High-Profile New York Times Staffers Depart Amid Newsroom Controversy

The Times has faced criticism—both in its newsroom and on Twitter—that it isn’t applying its standards equally to all of its employees.

In a statement announcing his resignation, Mr. Mills said recent events, including the resurfacing of allegations regarding his behavior before his joining the Times in 2016, made the work atmosphere more difficult.

“The allegations on Twitter quickly escalated to the point where my actual shortcomings and past mistakes were replaced with gross exaggerations and baseless claims,” Mr. Mills wrote, noting that the online campaign had “grown to encompass some staffers of The Times.”

Mr. Mills cited his own poor behavior. “Eight years ago during a team meeting, I gave a colleague a back rub,” he wrote. “Seven years ago I poured a drink on a co-worker’s head at a drunken bar party. I look back at those actions with extraordinary regret and embarrassment.”

Reached by phone, Mr. Mills declined to discuss any financial terms associated with his departure. “I’m very sad to be leaving the New York Times,” he said.

In a note to the audio team, Executive Editor Dean Baquet and Managing Editor Joe Kahn said, “We owe each other a culture of collaboration, collegiality, and respect in our workplace. We all want and need a culture in which any of us feels comfortable coming forward with complaints or concerns and can trust they will be examined fully and fairly.”

Mr. Mills, 36 years old, was both a producer and reporter on “Caliphate,” a podcast from 2018 about the Islamic State whose substantial problems forced the Times to issue a major correction in December.

The Times said the 12-part series erred by giving credibility to an account provided by Shehroze Chaudhry, a Canadian resident who claimed to have been involved with Islamic State executions. Mr. Chaudhry was arrested last September by Canadian police and charged with perpetrating a terrorist hoax. His lawyers has said he would contest the hoax charge.

The “Caliphate” series was led by star foreign correspondent Rukmini Callimachi, who was reassigned and now covers higher education.

Last week, the Times said Cliff Levy, who had been Metro editor since 2018, was promoted to deputy managing editor and would oversee new policies for the audio unit.

Mr. McNeil, the health and science reporter, came under criticism late last month after allegations surfaced that he had used racist language during a New York Times-sponsored trip to Peru for high-school students in 2019. The revelation prompted Times staffers to send a letter to senior executives, requesting that the issue be addressed.

“We do not tolerate racist language regardless of intent,” Messrs. Baquet and Kahn said in a note to staff announcing Mr. McNeil’s departure Friday. “To those of you who have reached out to us with your honest and sometimes painful feelings about this incident, we thank you.”

In a statement accompanying the note, Mr. McNeil acknowledged he used a racial slur during that Peru trip but said he did so while quoting somebody else, which he said he now realized showed bad judgment.

“For offending my colleagues—and for anything I’ve done to hurt the Times, which is an institution I love and whose mission I believe in and try to serve—I am sorry. I let you all down,” Mr. McNeil said.

Efforts to reach Mr. McNeil for comment were unsuccessful.

Mr. McNeil, who has been at the Times since 1976, was a frequent guest of the “The Daily” podcast, with some of his appearances early in the pandemic helping turn him into a breakout star.

During an interview on Feb. 27, 2020, Mr. McNeil said that the looming coronavirus threat reminded him of the 1918 Spanish influenza. “I’m trying to bring a sense that if things don’t change, a lot of us might die,” he said, according to a transcript. “If you have 300 relatively close friends and acquaintances, six of them would die in a 2.5% mortality situation.”

The paper’s online thumbnail biography of Mr. McNeil notes that his “articles and his appearances on the Times podcast ‘The Daily’ helped raise awareness of the pandemic threat posed by Covid-19.”

Write to Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg at [email protected]