The Slatest

New York Times Suspends Glenn Thrush While Investigating Accusations of Sexual Misconduct

Glenn Thrush works in the White House briefing room in February.

Mark Wilson/Getty Images

The New York Times has suspended White House correspondent Glenn Thrush after allegations of sexual misconduct toward young female reporters.

The allegations against Thrush, one of the paper’s star reporters, were detailed in a piece published by Vox on Monday. In the article, Vox’s Laura McGann, the site’s editorial director who worked with Thrush when the two were at Politico, wrote about a personal incident five years ago in which Thrush allegedly started kissing her at a bar and later spread rumors that she had come onto him instead. She also reported that three other female journalists, all in their 20s, had allegedly experienced similar incidents and felt they could not challenge such a respected figure in the field.

McGann published text messages between the 50-year-old Thrush and the friend of a 23-year-old woman who said she had been left “in tears” after resisting Thrush’s advances after a colleague’s going-away party in June. In the messages, the friend confronted Thrush, who apologized but said he had “spent the better part of 20 years advocating for women journalists.” He also said he “got drunk because [he] got some shitty health news” but needed to “be more understanding of the power dynamics in casual situations.”

In another instance, a young Politico staffer in the winter of 2012–2013 said she and Thrush wound up drunk and at her place after a Politico going-away party and that she stopped him and reminded him he was married. A third woman told McGann that after a 2013 Politico party, Thrush “suddenly … leaned in and landed a wet kiss on her ear.”

McGann wrote that in her own case, Thrush had no formal power over her. “But he was an incredibly influential person in the newsroom and in political journalism, a world I was still trying to break into in a meaningful way at the time,” she wrote. “Thrush, just by his stature, put women in a position of feeling they had to suck up and move on from an uncomfortable encounter.”

In a statement, Thrush apologized “to any woman who felt uncomfortable in my presence, and for any situation where I behaved inappropriately” and that “[a]ny behavior that makes a woman feel disrespected or uncomfortable is unacceptable.” He also disagreed with McGann’s version of events between them and said the June incident in which he left a young woman in tears “was a life-changing event” and that he was “deeply sorry.”

The New York Times suspended Thrush pending an investigation. In a statement, the newspaper’s senior vice president of communications said the “behavior attributed to Glenn in this Vox story is very concerning and not in keeping with the standards and values of the New York Times” and that they “support his decision to enter a substance abuse program,” according to Vox.

Thrush is the fifth major media figure to face allegations during the recent weeks. Political journalist Mark Halperin lost a book deal and was shunned by TV news networks, NPR editorial director Michael Oreskes resigned, Vox Media editorial director Lockhart Steele was fired, and prominent fomer New Republic editor Leon Wieseltier lost funding for a new magazine.