Breaking down the controversial resignation of New York Times opinion writer Bari Weiss

Normally, an opinion editor/writer resigning from The New York Times would be newsworthy mostly in just media circles. The fact that it was controversial writer Bari Weiss who stepped away on Tuesday made the news more notable.

It became a blockbuster story once her resignation letter became public. In a scathing criticism of the Times, Weiss laid out both personal and professional grievances that questioned the integrity and politics of the Times and became the latest saga to rock the Times’ Opinion section.

There’s a lot to break down here, and I’ll go over it in pieces.

First, let’s start with that letter. Wow, what a letter it was. Nearly 1,500 words and almost all of them slamming the Times.

Not only did she criticize the Times for muting voices, but she said she was the subject of “constant bullying” by colleagues. The allegations are serious.

“They have called me a Nazi and a racist,” she wrote, “I have learned to brush off comments about how I’m ‘writing about the Jews again.’ Several colleagues perceived to be friendly with me were badgered by coworkers. My work and my character are openly demeaned on company-wide Slack channels where masthead editors regularly weigh in.”

Weiss said she was publicly smeared as a liar and bigot on Twitter by Times employees who were never punished for it. “They never are,” Weiss wrote.