New York Times 'disciplined' top Covid reporter
accused of using racial slurs
Paper says Donald McNeil Jr ‘showed extremely poor
judgement’ in using racist language on a Times-endorsed educational trip
Guardian
staff
Fri 29 Jan
2021 15.57 GMT
The New
York Times has confirmed the paper investigated and “disciplined” its
high-profile public health and Covid-19 reporter after he used racial slurs
during a trip with high school students in 2019.
Donald
McNeil Jr, a 45-year veteran of the paper and its lead reporter on the
coronavirus pandemic, was accused by a number of students of using the N-word
during a Times-endorsed educational trip to Peru. The reporter also suggested
he did not believe in white privilege and used stereotypes about Black teenagers,
according to complaints filed to the paper, which were reported by the Daily
Beast.
Six
students or parents complained to the paper following the trip, which was part
of the Times’s “student journeys” program, for which participation typically
costs over $5,000.
On Thursday
the Times confirmed McNeil had used “racist language” during the trip in a
statement issued to reporters.
“In 2019,
Donald McNeil Jr participated in a Student Journeys as an expert,” the
statement said. “We subsequently became aware of complaints by some of the
students on the trip concerning certain statements Donald had made during the
trip.
“We
conducted a thorough investigation and disciplined Donald for statements and
language that had been inappropriate and inconsistent with our values,” the
statement continued. “We found he had used bad judgment by repeating a racist
slur in the context of a conversation about racist language. In addition, we
apologized to the students who had participated in the trip.”
The paper
has not provided further details on how McNeil was disciplined.
Following
the Daily Beast’s reporting, the New York Times editor, Dean Baquet, emailed
staff to inform them he was “outraged” by the remarks and had expected to fire
the reporter when he first heard the complaints. But after the investigation
the editor “concluded his remarks were offensive and that he showed extremely
poor judgment, but that it did not appear to me that his intentions were
hateful or malicious”.
His email
continued: “I believe that in such cases people should be told they were wrong
and given another chance. He was formally disciplined. He was not given a
pass.”
Star NY Times Reporter Accused of Using ‘N-Word,’
Making Other Racist Comments
‘DEEPLY
DISAPPOINTED’
The paper’s top COVID reporter joined a group of
students on a trip to Peru in 2019. Participants alleged he repeatedly made
racist comments.
Maxwell
Tani
Media
Reporter
Lachlan
Cartwright
Senior
Reporter
Updated
Jan. 28, 2021 8:48PM ET / Published Jan. 28, 2021 3:27PM ET
Less than
six months before he became the New York Times’ go-to reporter on the
coronavirus pandemic, Donald McNeil Jr. was under intense scrutiny from the
paper’s top brass over accusations that he made wildly offensive and racist
comments while leading a Times student trip.
Every
summer over the past several years, the Times has selected some of its top
reporters to serve as subject guides for high-school students on trips to
various locations around the world, operated in some instances by Vermont-based
company Putney Student Travel. The goal, according to the paper, is to give
travelers a foreign vacation with educational value.
In 2019,
one of those experts was McNeil, a high-profile health and science reporter who
joined the paper in 1976. He accompanied a student group on a Times “Student
Journey” to Peru that focused on community-based health care in the region.
After the
excursion ended, according to multiple parents of students on the trip who
spoke with The Daily Beast along with documents shared with the Times and
reviewed by the Beast, many participants relayed a series of troubling
accusations to the paper: McNeil repeatedly made racist and sexist remarks
throughout the trip including, according to two complaints, using the “n-word.”
A photo
from the trip showed that at least 26 students participated. Of that group, at
least six students or their parents told the tour company that partnered with
the Times that McNeil used racially insensitive or outright racist language
while accompanying the participants on the trip, which according to the Times
website typically costs nearly $5,500. Two students specifically alleged that
the science reporter used the “n-word” and suggested he did not believe in the
concept of white privilege; three other participants alleged that McNeil made
racist comments and used stereotypes about Black teenagers.
“I expect
immediate action on the actions taken by Donald, I am deeply disappointed about
the New York Times because of the comments he made during our trip. I think
firing him would even be appropriate,” one participant wrote.
“Not only
did Donald say various racist comments on numerous occasions, but he was also
disrespectful to many students during mealtimes and in other settings,” another
wrote in their review.
“I would
change the journalist. He was a racist,” a third person wrote. “He used the ‘N’
word, said horrible things about black teenagers, and said white supremacy
doesn’t exist.”
“He wasn’t
respectful during some of the traditional ceremonies we attended with
indigenous healers/shamans,” yet another wrote. “He made students in the
program feel uncomfortable with his remarks. I was really disappointed after
hearing great things about his work.”
A Times
spokesperson told The Daily Beast on Thursday, “In 2019, Donald McNeil, Jr.
participated in a Student Journeys as an expert. We subsequently became aware
of complaints by some of the students on the trip concerning certain statements
Donald had made during the trip. We conducted a thorough investigation and
disciplined Donald for statements and language that had been inappropriate and
inconsistent with our values. We found he had used bad judgment by repeating a
racist slur in the context of a conversation about racist language. In
addition, we apologized to the students who had participated in the trip.”
Times
executive editor Dean Baquet addressed the controversy in an email to the
newsroom Thursday night, saying that when he first heard about McNeil’s
remarks, he was “outraged” and expected to fire him.
“I
authorized an investigation and concluded his remarks were offensive and that
he showed extremely poor judgment, but it did not appear to me that that his
intentions were hateful or malicious,” he wrote.
Baquet went
on to acknowledge criticism that the Times has been “too tolerant in
disciplining high-profile journalists” and said he welcomed having that
conversation. “Fair treatment has to be the foundation of the diverse and
equitable newsroom we are building,” he wrote.
Following
the reviews from participants, Times managers were immediately concerned,
alerting the paper’s public-relations shop and its publisher, A.G. Sulzberger,
to the alarming accusations.
“It’s
highly likely his comments will become public at some point,” Danielle Rhoades
Ha, a vice president of communications for the Times, warned colleagues in an
email exchange reviewed by The Daily Beast.
“This is
outrageous, in my view,” former corporate comms director Linda Zebian said. “I
do think his manager needs to be made aware as a first step. Depending on their
response, we can prepare a statement on any action that is being put into
place.”
Multiple
people familiar with the situation told The Daily Beast that an internal
investigation was conducted about the claims and that the top science reporter
was reprimanded. The paper also reached out to some parties who complained to
apologize for McNeil’s behavior and to assure the students and parents that
action had been taken internally against him.
Jeff
Shumlin, director at Putney Student Travel, did not deny to The Daily Beast
that his company had received complaints from parents about McNeil. “The New
York Times shares some of its writers and experts with our programs for a short
period of time, but that is their area of responsibility so I would refer you
to them for further comment,” he said.
McNeil’s
racist remarks have come to light during a period of controversy for the paper.
Its award-winning podcast Caliphate has now been debunked; questions about its
Pulitzer finalist host, star reporter Rukmini Callimachi, and her body of work
for the paper remain unanswered. Last week, the Times came under intense
criticism for firing a contract-based editor for tweeting that she had “chills”
on Joe Biden’s inauguration day.
A longtime
reporter at the Times, McNeil has won numerous awards for his hard-hitting and
incisive reporting on infectious diseases, including his coverage of the Zika
and Ebola outbreaks, along with the AIDS crisis and has served as a foreign
correspondent reporting from Africa and Europe.
Still, over
the course of his tenure at the esteemed newspaper, he’s occasionally run afoul
of management. In 2012, he sent a blistering email to friends mocking and
criticizing the Times’ then-publisher Arthur Sulzberger for his seeming absence
amid tense guild contract negotiations.
Nevertheless,
the paper has been eager to highlight McNeil’s work. According to a person
familiar with the matter, his COVID-19 coverage is among the New York Times’
submissions for this year's Pulitzer Prize for public-service journalism.
Maxwell
Tani
Media
Reporter
@maxwelltani
Maxwell.Tani@thedailybeast.com
Lachlan
Cartwright
Senior Reporter
@LachCartwright
lachlan.cartwright@thedailybeast.com
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