A longtime archivist at The New Yorker on Monday said she was fired in retaliation for accusing editor-in-chief David Remnick of inserting errors into her copy, one of many complaints she has lodged over the years, mostly concerning what she calls a lack of diversity at the magazine.
“So the @New Yorker has fired me, effective immediately,” tweeted Erin Overbey, who has been at The New Yorker since 1994. “I’m speaking with the union about potentially filing a grievance on the termination.”
A Condé Nast spokesperson on Monday denied her allegations, saying, “The New Yorker prides itself on professionalism, accuracy, and adherence to the highest journalistic standards. False allegations that malign our journalistic integrity and that attack colleagues are inappropriate and unacceptable in our workplace.”
The New York Post reported Monday that Overbey was terminated for a “pattern of conduct” that The New Yorker found “disruptive” to the company and its operations. The source also told The Post that Overbey had been disciplined for “self-plagiarism” by reusing her previously published work and presenting it as fresh content.
In response, Overbey told The New York Post that the claims were “completely absurd.”
Overbey, who calls herself a “female whistleblower,” has internally criticized the publication’s lack of diversity for years, a process she chronicled in a long Twitter thread last week. She also said she had been put on performance review for being “disrespectful” and “insubordinate,” in addition to having factual inaccuracies in her writing.
Overbey said errors in her newsletters were brought up in her performance review — but claims Remnick himself added those to her work. Remnick has been top editor at the magazine, famous for its impeccable grammar and rigorous factchecking, since 1998.
“I don’t pretend to understand why he did this,” she tweeted.
She also noted that she was put on performance review “four days after [she] sent an email again raising concerns about gender parity in the workplace.”
In a. Monday Twitter thread, she posted screenshots showing how she documented and communicated her growing concern about diversity to The New Yorker brass. Overbey stated the 97-year-old weekly has “never contested the facts as I have stated them,” adding that she was put under a performance review “shortly after sending an email raising concerns about gender inequality & inclusion at the magazine.”
“Whenever you raise concerns, criticisms, or alarms about one of the most powerful institutions in media, they will use every tool at their disposal to oppose you,” Overbey tweeted, “That is their prerogative.”
Overbey did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.
Her ouster comes on the heels of former Washington Post reporter Felicia Sonmez, who was fired last month following a war of words with colleagues that went down internally and on Twitter after media reporter Dave Weigel retweeted a sexist joke. Sonmez had a history of clashing with leadership in the years running up to the incident.