Glenn Thrush Will Not Be Fired by New York Times

[Content Note: Sexual harassment/assault.]

A month after Laura McGann first reported that New York Times reporter Glenn Thrush had hit on at least four young female colleagues, groped and tried to kiss them, and spread damaging rumors about them in retaliation for refusing his sexual advances, the Times has completed its internal investigation and found that Thrush "acted offensively" but not so offensively that he should lose his job over it.

Instead, he will be suspended for two months and then moved to a different department.

In a statement, Mr. Baquet said the company had completed its inquiry and found that Mr. Thrush had "behaved in ways that we do not condone."

"While we believe that Glenn has acted offensively, we have decided that he does not deserve to be fired," Mr. Baquet said.

Mr. Baquet also said Mr. Thrush was undergoing counseling and substance abuse rehabilitation on his own and that he would receive training "to improve his workplace conduct."

"We understand that our colleagues and the public at large are grappling with what constitutes sexually offensive behavior in the workplace and what consequences are appropriate," Mr. Baquet added. "Each case has to be evaluated based on individual circumstances. We believe this is an appropriate response to Glenn's situation."

No, it isn't. It's a terribly inappropriate response.

Oh. A two-month suspension. That'll teach him.

This communicates something very ugly about how much respect and compassion, or lack thereof, the Times has for its female employees. https://t.co/uaObIAxAE3

— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) December 20, 2017

Not only are the consequences woefully insufficient, but Baquet's insistence on soft-pedaling Thrush's sexual harassment and assault as "sexually offensive behavior in the workplace" is grossly misrepresentative, given that, in one instance, he literally pursued one female colleague through the streets after drinks at a bar until she burst into tears.

And, as my friend Erica Barnett notes, the Times has decided to foist Thrush "on a different set of women" by merely moving him to a different department.

Women shouldn't be obliged to pay the price for this man to keep his career. For fuck's sake.