Exclusive: NY Times Alt-Right Ad Department Lawsuit Continues Apace

Turns out paper paid to settle similar claim against Meredith Levien


By EVAN GAHR

The New York Times is furiously fighting a class
action race discrimination lawsuit against its top 
executives which attracted massive coverage when
filed some two years ago but has since slipped 
almost entirely below the radar.

The 2016 federal complaint against the once
paper of record, CEO Mark Thompson and now Chief
Operating Officer Meredith Levien said that the 
Grey Lady, whose pages, of course, are suffused
with articles about the glories of “diversity” runs its 
business department like something out of the
alt-right playbook. Interestingly, the Times, 
which because of the public’s supposed “right to 
know” publishes government secrets that arguably
endanger American security, is fighting to keep 
secret how much it paid to settle a similar 2015
claim against Levien.

Filed by two black female Times employees, 
the April 2016 claim asserts that, “Unbeknownst 
to the world at large, not only does the Times have
an ideal customer (young, white, wealthy), but
also an ideal staffer (young, white, 
unencumbered with a family)
to draw that purported ideal customer.”

The federal lawsuit seeks class action status
for up to 50 allegedly similarly situated victims
of discrimination, contending that 
 “In furtherance of [its] discriminatory goals, 
the Times has created a workplace rife
with disparities.”

It also charged gender bias and equal pay 
violations.

Last September, a federal judge allowed the 
class action claim to proceed but agreed to the 
Times request to dismiss claims of gender 
discrimination and equal pay violations.  

Although the paper’s suave spokeswoman 
reacted to the case filing by calling it frivolous and
filled with "scurrilous" claims, the Times 
did not seek to have the claims of race 
discrimination
dismissed.

Got that, “everybody?”

The Times PR line is at odds with its
lawyers’ actions.

The judge has, for now, agreed to let the 
Times keep secret--i.e, not turn the info 
over to the defendants in discovery--how 
much it paid to settle a similar lawsuit against
the paper that--like the current one--named 
Meredith Levien.

(I reported on that lawsuit exclusively for 
the Daily Caller in 2015).

The fact that the Times paid money to
settle that 2015 case which its spokesman
also called frivolous  to the New York Post has
not been previously reported. 

Of course, when the class action case was filed 
Times spokeswoman Eileen Murphy said 
it contained recycled and unsubstantiated allegations 
from the 2015 case filed by axed Times advertising 
executive Tracy Quitasol.

Yeah, well. If that case was so frivolous why 
did the Times pay money to settle?

Murphy, who unlike almost everybody else in
DC and NYC knows how to hang up on the
Washington Gadfly without embarrassing herself 
by sounding so obviously guilty and deceitful, 
did not respond to a request for comment. 

A voice mail for Doug Wigdor, the plaintiffs' lawyer, 
went unanswered.  

Depositions are supposed to be completed by
September 2018.

It is unclear from the official docket for the
United States District Court for the Southern District, 
if Levien, the paper’s prized executive, has
been deposed yet.  Interestingly, after the lawsuit
was filed and the Grey Lady plunked down 
cold hard cash to settle the 2015 against Levien 
she was promoted to chief operating officer. 

Imagine how the Times would be
yapping if this fact chain applied to a top 
executive of a companyowned by the Evil One 
(Donald Trump). The executive get smacked 
with an egregious race discrimination
lawsuit. The company pays to settle
really quickly.

Then, the same executive gets sued for 
virtually the same thing again. And, voila, 
he gets a nifty promotion. 

New York Times reporter Sydney Ember, 
who did a brief 511 word story on the case when
it was filed two years ago this month, did not
immediately reply to a voice mail asking if she
is going to cover new developments. 

Yeah, well. Don't hold your breath. 

It appears that for her previous story Ember
made no attempt to contact the plaintiffs 
(walking from the Times newsroom to 
advertising department was too arduous?
--wouldn't have taken much effort to find them 
since they are apparently two of the few 
black people working in the advertising 
department.)

She did, however, quote unquestioningly
the spin from Eileen Murphy.

My new pal, Dean "Fuck you, Evan" Baquet, the
Times executive editor, who is black or Creole
as he likes to call himself, could not 
immediately be reached for comment.

--EVAN GAHR used to work for Eric Breindel and 
often feels like he still does.