reporter asked her about it, she doxxed him. @aaronsibarium tells whole story in @FreeBeacon https://t.co/9ZeVxT9SI4
— Christina Sommers (@CHSommers) February 9, 2021
I'm sorry she did what? https://t.co/U0G4H7r4Ti pic.twitter.com/AVCFTcO76X
— Noam Blum (@neontaster) February 9, 2021
You read that right: Nikole Hannah-Jones doxxed him.
"The Washington Free Beacon asked Hannah-Jones whether intent made a difference in her case. She responded by posting this reporter’s inquiry, including his cell phone number, on Twitter, in direct violation of the website’s terms of service."
— Matt Welch (@MattWelch) February 9, 2021
More insane behavior from Nikole Hannah-Jones… https://t.co/DQuoX1CNU5 pic.twitter.com/uRx9dD4bTf
— Elizabeth Nolan Brown (@ENBrown) February 9, 2021
Amazing: @aaronsibarium is a smart, young, careful reporter. He did his job in reporting on the NYT internal strife over Don McNeil by emailing key players for comments. @nhannahjones posted his email inquiry to mock it (fine) & *included his cell phone*:https://t.co/BAaR4Aqbv4
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) February 9, 2021
She left the email with his personal cell phone number up on Twitter for 24 hours, then deleted it. Obviously, he got messages and calls. Just imagine the reaction if that were done *to* her rather than by her, even though she wields infinitely more power than he.
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) February 9, 2021
We doubt Hannah-Jones would find that so amusing:
Hannah-Jones has taken down the tweet that contained my phone number. I appreciate that.
But it took her over 24 hours to do so—and she clearly knew my number was out there. pic.twitter.com/EBdbPPwjpf
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) February 9, 2021
“Girl.”
For the record, it was more annoying than alarming. Some nasty voice messages but nothing serious.
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) February 9, 2021
But it could’ve been serious. Nikole Hannah-Jones has demonstrated herself to be vindictive and deranged; there’s absolutely no reason to believe that her fans aren’t the same way.
Credit to Sibarium for pushing ahead with his story. This is what real journalism looks like:
@aaronsibarium’s reporting on the disfunction within the NYTimes’s news room is absolutely first rate, and his ability to weather the insults, personal attacks, and even doxxing from his fellow journalists without batting an eye is remarkable. https://t.co/9D2hagODxm
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) February 9, 2021
As for the New York Times, their name hasn’t been synonymous with real journalism in a long time, and clearly they’re not interested in fixing that.
NHJ is a joke, and the newspaper for which she works has blown out its decency and credibility https://t.co/8Hheo6QjNZ
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) February 9, 2021
The New York Times can take some comfort in knowing that they have that in common with Twitter:
***
Update:
‘Trying to rewrite history’? Nikole Hannah-Jones has apparently decided to avoid future charges of hypocrisy by wiping her Twitter slate clean https://t.co/fFRJW2aHmB
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) February 9, 2021
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