Thread by @studentactivism

I would not have phrased this thread about Donald McNeil precisely as Mikki does, but ... yeah, basically, this.

https://twitter.com/mikkipedia/status/1366496355796082690

Reading McNeil's posts, it does seem clear that he was pretty much fired, or at the very least that he quit in the face of a major, imminent, intentionally humiliating demotion.

But it's also really really clear that he should never have been assigned to that student trip to Peru, and that the fact that it blew up in his, and the Times', face was entirely foreseeable.

And yes, part of that is down to his views. But a bigger part is just a basic lack of 21st century cultural literacy. Don't send someone out to engage with teenagers as the public face of your newspaper if he's unable to do so without putting his foot in his mouth.

I can definitely see why he's pissed off that he was muzzled when he wanted to rebut the Daily Beast piece. But I'm not anywhere near as confident as he is that his that telling his side of the story would have worked out well for him.

And yeah, I can absolutely see why the knives were out for him behind closed doors at the Times. And I don't get the impression that he really understands it, even now.

Also, there's a weird multi-day gap in Donald McNeil's account between "I refused to quit" and "and so I quit." This Times quote suggests that those days may have been eventful ones.

https://twitter.com/ErikWemple/status/1366449337270759424