The New York Times Terminates Contract With Razib Khan
The New York Times has quietly cut ties with Razib Khan, one of the paper’s 20 brand-new opinion writers, following our post highlighting Khan’s association with right-wing racist publications. The writer’s past work was first flagged by Slate columnist Jamelle Bouie on Twitter.
“After reviewing the full body of Razib Khan’s work, we are no longer comfortable using him as a regular, periodic contributor,” Times spokesperson Eileen Murphy wrote in an email to Gawker. “We remain open to consideration of submissions from him to our op-Ed pages, both in print and online.”
Berkeley professor Michael Eisen revealed the news on Twitter on Thursday evening:
.@nytimes kicks @razibkhan off opinion page for having opinions, but allows overt racist nicholas wade daily space in science section
— Michael Eisen (@mbeisen) March 20, 2015
Khan quickly confirmed the Times’ decision:
@gandhiwdc yeah, told me today. may contribute one-off op-eds in future. i'm chill about it. it wasn't a surprise that ppl went ballistic
— Razib Khan (@razibkhan) March 20, 2015
@gandhiwdc google my name and gawker. i really don't want to relive this too much ;-)
— Razib Khan (@razibkhan) March 20, 2015
He later attempted to defend his history with Taki Magazine and VDARE, both of which are overtly racist publications:
@lteytelman @mbeisen 1) i admit i have opinions which are highly offensive and have had 2) but i stand by the *totality* of my output
— Razib Khan (@razibkhan) March 20, 2015
@lteytelman @mbeisen but do you think i can reasonably defend #2 from those out take me down? that's not a viable defense
— Razib Khan (@razibkhan) March 20, 2015
Khan also promised to deal with the Times’ decision with his own success:
@gandhiwdc success is the best revenge. u'll continue to hear from me
— Razib Khan (@razibkhan) March 20, 2015
The Times, meanwhile, appears to have deleted Khan’s author page from its website.
Khan did not respond to a request for comment.
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