This piece was originally published on Substack.
Another week, another media blow-up. Yesterday, an editor at The New Yorker, Erin Overbey, accused the magazine of retaliating against her for protesting gender inequalities, when it opened a “performance review” into her work. She claimed her boss, editor-in-chief David Remnick, inserted two errors into her articles during the performance review, potentially sabotaging her job at the worst possible time.
(The New Yorker called her accusation against Remnick “absurd.”)
Public tiffs, firings and flare-ups on social media have become cinema at some of America’s largest newspapers and magazines. These are symptoms of a declining industry, in which falling pay, longer hours, and the never-ending fear of losing one’s job don’t align with the high ideals of equality, justice and democracy publicly espoused by our major media institutions. The result is the occasional staff insurrection.
Click here to read the full piece on Substack.
