A New York Times reporter has been accused of making racist comments, including the use of a racial slur.
The publication’s top coronavirus reporter, Donald McNeil Jr., allegedly made the racially charged comments on a 2019 high school student trip organized by the newspaper, according to the Daily Beast.
“He used the N-word, said horrible things about black teenagers, and said white supremacy doesn’t exist,” one participant in the trip said about McNeil’s comments during the trip to Peru.
“I would change the journalist. He was a racist,” another participant said.
At least six students and their parents complained about comments McNeil made during the trip.
“We conducted a thorough investigation and disciplined Donald for statements and language that had been inappropriate and inconsistent with our values,” the New York Times said in a statement. “We found he had used bad judgment by repeating a racist slur in the context of a conversation about racist language. In addition, we apologized to the students who had participated in the trip.”
The paper did not clarify how McNeil was disciplined and did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Washington Examiner.
“I was outraged and expected I would fire him,” New York Times Executive Editor Dean Baquet said about the controversy, but he “concluded his remarks were offensive and that he showed extremely poor judgment, but that it did not appear to me that his intentions were hateful or malicious.”
“I believe that in such cases, people should be told they were wrong and given another chance,” Baquet added. “He was formally disciplined. He was not given a pass.”
