The New York Times features writer Elizabeth Williamson apologized for and deleted a tweet Thursday that criticized new-hire Sarah Jeong, The Wrap reported.
"I just deleted my earlier tweet about this column. It was inappropriate," Williamson tweeted. "I apologize."
The writer's initial tweet included a link to Times opinion columnist Bret Stephens, who wrote he was willing to look past Jeong's controversial old tweets.
"Here's @BretStehensNYT offering a classy welcome to a colleague who has yet to prove she deserves one," she tweeted, The Wrap reported.
She included the same link to Stephens' column in her apology.
Jeong, a former Verge writer who was hired by the Times last week, came under fire after a number of her old tweets were brought up — including "#CancelWhitePeople," "oh man, it's kind of sick how much joy I get out of being cruel to old white men," and "Are white people genetically disposed to burn faster in the sun, thus logically being only fit to live underground like groveling goblins."
The Times defended her, saying the tweets were responding to online harassment.
In Stephens' column, he conceded many of Jeong's tweets were "racist," noting "the leftist double standard when it comes to social-media transgressions." But he said the tweets should be examined "with utmost caution."
"The person you are drunk or stoned is not the person you are — at least not the whole person," he wrote. "Neither is the person you are the one who's on Twitter . . . So, welcome, Sarah, to the Times."
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