New York Times faces backlash over firing freelance editor Lauren Wolfe

Lauren Wolfe lost her New York Times job after tweeting that she had ‘chills’ at seeing Joe Biden’s plane land outside Washington last week.

Lauren Wolfe and the tweet that got her fired. Picture: Supplied.

The New York Times faces a backlash and allegations of double standards over the firing of a journalist who wrote on Twitter that she had “chills” at seeing the plane carrying Joe Biden land outside Washington DC last week.

Lauren Wolfe, who was a freelance editor, said she had been left without an income during a pandemic after her tweet was singled out as evidence of liberal bias at the paper. She had posted a screenshot from CNN last Tuesday, writing beneath it: “Biden landing at Joint Base Andrews now. I have chills.”

Glenn Greenwald, a frequent critic of the American media, retweeted her a day later, the day of Mr Biden’s inauguration, adding: “If you’re in the national press and will be on TV at any point today and [begin] to feel the need to weep joyously, just hold it in until you find a private place. Nobody is expecting any adversarial coverage over the next 4 years, but it’s just a matter of personal dignity.”

My friend @Wolfe321 was fired by the @nytimes, stalked in her neighborhood & is receiving actual threats and hate mail for tweeting THIS.

I am furious, disgusted & incredibly sad. You mess with Lauren, and you’ve messed with an army of people she has inspired, loved, & blessed. pic.twitter.com/evF8mRQSC8

— Raquel Evita Saraswati (@RaquelEvita) January 23, 2021

Ms Wolfe’s supporters alleged that she was fired in response to criticism from conservatives by a paper applying far more stringent standards to a freelancer than it did to its star reporters. She wrote that she found it “hard to fathom all the talk of ‘cancel culture’ on my timeline while I’m left without an income during the pandemic. I’m not an ideology. I’m a hardworking person who can no longer pay her bills.”

Prominent American journalists, Amber Heard, the actress, and Mary Trump, niece of the former president, condemned her dismissal and supporters began a fundraiser for her online. “Journalists should be acutely aware of their biases so their reporting is as objective as possible,” Ms Trump wrote on Twitter. “Expressing spontaneous human emotion as a private citizen shouldn’t be disqualifying.”

@Wolfe321 the Greeks, along with Democracy lent us the concept (perhaps unfairly labeled x us “free speech”)of #PARRHESSIA -being able 2 speak truth 2 power. This is a scary example of what happens when “likes culture” threatens all of our right 2 just that

— Amber Heard (@realamberheard) January 25, 2021

A spokeswoman for the paper denied that she had been fired merely for saying she had chills, saying: “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.”

Yashar Ali, a New York-based journalist, said that Ms Wolfe had been warned over other tweets, citing anonymous sources. A representative for Ms Wolfe said that she was not available to comment.

The Times