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Queer journalist claims she was fired from the New York Times for backing Joe Biden

New York Times building

A general view of One Times Square, located at 42nd Street and Broadway, also known as the New York Times Building, the New York Times Tower, or simply as the Times Tower on January 1, 2020. (Photo by Paul Rovere/Getty Images)

The New York Times has denied that it dismissed award-winning queer journalist Lauren Wolfe because she posted a pro-Biden tweet.

Wolfe worked as a freelance editor for the the New York Times (NYT), but was let go shortly after she tweeted on 19 January that she had “chills” after watching Joe Biden’s plane land as he arrived in the Washington, DC area for his inauguration as president.

She had also posted a tweet criticising former president Donald Trump‘s administration for “pettiness” in not providing a plan for Biden, but this was deleted “when she learned Biden chose to take his own plane”.

The tweets garnered criticism from conservatives who argued that Wolfe appeared to show a political bias, according to journalist Yashar Ali as well as The Washington Post.

Ali, who broke the story Wolfe had been let go, tweeted on Thursday (22 January) that her contract had been cancelled just two days after the “chills” tweet.

During an interview with The Washington Post, Wolfe alleged that an editor at the New York Times informed her the outlet couldn’t be associated with such a tweet and that her role with the paper would be ending.

Wolfe claimed she received a warning from the same editor “months ago” about her Twitter activity, allegedly citing a tweet in which Wolfe connected the resistance of conservative men to wearing masks to “toxic masculinity”. Wolfe deleted the tweet.

But, according to Wolfe, the manager said her social media posts, in general, were “borderline” and that other NYT staffers had done “worse”.

‘The only reason they fired me’ was because of the tweet.

Wolfe said the pro-Biden tweet was “the only reason they fired me”.

But New York Times spokeswoman Danielle Rhoades Ha, in a subsequent interview for The Washington Post, denied there was a direct connection between Wolfe’s pro-Biden tweet and the end of her career with the newspaper.

Ha said: “There’s a lot of inaccurate information circulating on Twitter. For privacy reasons, we don’t get into the details of personnel matters, but we can say that we didn’t end someone’s employment over a single tweet. Out of respect for the individuals involved, we don’t plan to comment further.”

Wolfe told The Washington Post that it was hard to see the statement, and it was a “shot at my reputation, which I worked very carefully to build”.

The controversy has upended Lauren Wolfe’s career.

Many people have tweeted their support for the journalist. In a post on Twitter, 60 Minutes correspondent Wesley Lowery said journalists should be judged by the “fairness of their work”, “not a random tweet”.

https://twitter.com/WesleyLowery/status/1353411326626983936

American actress and activist Alyssa Milano asked her followers on Twitter to tweet at the NYT to rehire Wolfe.

Wolfe said she truly appreciated the support she received online. She asked people not to unsubscribe from the NYT because she “loved this paper and it’s mission my whole life”.

She wrote: “Their journalism is some of the most important and best in the world. And they need to be read widely. Thank you.”

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