February 15, 2018

Tech Writer Hired - Then Fired - by the New York Times Over Homophobic, Racist Tweets

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The New York Times hired - then fired - a tech writer on the same day due to homophobic and racist tweets, and her connections to a notorious white supremacist On Tuesday morning the Times announced that Quinn Morton, a technology journalist, was hired to contribute to its editorial pages. Hours later, she was fired.

"The reasons are, on the one hand, utterly obvious - homophobic comments on Twitter and an insistence on friendship with a notorious white supremacist - and at the same time muddled and thorny," the New York Magazine report stated.

Norton had joined the Times as "lead opinion writer on the power, culture, and consequences of technology," She wasn" t="" a="" safe="" choice.="" "Picking="" her="" for="" the="" role="" was="" gutsy,="" to="" say="" the="" least;="" she="" is="" not="" the="" safe-centrist,="" establishment="" type="" you="" might="" expect="" from="" an="" institution="" like="" the="" Times,"="" continued="" the="" New="" York="" Magazine="" report.="" "Norton="" is="" an="" accomplished="" activist="" and="" journalist="" who="" has="" spent="" much="" of="" her="" career="" covering="" and="" embedding="" closely="" with="" Anonymous="" and="" the="" Occupy="" movement="" -="" two="" amorphous="" groups="" born="" or="" cultivated="" on="" the="" internet="" -="" for="" Wired="" and="" other="" publications.="" A="" 2013="" Rolling="" Stone="" article="" describes="" Norton="" as="" a="" "self-defined="" anarchist."
After her appointment was announced, a media storm erupted, stated in reporting on her hiring and firing. The reason was her use of anti-gay slurs and her friendship with Andrew Auernheimer, who gained infamy as an internet troll going by the name "weev." "Mr. Auernheimer now works for The Daily Stormer, a neo-Nazi website," the Times revealed.

"The Twitter campaign against Ms. Norton focused on a tweet from October in which she said that 'weev is a terrible person, & an old friend of mine.'It also turned up years-old tweets by Ms. Norton in which she used slurs against gay people and another in which she retweeted a racial slur," the Times report added.

"I'm sorry I can't do the work I wanted to do with them," wrote Ms. Norton on Twitter. "I wish there had been a way, but ultimately, they need to feel safe with how the net will react to their opinion writers."

The offensive language that Ms. Norton, a queer activist, used included the words "f*g" and "n***er."

In the British newspaper The Independent, it was reported that Ms. Norton wrote that the reason she used these words in her tweets was "When I speak to communities, I used their language to do it. I only used [faggot] in the context of my work with anons."

"Of the "n***er" tweet, from 2009," the Independent report continued, "she said she had retweeted someone else 'using offensive language in a sarcastic tweet that was meant to slap back at racists after Obama's first election'. It was 'not my best retweet, even if the intentions, both mine and [his], were in the right place', she admitted."

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