HE’S IN, WE'RE OUT
5 female reporters quit Newsweek over ‘sex’ exec
Five female Newsweek reporters resigned on Friday — hours after an internal investigation found no evidence to support allegations an executive at the magazine’s parent company sexually harassed a woman at another company.
The executive, Dayan Candappa, the chief content officer at Newsweek Media Group, returned to work on Monday after the probe was closed on Friday.
“I resigned from my position at @Newsweek this afternoon,” Celeste Little tweeted on Feb. 9. “I am truly disappointed to leave behind a nurturing newsroom and a group of exceptionally skilled journalists. If the current situation wasn’t what it is, I would’ve loved to continue working with them.”
Also resigning were Lauren Gill, Summer Meza, Christianna Silva and Kastalia Medrano.
Candappa was suspended on Jan. 29 when a report surfaced that over a period of many months, he had pressured a reporter at Reuters, where he was the Americas editor, to have sex with him.
Candappa was fired from Reuters and was then hired by NMG — which, apparently, was not aware of the allegations.
Two lawyers at the law firm Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe interviewed “more than 25 individuals both inside and outside of Newsweek and reviewed documents made available to us” — but on Friday said they found no evidence to substantiate the claims.
At least 15 people have now resigned from Newsweek and its sister publication, International Business Times, since NMG fired Newsweek Editor- in-Chief Bob Roe, Executive Editor Ken Li and reporter Celeste Katz on Feb. 5, according to Splinternews.com .
Roe, Li and Katz had been working on stories related to a Jan. 18 raid on the Newsweek offices by the Manhattan District Attorney that resulted in the seizure of 18 computer servers.
The DA’s cybercrime unit is exploring the money trail between NMG and Olivet University, a fundamentalist Christian College in San Francisco, sources said.
Olivet has denied there is a financial link between the college and NMG.