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https://www.themarysue.com/bye-bye-bari/
Bari Weiss, a conservative writer and editor for the New York Times’ opinion section, announced today that she was resigning—sorry, “self-expelling”–from the paper.
Weiss, who has spent years presenting herself as un-cancellable, has left the Times over what she says is a culture of “discrimination, hostile work environment, and constructive discharge.” She says she’s “no legal expert” yet also calls her treatment “unlawful.” In her open letter announcing her resignation, she references both a “new McCarthyism” and her ostensible bravery for daring to engage in what she says is perceived as “Wrongthink”—aka offensive, oppressive opinions expressed on perhaps the world’s most respected platform.
To be fair, I have no idea what the internal culture of the Times is like. I don’t know what Weiss went through. I also don’t care.
I am a moron and people are mad at me… George Orwell warned us about this…
— Brendan O’Hare (@brendohare) July 14, 2020
Weiss has built her career alternating between decrying cancel culture and fighting for it when it benefits her and when she’s felt slighted. She’s frequently written about how persecuted conservative voices (or, as she identifies, the “intellectual dark web”) are and has railed against “safe spaces,” while also, for example, reporting a Black colleague to management for politely refusing to get coffee with her.
ANYWAY remember that time Bari Weiss tried to get me fired from my freelance gigs because I swear on twitter and then she signed an open letter in Harper’s saying she was deeply concerned about the trend of people getting fired for saying things people don’t like on the internet?
— Erin Biba (@erinbiba) July 7, 2020
That sort of behavior isn’t uncommon among the conservatives at the Times. Bret Stephens, who was hired around the same time as Weiss, is famous for complaining to editors and even emailing the paper’s masthead, demanding to see consequences when his colleagues call out his awful, often bigoted takes online.
He has even emailed the masthead complaining about fellow editors or writers. As a result many walk on eggshells when it comes to him. There’s a simmering resentment and feelings of a very real double standard. People fear for their jobs so remain quiet. This is not just a few 3/
— Wajahat “Wears a Mask Because of a Pandemic” Ali (@WajahatAli) June 5, 2020
People like Weiss and Stephens are representative of a pervasive tactic among conservative media figures: to bash “cancel culture” as the greatest threat to modern discourse while simultaneously demanding everyone who criticizes them be canceled.
Weiss has called the culture at the Times a “civil war,” which, honestly, seems pretty spot-on since one side of the American Civil War was fighting to maintain the right to systemic oppression and in her resignation letter she specifically defends Senator Tom Cotton’s recent op-ed that led to the resignation of opinion editor James Bennett, in which Cotton called for violence against primarily BIPOC police protesters. (In criticizing Bennett’s resignation, Weiss conveniently forgets to mention that he admitted to not having read the essay before publishing it, which is quite an indictment of his job performance.)
one time I self expelled from a job at the cheesecake factory because I got caught sleeping at the register
— ziwe (@ziwe) July 14, 2020
In her letter, Weiss paints a picture of a newsroom that is terrified of expressing a controversial or “challenging” point of view. “But the truth is that intellectual curiosity—let alone risk-taking—is now a liability at The Times,” she writes. “Why edit something challenging to our readers, or write something bold only to go through the numbing process of making it ideologically kosher, when we can assure ourselves of job security (and clicks) by publishing our 4000th op-ed arguing that Donald Trump is a unique danger to the country and the world? And so self-censorship has become the norm.”
I wholeheartedly agree that the Times can be maddeningly toothless in their reporting, especially having spent four years writing every variation on the “trying to understand white Trump voters” op-ed. But Weiss’ underlying subtext seems to be that the proof the Times is scared of “challenging” opinions is the pushback against her opinions. A writer who pushes Islamaphobic views at a paper with few Muslim columnists or anti-trans ones in a world where transgender rights are constantly questioned and attacked (why yes, Weiss did sign onto that terrible Harper’s Magazine letter!) is not brave and they are not persecuted if their readership tells them those views aren’t what they’re looking for.
“Twitter is not on the masthead of The New York Times. But Twitter has become its ultimate editor,” Weiss writes, in the ultimate dismissal of the primary source of direct feedback from both her readers and colleagues.
May all writers of color in this insane media industry one day have the ability to self expel themselves from one of the most privileged jobs, knowing they will be protected & allowed to fail up despite repeated embarrassments, all the while claiming victimhood forever. Ameen.
— Wajahat “Wears a Mask Because of a Pandemic” Ali (@WajahatAli) July 14, 2020
Whomever @nytopinion hires or elevates to replace @bariweiss, I hope that she or he focuses on serving readers—not vendettas and self-martyrdom. We need writers capable of more critical thinking, both in their work and about themselves, than she displayed. https://t.co/1pl24OLy1q
— Jamil Smith (@JamilSmith) July 14, 2020
(image: JOHANNES EISELE/AFP via Getty Images)
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—The Mary Sue has a strict comment policy that forbids, but is not limited to, personal insults toward anyone, hate speech, and trolling.—
Bari Weiss, a conservative writer and editor for the New York Times’ opinion section, announced today that she was resigning—sorry, “self-expelling”–from the paper.
Weiss, who has spent years presenting herself as un-cancellable, has left the Times over what she says is a culture of “discrimination, hostile work environment, and constructive discharge.” She says she’s “no legal expert” yet also calls her treatment “unlawful.” In her open letter announcing her resignation, she references both a “new McCarthyism” and her ostensible bravery for daring to engage in what she says is perceived as “Wrongthink”—aka offensive, oppressive opinions expressed on perhaps the world’s most respected platform.
To be fair, I have no idea what the internal culture of the Times is like. I don’t know what Weiss went through. I also don’t care.
I am a moron and people are mad at me… George Orwell warned us about this…
— Brendan O’Hare (@brendohare) July 14, 2020
Weiss has built her career alternating between decrying cancel culture and fighting for it when it benefits her and when she’s felt slighted. She’s frequently written about how persecuted conservative voices (or, as she identifies, the “intellectual dark web”) are and has railed against “safe spaces,” while also, for example, reporting a Black colleague to management for politely refusing to get coffee with her.
ANYWAY remember that time Bari Weiss tried to get me fired from my freelance gigs because I swear on twitter and then she signed an open letter in Harper’s saying she was deeply concerned about the trend of people getting fired for saying things people don’t like on the internet?
— Erin Biba (@erinbiba) July 7, 2020
That sort of behavior isn’t uncommon among the conservatives at the Times. Bret Stephens, who was hired around the same time as Weiss, is famous for complaining to editors and even emailing the paper’s masthead, demanding to see consequences when his colleagues call out his awful, often bigoted takes online.
He has even emailed the masthead complaining about fellow editors or writers. As a result many walk on eggshells when it comes to him. There’s a simmering resentment and feelings of a very real double standard. People fear for their jobs so remain quiet. This is not just a few 3/
— Wajahat “Wears a Mask Because of a Pandemic” Ali (@WajahatAli) June 5, 2020
People like Weiss and Stephens are representative of a pervasive tactic among conservative media figures: to bash “cancel culture” as the greatest threat to modern discourse while simultaneously demanding everyone who criticizes them be canceled.
Weiss has called the culture at the Times a “civil war,” which, honestly, seems pretty spot-on since one side of the American Civil War was fighting to maintain the right to systemic oppression and in her resignation letter she specifically defends Senator Tom Cotton’s recent op-ed that led to the resignation of opinion editor James Bennett, in which Cotton called for violence against primarily BIPOC police protesters. (In criticizing Bennett’s resignation, Weiss conveniently forgets to mention that he admitted to not having read the essay before publishing it, which is quite an indictment of his job performance.)
one time I self expelled from a job at the cheesecake factory because I got caught sleeping at the register
— ziwe (@ziwe) July 14, 2020
In her letter, Weiss paints a picture of a newsroom that is terrified of expressing a controversial or “challenging” point of view. “But the truth is that intellectual curiosity—let alone risk-taking—is now a liability at The Times,” she writes. “Why edit something challenging to our readers, or write something bold only to go through the numbing process of making it ideologically kosher, when we can assure ourselves of job security (and clicks) by publishing our 4000th op-ed arguing that Donald Trump is a unique danger to the country and the world? And so self-censorship has become the norm.”
I wholeheartedly agree that the Times can be maddeningly toothless in their reporting, especially having spent four years writing every variation on the “trying to understand white Trump voters” op-ed. But Weiss’ underlying subtext seems to be that the proof the Times is scared of “challenging” opinions is the pushback against her opinions. A writer who pushes Islamaphobic views at a paper with few Muslim columnists or anti-trans ones in a world where transgender rights are constantly questioned and attacked (why yes, Weiss did sign onto that terrible Harper’s Magazine letter!) is not brave and they are not persecuted if their readership tells them those views aren’t what they’re looking for.
“Twitter is not on the masthead of The New York Times. But Twitter has become its ultimate editor,” Weiss writes, in the ultimate dismissal of the primary source of direct feedback from both her readers and colleagues.
May all writers of color in this insane media industry one day have the ability to self expel themselves from one of the most privileged jobs, knowing they will be protected & allowed to fail up despite repeated embarrassments, all the while claiming victimhood forever. Ameen.
— Wajahat “Wears a Mask Because of a Pandemic” Ali (@WajahatAli) July 14, 2020
Whomever @nytopinion hires or elevates to replace @bariweiss, I hope that she or he focuses on serving readers—not vendettas and self-martyrdom. We need writers capable of more critical thinking, both in their work and about themselves, than she displayed. https://t.co/1pl24OLy1q
— Jamil Smith (@JamilSmith) July 14, 2020
(image: JOHANNES EISELE/AFP via Getty Images)
Want more stories like this? Become a subscriber and support the site!
—The Mary Sue has a strict comment policy that forbids, but is not limited to, personal insults toward anyone, hate speech, and trolling.—
We have few enough sources of hilarity these days, which is one reason why the new Twitter account Jurassic Park Updates (@JurassicPark2go) has caught on like wildfire in the dinosaur-infested underbrush. The account, which has about 230 tweets at the time of writing, has racked up more than 130,000 followers with its tongue-in-cheek “updates” from the staff of the world’s worst idea for a theme park.
Per its bio, the parody account is run by 12 people—writers, comedians, writers who are also comedians, comedians who are also writers, and so on and so forth. As such it’s impossible to tell who is responsible for each tweet, so let’s assume they’re emerging fully formed from this hivemind collective. “Updates” writer PJ Evans also created the hilarious @Disneyland2go account, which posts irreverent, often bitingly sarcastic “insider” tweets about the Disney park.
This is the kind of criticism Disney deserves right now:
everything is looking good for our reopening except for the ongoing pandemic
— Disneyland (@Disneyland2go) July 8, 2020
But we’re here for Jurassic Park, which is a good deal more fun than the actual horrors happening as Disney reopens despite record-breaking numbers of COVID-19 cases. Shall we visit that faraway island?
but yeah like eighteen to nineteen dinosaurs are currently loose
— Jurassic Park Updates (@JurassicPark2go) July 13, 2020
There are so many great tweets in this account’s early days that it’s hard to feature only a few, but here are some favorites:
make sure to grab a poncho when you arrive in case someone in your group is ripped open
— Jurassic Park Updates (@JurassicPark2go) July 11, 2020
We are cleaning out our lost and found bin. Does this tee shirt belong to you? Claim it at our visitor center pic.twitter.com/BGkFxFQ0HE
— Jurassic Park Updates (@JurassicPark2go) July 11, 2020
the brontosaurus rides have been a big hit but everyone who has tried to slide down their backs and tail like fred flintstone when he gets off work has gotten severely injured so please don’t try
— Jurassic Park Updates (@JurassicPark2go) July 11, 2020
accidentally made an oval-shaped dinosaur with no limbs or eyes
— Jurassic Park Updates (@JurassicPark2go) July 10, 2020
We have decided to cancel today’s dinosaur talent show after every single dinosaur wrote down “unthinkable chaos” as their talent
— Jurassic Park Updates (@JurassicPark2go) July 10, 2020
the triceratops got killed so we have a temporary st. bernard
— Jurassic Park Updates (@JurassicPark2go) July 10, 2020
raft and dinosaur washed up on the other side of the island
— Jurassic Park Updates (@JurassicPark2go) July 9, 2020
Hi thid is velocrsptpr. I lenaring ti tipe Nd spell
— Jurassic Park Updates (@JurassicPark2go) July 9, 2020
If you are being eaten, please do not scream. You could potentially be spreading covid-19. Keeping visitors safe is our number 1 priority
— Jurassic Park Updates (@JurassicPark2go) July 9, 2020
the little dinosaur with the william shakespeare collar that spits poison just spit on me which im so grossed out about. i hate spit
— Jurassic Park Updates (@JurassicPark2go) July 8, 2020
we gave meat to the herbivores. just to sort of see if they were lying
— Jurassic Park Updates (@JurassicPark2go) July 8, 2020
we have developed a velociraptor that smokes cigarettes
— Jurassic Park Updates (@JurassicPark2go) July 7, 2020
many guests are asking if dinosaurs are “different from dragons”. we hear you and we are looking into it
— Jurassic Park Updates (@JurassicPark2go) July 6, 2020
Give @JurassicPark2go a follow for even more dino vs. guest shenanigans and be sure to check out the team behind the T. rex:
@pjayevans, @NotJosephGarcia, @rajat_suresh, @Colinoscopy, @totallymorgan, @julieabridged, @astonoha, @quakerraina, @carmchristopher, @jayweingarten, @dlicj, and @sarahsquirm
(images: Universal Studios)
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—The Mary Sue has a strict comment policy that forbids, but is not limited to, personal insults toward anyone, hate speech, and trolling.—