NYT Defends Tech Writer Sarah Jeong Accused of Being Racist for Old Tweets

The New York Times has defended its new hire, Sarah Jeong, who was dragged into a racism controversy for tweets she wrote from 2013 to early 2015.

The paper announced this week that it had hired Jeong as the lead technology writer for its editorial board.

Simply soon after the announcement she got embroiled into a controversy as correct-wing websites started highlighting some of her old tweets which used derogatory terms to refer to Caucasians.

One of Jeong'south tweets read: "oh man information technology'southward kind of sick how much joy i get out of existence brutal to old white men".

Another said "are white people genetically predisposed to burn faster in the sun, thus logically being only fit to live underground like groveling goblins".

The Times on Thursday said it knew nigh the xxx-year-old Jeong's tweets before hiring.

"Her journalism and the fact that she is a young Asian woman have made her a subject of frequent online harassment," The Times said in its statement.

"For a catamenia of time she responded to that harassment by imitating the rhetoric of her harassers. She sees at present that this approach but served to feed the vitriol that nosotros too often run into on social media," information technology added.

But non everyone is happy with the determination. Some critics have slammed The Times for its conclusion to stand past the writer.

Conservative columnist Daniella Greenbaum told Fox News that "the issue at hand here is not virtually whether Jeong's tweets were racist or non." Hypocrisy is the real issue, Greenbaum said.

"The New York Times justified her racist tweets," Media Inquiry Center analyst Kristine Marsh, who called the paper'south statement laughable, was quoted as saying.