New York Review of Books Editor Is Out Amid Uproar Over #MeToo Essay
By Cara Buckley
Ian Buruma, the editor of The New York Review of Books, left his position on Wednesday amid an uproar over the magazine’s publication of an essay by a disgraced Canadian radio broadcaster who had been accused of sexually assaulting and battering women.
“I can confirm that Ian Buruma is no longer the editor of The New York Review of Books,” Nicholas During, a publicist for the magazine, wrote in an email. It was unclear if Mr. Buruma resigned or was fired. He did not respond to a phone call and email seeking comment.
The essay’s author, Jian Ghomeshi, who was acquitted of sexual assault charges in 2016, lamented his status as a pariah, “constantly competing with a villainous version of myself online.”
Mr. Ghomeshi’s piece, which has yet to reach print subscribers, appears in the magazine’s Oct. 11 edition, which includes three essays on the cover as a package under the headline “The Fall of Men.”
After rumors about it began appearing on social media, it was published online last Friday, causing immediate furor, with some criticizing what they saw as a self-pitying tone, and soft pedaling of the accusations against him, which included slapping and choking, and had ultimately been brought by more than 20 women, rather than “several,” as Mr. Ghomeshi wrote.
In an interview last week with Isaac Chotiner of Slate, which was posted not long after the piece, Mr. Buruma, who was named top editor of The New York Review of Books in 2017, defended his decision to publish Mr. Ghomeshi’s piece, noting that while “not everyone agreed,” once the decision was made the staff “stuck together.”
In his interview with Slate, when pressed by Mr. Chotiner about the several accusations of sexual assault against Mr. Ghomeshi, Mr. Buruma said: “I’m no judge of the rights and wrongs of every allegation. How can I be?” He also noted that Mr. Ghomeshi had been acquitted and said there was no proof he committed a crime, adding, “The exact nature of his behavior — how much consent was involved — I have no idea, nor is it really my concern.”
Mr. Buruma, who was born in Netherlands, took over at The New York Review of Books just after Labor Day last year, following the death of its longtime editor, Robert Silvers, who founded the magazine in 1963 with Barbara Epstein. Mr. Buruma, had contributed to the magazine as a writer since 1985, and he was close to Mr. Silvers and Ms. Epstein.
After taking the top job, Mr. Buruma described Mr. Silvers’s tenure as “a monarchy,” and said he would make it “a slightly more democratic operation.” He later continued: “Certainly I think I’ll be more collaborative. One great strength of The Review at the moment is that it has a number of very, very bright young editors who know more about certain things than I do.”
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