Episode 54: That Sinking, Racist Feeling When You've Lost The Newsroom (Early Access, Ad-Free)
Blocked and Reported
Katie Herzog and Jesse Singal
4.6 • 4.1K Ratings
🗓️ 7 March 2021
⏱️ 67 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Let's put a bow on this Donald McNeil Jr. story. McNeil has fired back with a 20,000-word opus about his travails trying to wrangle a group of young prep-schoolers with very strong feelings about social justice -- and without any booze! What did he really say? How did he say it? How did he handle the girl with the Latino/x boyfriend? Katie and Jesse also discuss media unionization and their exciting upcoming orthodontic endeavors.
Show notes/Links:
Donald McNeil Jr.'s Medium series: https://donaldgmcneiljr1954.medium.com/nytimes-peru-n-word-part-one-introduction-57eb6a3e0d95
The Daily Beast's original reporting: https://www.thedailybeast.com/star-new-york-times-reporter-donald-mcneil-accused-of-using-n-word-making-other-racist-comments
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, Jesse, how's it going? |
| 0:05.4 | Been pretty busy to be honest. |
| 0:06.5 | Oh, yeah, what's going on? |
| 0:07.5 | I just got back from my first ever book burning. |
| 0:09.9 | Oh, how was that? |
| 0:12.1 | Great time of year for it. |
| 0:13.1 | Yeah, it really, the paper and cardboard burning just feels so nice on a crisp march evening, |
| 0:19.0 | but yeah, so I mean, you heard about this Dr. Seuss stuff, right? |
| 0:21.8 | Oh, yeah, I couldn't miss it. |
| 0:23.2 | Yeah, so certain Dr. Seuss bucks, like Horton, here's a Jew and one fish, two fish, |
| 0:29.9 | redfish, jufish, at the time these were acceptable. |
| 0:34.0 | Now they're understood as pretty racist. |
| 0:36.7 | So you know, I'm a little disappointed about that. |
| 0:38.3 | I was just about to order Horton, here's a Jew for my, for my, for my nephew, he's a Holocaust |
| 0:44.1 | anir. |
| 0:45.1 | He's three and he's a Holocaust anir. |
| 0:46.5 | And so I was hoping it would give him some perspective on, you know, the Jewish people. |
| 0:51.4 | When the Jew whispers sound financial advice into Horton's ear, I found that it was troubling, |
| 0:59.2 | but it was also inspiring because he's just like investing index funds. |
| 1:02.7 | It was nothing flash. |
| 1:03.7 | It was actually good advice. |
| 1:04.7 | Yeah, you know what? |
... |
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