Thread by @MoizSyed

Hi all,

I was part of the research and data team that was laid off yesterday at The Intercept.

Here’s a thread on what the management said on why they are laying us off, the crucial work our team did and the future we need to build together.

✊🏽

So... in my 2 years and 10 months at The Intercept it was clear that at the highest level we lacked a clear understanding of why we should do investigative data projects, and what it really takes to build them.

The team that was let go yesterday has some battle scars to prove it

It was explicitly said in the all staff meeting yesterday by the EIC that “In the Trump era... we came to a few conclusions that heavy data driven projects are not The Intercept’s strength... and in this moment we needed to preserve the journalism that is having impact.”

She also said that “I’m not that type of journalist, I’m not a data junkie...”

Like c’mon just coz you don’t know how to do this type of work doesn’t mean that this type of work isn’t valuable.

The implication that in 2019 we should do less data driven reporting... you know because “trump era” is absurd.

But it clearly shows the lack of understanding that a lot of the management has around data reporting.

Let me briefly mention SOME of the stories we worked on to highlight why this data driven journalism is essential in these times.

My very first story at TI was about water contamination across the country with @fastlerner

We heard that the interactive map we built here was later used by EPA for their own internal slides.

theintercept.com/2015/12/16/tox…

And just a few days ago we published another investigation with a major data component about how EPA responded to air pollution caused by manufacturing plants across the country

theintercept.com/2019/02/24/epa…

Last year we worked on this incredible story with @alicesperi @talya_cooper @LynnDombek about the staggering number of sexual assault complaints from people under ICE detention.

theintercept.com/2018/04/11/imm…

Also our project tracking all of the international terrorism prosecutions since 9/11 with @MargotWilliams @trevoraaronson @ghostOfAkilism @WestleyArgentum @LynnDombek

trial-and-terror.theintercept.com

We kept the Trial and Terror project updated til today and it won MULTIPLE awards and was used by many other newsrooms for their own stories 🙌🏽

And this was just A FEW of the projects we worked on.

Needless to say we breathed life in The Intercept’s reporting across the board and it wasn’t just about the incredible work done with the Snowden archive!

And beyond all this! The group of folks let go of yesterday were pivotal in the organizing, bargaining and unionization of The Intercept’s newsroom.

We were in bargaining for close to a year and we came out of it with a strong contract for our colleagues!

We also led efforts of the diversity committee and mentorship working group.

And GOD!! WE FOUGHT some real battles on diversity across the newsroom and mgmt. 😭

Right now I’m going through all my emotions from sadness to righteous fury.

But I do want to say how thankful I am, how grateful I am to all my @InterceptUnion colleagues to work with you and struggle alongside you!

Reach out to me if you have any data, research, archiving roles and I will put you in touch with our colleagues.

Thank you!