Insider's editor in chief panned for refusing to reveal his salary after calling for pay transparency

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Media top headlines January 26

In media news today, MSNBC’s Chris Hayes gets roasted for questioning people who oppose COVID restrictions, The New York Times’ Nikole Hannah-Jones deletes a tweet defending vaccine passports, and a CNN political analyst echoes Biden’s statements comparing Republicans to segregationists.

Insider’s global editor-in-chief Nicholas Carlson is on a mission to "demystify people's salaries," as long as it isn't his own, it seems.

Carlson announced on Tuesday that Insider would be launching a new initiative focusing on pay transparency with a "series that demystifies people’s salaries," and encouraged his Twitter followers to support the effort by submitting their salary histories. 

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Predictably, several Twitter users, including an Insider tech reporter, called on Carlson to reveal his salary for the sake of the initiative. Carlson said that while it was a "fun" idea, he'd rather not disclose his income publicly.

"What is your salary, Nich?," Insider's Becky Peterson asked her boss.

"Fun question! I’d rather not say publicly for lots of practical reasons I’m sure you can imagine. This feels a little wimpy, but also prudent," he wrote. "I think I would submit it to some third party I could trust to keep it anonymous and average it with other people in roles like mine."

His response did not sit well with people on Twitter, who mocked his poor attempt at transparency.

"Absolute clown show at business insider," the popular financial meme account, "Litquidity" wrote alongside the exchange. "The best part of the exchange is that they both work at Insider."

"It feels like you’re keeping it mystified????," author and journalist Dana Schwartz agreed.

"How did you not anticipate this?," TVGuide Magazine critic Linda Maleh wondered.

"C'mon guy, you should probably participate in the salary transparency you are requesting and expecting from others," wrote CNN+ creative director Sarah Rogers. "Would Insider be interested in others' submissions from ‘some third party ... to keep it anonymous and average it with other people’"? 

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Carlson has long branded himself a stickler for transparency, but that hasn't always been the case. Last year, Insider dispatched a report with intentions of publicizing Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy’s unseen sex life.

Portnoy offered to openly speak with the publication on the matter, posting a screengrab of an email exchange he had with Carlson at the time. Carlson declined to hear from Portnoy, writing, "We are going to let the story speak for itself."