New York Times ends contract with editor who had ‘chills’ in anticipation of Trump leaving office: Report

A New York Times editor was a fan of cancel culture — and then it came for her.

Lauren Wolfe was canned by the Grey Lady after she shared that she had “chills” in anticipation of Joe Biden being sworn in as president, the Washington Examiner reported.

Wolfe didn’t conceal her ecstasy in a tweet the Tuesday before Biden’s inauguration, writing, “Plane landing at Joint Base Andrews now. Chills,” she said, according to the Examiner. She also criticized Donald Trump, saying in another post:

The pettiness of the Trump admin for not sending a military plane to bring [Biden] to DC as is tradition is mortifying. Childish.

Fired from the Times

Wolfe deleted the tweets after responding to backlash, the Daily Mail reported. Then, in a surprising turn, The New York Times canceled her contract.

According to the Examiner, the tweets didn’t exactly jive with the paper’s promise, as laid out by editor Cliff Levy, that the Times would be as critical of Biden as they have been of Trump.

But a friend of Wolfe’s complained that she was fired after being targeted by “fascists” and “Trumpkins,” and she has received an outpouring of support from fellow journalists calling for the Times to hire her back, reports note.

For her part, Wolfe said that she sent the tweet because it was a “historic moment” and “we were finally seeing a peaceful transfer of power,” the Examiner reported.

Cancel culture eats its own

The New York Times said that the firing was not a spontaneous decision. “There’s a lot of inaccurate information circulating on Twitter,” the paper said, according to Vanity Fair. “For privacy reasons we don’t get into the details of personnel matters but we can say that we didn’t end someone’s employment over a single tweet. We don’t plan to comment further.”

Many are calling the controversy a rare, and ironic, example of the “cancel culture” often decried by conservatives turning on its liberal backers. Some were far from sympathetic. “Guess she’s gonna have to #learntocode,” said one Twitter user.

It does make one wonder: when’s the last time some hapless Joe Average — canceled over a tweet they made in the 10th grade by some smug, gate-keeping “journalist” — received this kind of public sympathy?

While cancel culture is awful, it’s hard to feel too bad about this situation. It doesn’t help that like many liberal professionals, Wolfe has mocked the idea that a “cancel culture” existed at all: “It’s hilarious this refrain of ‘cancel culture.’ As if it is actually anything. Virus? Jobs? Nah,” she wrote in August.

Does she believe it now?