Never tweet? 8 times New York Times employees got in trouble on Twitter

"Never tweet" is famous advice to young professionals looking to avoid career-defining online gaffes, but the mantra hasn't always gotten through to New York Times staffers.

In recent years, a number of New York Times reporters have found themselves in hot water for ill-advised tweets. These controversies caused the Times to issue a social media guide for their employees and make it public for their readers.

The Times' social media guidelines warn journalists they should "not express partisan opinions, promote political views, endorse candidates, make offensive comments or do anything else that undercuts The Times’s journalistic reputation."

Here are the times when Gray Lady reporters have put themselves and the newspaper in a bind in the time it takes to write 280 characters.

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"Enemies of the State"

New York Times Justice Department reporter Katie Benner called for Trump supporters to be considered "enemies of the state" last week.

"Today's #January6thSelectCommittee underscores the America's current, essential natsec dilemma: Work to combat legitimate national security threats now entails calling a politician’s supporters enemies of the state," Benner tweeted during a congressional hearing on the January 6 Capitol riot. 

Benner wrote, "As Americans, we believe that state power should not be used to work against a political figure or a political party. But what happens if a politician seems to threaten the state? If the politician continues to do so out of office and his entire party supports that threat?"

Benner’s comments received immediate backlash and within a few hours, Benner deleted them. In a follow-up tweet, Benner called her comments "unclearly worded." 

The New York Times didn't issue any public statement or acknowledgement of Benner’s comments. 

Pulling a Chris Matthews

While it appears Benner didn't face any consequences from the Times, one former editor lost her job for a partisan tweet. Lauren Wolfe, a former freelance editor for the paper, was fired after she tweeted her excitement over then President-elect Joe Biden was arriving in D.C. to be inaugurated. 

"I have chills," Wolfe said with a screenshot of Biden arriving to D.C. 

"The pettiness of the Trump admin not sending a military plane to bring him to D.C. as is tradition is mortifying. Childish," she continued in a later tweet. Shortly after these tweets, Wolfe was fired from her position at the Times. 

Several reporters came to Wolfe’s defense saying the punishment was too severe for a single tweet, but the Times said there was more to the story.

"There’s a lot of inaccurate information circulating on Twitter. For privacy reasons we don’t get into the details of personnel matters but we can say that we didn’t end someone’s employment over a single tweet. Out of respect for the individuals involved we don’t plan to comment further," Times spokesperson Danielle Rhoades said. 

Since her firing, Wolfe has criticized the idea that reporters shouldn’t be allowed to be open with their own beliefs and biases. 

Lab-leak Theory is racist?

New York Times reporter Apoorva Mandavilli wrote extensively about the coronavirus but got in hot water after she opined that the coronavirus lab-leak theory has "racist roots." 

"Someday we will stop talking about the lab leak theory and maybe even admit its racist roots. But alas, that day is not yet here," she tweeted. She eventually deleted the tweet, but she continued her argument with critics that the lab-leak theory is racist.

When asked why she deleted the tweet, Mandavilli told Fox News, "I deleted it because it unleashed some incredibly nasty tweets and DMs."

She added her initial tweet was "badly phrased." 

The New York Times didn't publicly acknowledge Mandavilli's tweets and issued no public statement about them. 

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Doxing a fellow reporter

New York Times magazine reporter Nikole Hannah-Jones frequently spars with critics on Twitter. Sometimes her sparring results in controversy like when she doxed a reporter who reached out to her for comment. Doxing is the posting of another person's private information without his or her permission, which is a violation of Twitter's terms of service.

Hannah-Jones tweeted out an email she received from Washington Free Beacon associate editor Aaron Sibarium in February that included his phone number. Sibarium contacted Hannah-Jones about posts where she used the "n-word," in spite of the newspaper's own, apparently shifting guidelines against ever using such racially charged language, regardless of context.

Hannah-Jones was aware she had posted Sibarium's phone number to her more than 518,000 followers, and she left it up for more than a day before deleting it.

"@aaronsibarium is apparently trying to scour Black NYT employees Twitter accounts to find them using the N-word in response to Don McNeil's resignation, which is asinine on its face but also, homie, I don't use the N-word causually [sic] so this is all he came up with. Keep trying tho," she tweeted.

The Times defended Hannah-Jones with a spokesperson saying she "inadvertently posted" Sibarium’s phone number. But in a Twitter exchange with another reporter, Hannah-Jones made clear she was aware that she posted Sibarium's phone number.

Spreading Fake News

New York Times tech and internet culture reporter Taylor Lorenz faced backlash for falsely accusing business tech entrepreneur Marc Andreessen of saying the "r-slur" during a conversation on the audio-driven social media app Clubhouse. 

"@pmarca just used openly using the r-slur on Clubhouse tonight and not one othe person in the room called him on it or saying anything," Lorenz tweeted.

Lorenz was corrected by Andreessen's colleague Naithan Jones, who was moderating the chatroom in question. She explained that another user, Felicia Horowitz, said the "R-word" but in the context that other people were self-identifying themselves with that word. 

Lorenz then deleted the tweet and sent a later tweet thanking Horowitz for clarifying but didn't apologize for falsely accusing Andreessen.

"Thanks for clarifying that it was Felicia saying that word, rather than Marc as many in the room heard it. I hope you can understand how some people in the room felt hearing it," she tweeted. 

The following day, Lorenz issued another tweet where she formally apologized for error. 

Some racist tweets are acceptable

When the New York Times hired Sarah Jeong in August 2018 to join their editorial board, several controversial tweets from Jeong resurfaced, forcing the Times to issue a statement.

Jeong made numerous derogatory comments about White people and tweeted she took "joy" in being cruel to them. 

"Oh man it's kind of sick how much joy I get out of being cruel to old white men," she said in one tweet. 

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

She also complained that "dumba-- f---ing white people marking up the internet with their opinions like dogs pissing on fire hydrants,"

The Times issued a statement supporting their decision to hire Jeong and excused her tweets as her "imitating" her harassers. 

"We hired Sarah Jeong because of the exceptional work she has done … her journalism and the fact that she is a young Asian woman have made her a subject of frequent online harassment. For a period of time she responded to that harassment by imitating the rhetoric of her harassers," The Times said in a statement. "She regrets it, and The Times does not condone it."

A few months before Jeong joined the New York Times, the paper hired and then quickly fired Quinn Norton because of past controversial tweets. 

After more than a year of working at the Times, Jeong announced she was leaving the paper. Shortly after he announcement, she defended readers boycotting the paper and revealed how the paper closely follows subscription cancellations and the impact it has on decisions within the company.

Vulgar tweet to Jeb Bush

During the 2016 Republican primary, a New York Times staffer tweeted "F--- you Jeb Bush" after the Republican candidate gave a speech on poverty. 

"F--- you Jeb Bush for telling poor people they need stronger families to not be poor. Poverty weakens families," Philip B. Richardson tweeted. 

A Times’ spokesperson called the tweet "inappropriate" and said Richardson wasn’t a reporter but a news assistant assigned to the photo desk. 

"This tweet was completely inappropriate. Philip Richardson is a news assistant on The Times's clerical staff, assigned to the photo desk. He is not a reporter or editor and is not involved in political coverage. Nevertheless, tweets like this are inappropriate for any Times newsroom staffer, and managers will take the necessary steps to deal with the situation," the spokesperson said.

NYT editors lose their jobs over Sen. Cotton op-ed

New York Times’ employees don’t necessarily need to tweet in order for Twitter to cause them headaches. During the summer of 2020, at the height of protests and riots over the police killing of George Floyd, the Times published an op-ed from Republican Sen. Tom Cotton, Ark., titled, "Send in the Troops."

Cotton argued the military should be deployed in cities to help restore order after nights of repeated violence. The op-ed was met with fierce backlash from New York Times employees. Many publicly questioned why the op-ed was published and asserted it threatened the safety of Black employees. 

Former New York Times editorial page editor James Bennet attempted to defend publishing the op-ed but following the intense uproar from staff, Bennet resigned. 

"Last week we saw a significant breakdown in our editing processes, not the first we've experienced in recent years," Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger wrote in a memo to staff. "James and I agreed that it would take a new team to lead the department through a period of considerable change."

Six months later, editorial assistant Adam Rubenstein, who edited Cotton's op-ed, resigned as well. It is unclear if his resignation was related to the uproar over the op-ed. 

Former New York Times opinion editor Bari Weiss defended Rubenstein and criticized her colleagues. 

No. Adam was hung out to dry by his own colleagues," Weiss said. "Then he and his work were lied about, including in this mendacious editor's note. There is a bigger story to be told here, but the bottom line is that what @nytimes did to Adam was a disgrace. So is the fact that there wasn't a massive and public union campaign to defend him."

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When Weiss resigned from the Times, she wrote she didn't understand how toxic behavior is allowed inside the newsroom and "showing up for work as a centrist at an American newspaper should not require bravery."

She later wrote that "Twitter is not on the masthead of The New York Times," but social media acts as the ultimate editor.

Fox News’ Joseph A. Wulfsohn, David Rutz, and Brian Flood contributed to this report.