After the New York Times announced their decision to hire tech journalist Quinn Norton for their editorial board, Twitter responded with a fury of outrage — many pointing to her old controversial tweets — and the outlet ultimately opted to go “separate ways” with the writer.
“@quinnnorton has joined the @nytimes editorial board as lead opinion writer on the power, culture and consequences of technology,” tweeted the newspaper’s PR page, just before the storm of criticism hit.
A number of journalists and media figures dug up Norton’s old tweets where she used the slur “faggot” several times and even uncritically retweeted a post that included the n-word. Others pointed out the writer’s relationship with a notorious Nazi figure.
Below are just a few of the many tweets expressing outrage at the Times for the hiring decision:
The Times sent this statement to The Daily Beast after the old tweets started to surface:
UPDATE 1: In response to the criticism, Norton fired off a multi-tweet statement defending her reputation and suggesting her
UPDATE 2: The Times decided to go “separate ways” with Norton shortly after her tweetstorm.
[images via screengrab]
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