Donald G. McNeil Jr., a reporter for science and public health at The New York Times, who resigned from the newspaper under pressure last month after 45 years, published a report on Monday describing the circumstances of his departure, in an essay of four parts that was often critical of the Times’ leadership.
A leading reporter on the coronavirus pandemic, Mr. McNeil announced his departure last month following an article in The Daily Beast about his comments and behavior during a Times-sponsored trip for high school students to Peru in 2019. Several students and their parents complain that Mr. McNeil, who served as an expert guide during the trip, used a racial circulation and made other insensitive remarks.
Shortly after his return, The Times investigated and disciplined the case, saying he had shown poor judgment by using the abuse in a conversation about racist language. The Times’ investigation into Mr. McNeil’s behavior during the trip only became known when The Daily Beast reported on it.
After the publication of the Daily Beast article, a group of Times employees sent a letter to Times leaders asking how the newspaper Mr. McNeil handled it. On February 5, Dean Baquet, the executive editor, and Joe Kahn, the managing editor, announced his departure in a memorandum to staff. As part of the announcement, Mr. McNeil apologized and said in a statement: “I originally thought the context in which I used this ugly word could be defended. I now realize that it can not. It is deeply offensive and hurtful.”
In his four-part essay, published on the online platform Medium with more than 20,000 words, he writes that his attempts to discuss serious issues with the students sometimes failed. He again admitted that he used the mist, saying that its use took place during a conversation with a travel participant about a student who was expelled from high school after a video from two years earlier showed up showing how the student uses the mist.
“Am I a racist?” Mr. McNeil wrote. ‘I do not think so – after working for more than 25 years in 60 countries, I think it’s good to judge people as individuals. But ‘am I a racist?’ is actually a harder question to answer about yourself than some self-righteous think. ‘
He denied the allegation that he denied the existence of white privilege in a conversation with the students. And he was critical of an internal Times process that culminated, he said, with the proposal of Mr. Baquet that he resigned after ‘losing the newsroom’.
“We support Donald’s right to have his say,” The Times said in a statement.
Mr. McNeil also writes more generally of his decades in the paper, describing his active role in the NewsGuild trade union, adding that he finds it unfair that some Times leaders considering his case have been on the opposing side during recent labor negotiations. year. .
His departure from The Times has led to a wider debate, with some people inside and outside the company saying it suggests the newspaper has an inhospitable climate for debate, and others claim that Mr. McNeil should not have been allowed to continue in his previous role.
Mr McNeil published his account on his first day as a former Times employee. The essay was examined by two lawyers, he said.
“What happened to me was called a ‘witch hunt,'” he wrote. “It’s not. It’s a series of misunderstandings and mistakes. I’m perhaps the only living Times reporter to have dealt with a witch hunt. “In Zimbabwe in 1997. It inevitably ends worse for the accused. I at least get my say.”