NYT ousts editor accused of leaving fiery messages for gun rights group

Erin Marquis, an editor for The New York Times Wirecutter recommendation service was fired by the newspaper after she was accused of leaving profane voice messages with a Michigan-based gun rights advocacy group.

“The employee has been terminated from Wirecutter following our investigation related to inappropriate behavior,” a spokesperson for The Times said in a statement. 

“We expect our employees to behave in a way that is consistent with our values and commitment to the highest ethical standards. Repeatedly invoking The New York Times’s name in an unprofessional way that imperils the reputation of Wirecutter, The Times, and all of our journalists is a clear violation of our policies,” the spokesperson added. 

The voice messages were allegedly left with the Michigan affiliate of the National Association for Gun Rights, called the Great Lakes Gun Rights, according to The Washington Post. 

Marquis had previously been critical of the gun rights group on Twitter. 

She wrote a tweet earlier this month in response to a post from Great Lakes Gun Rights, which opposed calls by Democrats for more restrictive gun laws following a deadly shooting at Oxford High School in Michigan. In a statement released by the group, the executive director, Brenden Boudreau, said “anti-gun politicians” moved quickly to “politicize” the situation. 

“Just got a news release from the Great Lakes Gun Rights organization about protecting gun rights from democrats in Michigan and I am literally shaking with rage,” Marquis said in the Twitter post. “I hope there is a God and they meet that God someday.” 

Marquis later deleted her Twitter account, according to the Post.

Audio of the voicemails to the Michigan gun rights group were subsequently released afterward by the National Association for Gun Rights.

“Erin Marquis left us a wonderful voicemail that we’d like to share with you,” the group’s YouTube caption reads posted with the voicemail audio. 

The Post reported that it could not verify the person who left the messages was Marquis. 

According to the audio, a person refers to herself only as “a journalist at The New York Times” saying, “I’m just calling to wonder. I have two questions. How do you sleep at night? And aren’t you just, like, a little bit worried that there might be a Hell, and when you meet God, he will send you there?”

“I am from the New York Times, and I’m letting everyone in the New York Times know what kind of f–king a–-holes you are. Congrats on being a laughing stock,” the person said, according to another part of the audio.

The Times suspended Marquis following the release of the voicemails, and a spokesperson for The Times noted in a statement regarding the suspension that the Wirecutter editor “does not work in the The New York Times newsroom,” according to Mediate.

The Hill could not immediately reach Marquis for comment.