PJ Vogt, host of the well-known podcast “Reply all of them, ”He took go away of absence on Wednesday after complaints from former colleagues that he and a senior journalist had contributed to a poisonous work surroundings and have been protesting in opposition to union efforts.
Mr. Vogt and senior reporter Sruthi Pinnamaneni every apologized in statements on Twitter.
The accusations in Gimlet Media, which produces “Reply to All,” got here after the podcast revealed its second episode in a sequence on discrimination accounts within the fashionable video sequence of meals journal Bon Appétit. Following the assassination of George Floyd by the hands of Minneapolis police final yr, newsrooms and media organizations in the USA, together with the New York Instances, have taken costs that they haven’t. adequately deal with inequalities of their ranks.
Eric Eddings, a former Gimlet worker who co-hosted the podcast “The Nod,” he tweeted Tuesday that “Reply to all,” and particularly Mr. Vogt and Ms. Pinnaman, that they had contributed “to an virtually an identical poisonous dynamic in Gimlet” just like the one they described of their sequence on Bon Appétit.
“The tales of the BA workers need to be informed, however for me it’s detrimental to notice that the reporting and narration come from two individuals who have labored actively and AGGRESSIVELY in opposition to a number of efforts to diversify workers and content material. of Gimlet, ”he wrote. “It was so stunning to listen to the phrases of people that have suffered like me from individuals who have brought about this struggling to me and others.”
Vogt, 35 years outdated, he mentioned on Twitter that he had “deeply failed as an ally” when workers joined the union and he apologized to everybody he had disillusioned. “I ought to have mirrored on what it meant to not be on the identical facet of a motion largely led by younger colour producers in my firm,” he mentioned.
“In the present day I’ve my help as quickly as I can,” he wrote. “I used to be a child and a joke about it in a myriad of the way.” He mentioned he had requested permission to depart the present and that he had taken the time “to assume and hear.”
Ms. Pinnamaneni mentioned their conduct round variety and commerce union group efforts he was “misinformed, ignorant and hurtful.” She mentioned on Twitter, “I have not paid sufficient consideration to individuals of colour in Gimlet and I ought to have used my energy to help and elevate them much more.”
Vogt and one other host, Alex Goldman, began the podcast in 2014, adapting it from their earlier WNYC radio present, “TLDR” (too lengthy; not learn). In recent times, episodes of “Reply to All” have caught listeners on the cellphone rip-off sounds in India, to a most safety jail in Illinois, and on a journey to trace a guitar track {that a} director listened to on the radio as an adolescent.
Spotify, which owns Gimlet Media, didn’t reply to a request for remark. Gimlet Media didn’t even reply to a request for remark.
Eddings, his former colleague, mentioned he had heard Mr Vogt “denigrate different colleagues” and that he had “personally seen messages of annoyance despatched by PJ” to union organizers. Vogt was not receptive to complaints that workers of colour thought that they had no alternative to advance, he mentioned.
He additionally mentioned that he had requested Mr. Vogt repeatedly contributed to variety efforts, comparable to becoming a member of a variety group or talking at workers conferences to point out that the difficulty was necessary to senior figures, however that Mr. Vogt didn’t. He mentioned individuals of colour on the podcast noticed the union as a strategy to create an surroundings the place they may succeed, however that Mr. Vogt and Ms. Pinnamaneni had tried to point out their help.
Brittany Luse, a former Gimlet worker who co-hosted “The Nod” with Mr. Eddings, spoke in help of her statements. “It is unattainable to clarify how darkish it was on the time,” he wrote on Twitter, in reference to efforts to syndicate Gimlet. “His return has thickened the air.”
Reggie Hill contributed report.
