Two journalists exit New York Times after criticism of past behaviour

Two journalists responsible for some of The New York Times’ most high-profile work of the last three years have left the paper after their past behaviour was criticised inside and outside the paper.

In two memos Friday afternoon, Dean Baquet, the paper’s executive editor, and Joe Kahn, the managing editor, informed the staff of the departures of Donald G McNeil Jr, a science correspondent who reported on the coronavirus pandemic, and Andy Mills, an audio journalist who helped create “The Daily” and was a producer and co-host of “Caliphate,” a 2018 podcast that was found to have serious flaws after an internal investigation.

McNeil, a veteran of The Times who has reported from 60 countries, was an expert guide on a Times-sponsored student trip to Peru in 2019. At least six students or their parents complained about comments he had made, The Daily Beast reported last week. The Times confirmed he used a “racist slur” on the trip.

In their memo, Baquet and Kahn wrote that McNeil “has done much good reporting over four decades” but added “that this is the right next step.”

The departure of Mills, the audio journalist, was announced nearly two months after The Times published an editors’ note on the mistakes in “Caliphate.” The note said the series, about the Islamic State group, had put too much credence in the false or exaggerated account of one of its main subjects.

After the correction, people who worked with Mills in his previous job, at the WNYC show “Radiolab,” posted complaints on Twitter about his behaviour toward women in the “Radiolab” workplace and in social settings.

In February 2018, two months before “Caliphate” made its debut, an article in New York Magazine’s The Cut on sexual harassment in New York public radio reported that Mills had been the subject of complaints during his time at “Radiolab.”

In an online post Friday, Mills said that his departure from The Times did not stem from the problems with “Caliphate."

“I feel it is in the best interest of both myself and my team that I leave the company at this time,” he wrote. “I do this with no joy and a heavy heart.”

© 2021 New York Times News Service