'Buildings matter': Philadelphia newspaper editor resigns after headline sparks uproar
The top editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer has resigned following an uproar over a headline bemoaning property damage incurred during the protests against police brutality and racial injustice.
Related: New York Times says senator Tom Cotton's op-ed did not meet editorial standards
The newspaper announced on Saturday that Stan Wischnowski, 58, was stepping down as senior vice-president and executive editor, after apologizing on Wednesday for the “horribly wrong” decision to use the headline “Buildings Matter, Too” on a column Tuesday. suggesting an equivalence between the loss of buildings and the lives of black Americans.
The tone-deaf headline, suggesting an equivalence between the loss of buildings and the lives of black Americans, prompted a public denouncement from staff. The features reporter Brandon Bell wrote on Twitter that he was calling in “sick and tired” to work on Thursday. About 30 members of a staff of about 210 skipped work for the same reason, a spokesman said.
Bell was among those who distributed an open letter of protest, saying African American journalists were tired of careless mistakes that made it harder to do their jobs and, at worst, put lives at risk.
“We’re tired of shouldering the burden of dragging this 200-year-old institution kicking and screaming into a more equitable age,” the letter read. “We’re tired of being told to show both sides of issues there are no two sides of.”
The backlash came as the New York Times was widely criticized for publishing an opinion piece by the US senator Tom Cotton advocating the use of federal troops to quell the protests.
The Inquirer headline appeared over an article by the architecture critic Inga Saffron, who worried that buildings damaged in violence over the past week could “leave a gaping hole in the heart of Philadelphia”.
The newspaper drew fresh scorn after it replaced that headline online with one that read, “Black Lives Matter. Do Buildings?” Eventually, the newspaper settled on: “Damaging buildings disproportionately hurt the people protesters are trying to uplift.”
The Inquirer published an apology from senior editors. Publisher and CEO Lisa Hughes said in a memo to staff that the headline was “offensive and inappropriate” and said the newspaper needed a more diverse workforce.
Wischnowski had worked at the Inquirer for 20 years and was editor when the paper won the 2012 Pulitzer prize for public service for an in-depth investigation into violence within Philadelphia schools.
He will formally leave the newspaper on 12 June. Hughes did not immediately name a successor.
