Opinion editor Bari Weiss resigned from the New York Times Tuesday over the harassment she says she received from colleagues, according to a resignation letter she posted to her personal website on Tuesday.
Citing harassment she received on Twitter and even in her own workplace's Slack channels for her political views, Weiss said she no longer felt her workplace was an "inclusive" one.
"What rules that remain at The Times are applied with extreme selectivity. If a person's ideology is in keeping with the new orthodoxy, they and their work remain unscrutinized," Weiss said. "Online venom is excused so long as it is directed at the proper targets."
The resignation follows several turbulent weeks for the newspaper. Longtime opinion editor James Bennet resigned over an op-ed by Senator Tom Cotton (R., Ark.) that provoked outrage from writers. Bennet was soon replaced by former Intercept managing editor Charlotte Greensit, who has a history of left-wing and anti-Israel comments.
Weiss, a self-proclaimed "centrist," came to the Times in 2017 "with the goal of bringing in voices that would not otherwise appear" in the Times's editorial section, according to her letter. These voices include conservative and centrist voices that upon the election of President Donald Trump, were seen as much needed for a vibrant opinion section.
"The paper's failure to anticipate the outcome of the 2016 election meant that it didn't have a firm grasp of the country it covers," Weiss wrote.
However, Weiss said the Times soon veered away from this initial reasoning. "A new consensus has emerged in the press, but perhaps especially at this paper: that truth isn't a process of collective discovery, but an orthodoxy already known to an enlightened few whose job is to inform everyone else," her letter reads.