‘It was like a Maoist struggle session’: Ex-NYTimes writer describes ‘crying’ and ‘bloodthirsty’ colleagues demanding action over controversial ‘send in the troops’ Senator Cotton Op-Ed which sparked paper’s woke meltdown

An ex-New York Times staffer has revealed how his ‘bloodthirsty’ colleagues sparked a woke meltdown inside the newsroom after the paper published a controversial Op-Ed. 

An explosive interview with former Times writer Shawn McCreesh saw him describe a ‘Maoist struggle’ ensue after the paper published an Op-Ed by Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton in June 2020.

McCreesh made the revelations in an upcoming book by author Steve Krakauer, where he detailed the internal revolt that led to the resignation of influential editorial page editor James Bennet in 2020. 

Cotton’s Op-Ed, titled ‘Send in the Troops’, sparked a brutal revolt within the organization after the Republican argued for the National Guard to respond to the 2020 BLM riots. 

NYT opinion editor James Bennett, pictured, was forced to publicly resign amid backlash to his decision to publish a controversial Op-Ed piece

The New York Times was hit by a brutal internal revolt after it published the above Op-Ed by Senator Tom Cotton, calling for the National Guard to respond to the BLM riots in 2020. The paper has since attached an editor’s note saying it ‘should not have been published’

After the paper decided to publish Cotton’s controversial opinion piece, many woke New York Times employees publicly hit out at the paper for upsetting them.

Several staffers took to Twitter to slam NYT executives for allowing the publication, including 1619 Project creator Nikole Hannah-Jones, who said she was ‘deeply ashamed’. 

The fervent internal pressure, accompanied by a hostile national climate, forced the Times opinion page editor Bennet to publicly resign. 

However, according to excerpts of Krakauer’s book obtained by Mediaite, McCreesh said Cotton’s stance did far more damage than just the resignation of Bennet. 

He said that the New York Times newsroom was thrown into chaos by the turmoil, with his ‘bizarre’ former colleagues turning ‘bloodthirsty’. 

In one instance, a staff meeting to discuss Cotton’s Op-Ed piece saw tech writer Charlie Warzel begin openly weeping in front of his colleagues due to the backlash. 

He allegedly said ‘none of his friends wanted to talk to him anymore because he worked for this horrible evil newspaper that would print this op-ed’. 

An insider has revealed the internal protests that rocked the NYT’s newsroom after it published an Op-Ed written by Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton, pictured

1619 Project creator Nikole Hannah-Jones was among those who hit out at the publication, saying said she was ‘deeply ashamed’ of the paper after it approved Cotton’s piece

NYT tech writer Charlie Warzel, pictured, reportedly began crying in front of his colleagues because of Cotton’s Op-Ed, as his friends stopped talking to him ‘because he worked for this horrible evil newspaper that would print’ the opinion piece

Also alleged in the upcoming book, titled ‘Uncovered: How the Media Got Cozy with Power, Abandoned Its Principles, and Lost the People’, is that the leadership of the Times ‘completely lost their nerve’ due to the internal revolt. 

Despite Bennet personally bringing on many of the staffers, they turned on him and stabbed him in the back as the paper became full of ‘angry backbiting staffers’. 

McCreesh, who is now a features writer at New York Magazine, said the mob-like scene inside the paper was ‘like a murder’, merely because the editor allowed the piece to be published. 

McCreesh said: ‘There was like this giant communal Slack chat for the whole company that became sort of the digital gallows.

‘It was just sort of like a bunch of Twitter-brained crazies kind of running wild on Slack. And the leadership was so horrified by what was happening. They just completely lost their nerve.’

He added that the large majority of the staffers that wanted to see ‘heads roll’ were not those ‘actually out covering any of the protests or the riots or the politics’, but were instead the tech, audio and arts writers. 

‘The worst part was that a lot of the people who were stabbing James in the front were the ones that he hired and brought to the newspaper,’ McCreesh added.

‘It was like Caesar on the floor of the Roman Senate or something… I was so f****** freaked out by what we had just witnessed.’ 

Following his resignation, Benned told Semafor that he felt he was treated like an ‘incompetent fascist’ for simply allowing the piece to be published, which cost him his prestigious role at the paper. 

However, he said his only regret was not including an editor’s note to the piece, adding that he ‘never apologized for publishing the piece and still don’t.’ 

The New York Times has since attached an editors note to the piece, where it acknowledges that ‘this essay met strong criticism from many readers – and many Times colleagues’. 

The paper says their decision to publish the piece led to a ‘review’ of its editing process, adding that it ‘concluded that the essay fell short of our standards and should not have been published.’

Both Bennet and Warzel both reportedly declined to speak about the backlash with Krakaeur for his book detailing the ordeal.