The New York Times has said it is “reviewing next steps” after one of its senior editors was discovered to have made a series of offensive tweets a decade ago, including antisemitic statements.
Tom Wright Piersanti, a senior staff editor who has worked for the newspaper for the last five years, was found to have tweeted a number of offensive comments over a period from 2009 to 2010.
Us news outlets reported he tweeted in January 2010: “I was going to say ‘Crappy Jew Year’ but one of my resolutions is to be less antisemitic. So … HAPPY Jew Year. You Jews.”
In another tweet, he posted a photo of a menorah on a car, along with the words, “Who called the Jew police?”
On Thursday, Mr Wright Piersanti said he had “deleted tweets from a decade ago that are offensive. I am deeply sorry.”
Congressman Lee Zeldin, a Jewish Republican Congressman for New York’s first Congressional District, called for Mr Wright Piersanti to be fired for his remarks.
“This isn’t an intern. It’s an editor”, Mr Zeldin tweeted.
“Someone should walk over to his desk, tell him to pack up & escort him out.”
.@nytimes has a political editor @tomwp who literally describes himself on Twitter as anti-Semitic & has slammed Jews, Native American Indians & others. This isn’t an intern. It’s an editor. Someone should walkover to his desk, tell him to pack up & escort him out. pic.twitter.com/OIQaiGNDgF
— Lee Zeldin (@RepLeeZeldin) August 22, 2019
On Thursday the NYT confirmed it was aware of the tweets in question, which it described as “a clear violation of our standards” and said the paper was “reviewing next steps.”
Just a couple of weeks ago the paper demoted its Deputy Washington editor, Jonathan Weisman, over tweets about Congresswomen Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar it described as “serious lapses in judgement”.
