Editing in an age of outrage
Ian Buruma lost his job at the NYRB after publishing a controversial article. Here he reflects on what went wrong Ian Buruma MARCH 29 2019 Until recently Jian Ghomeshi, a former CBC broadcaster and rock musician, was not much known outside Canada. I now rather wish it had stayed that way. But last September I decided, as editor of the New York Review of Books, to publish Ghomeshi’s story of his life after he was tried in 2016 on four counts of sexual assault and one count of overcoming resistance by choking. He said that the three women involved had taken part in sadomasochistic acts willingly. They said otherwise, and more than 20 other women made similar allegations. In court Ghomeshi was acquitted on all counts for lack of sufficient evidence. Months later he issued a public apology to a former colleague in return for the withdrawal of a separate charge of sexual assault, and signed a “peace bond”, pledging to behave himself. Instead of going to prison, Ghomeshi was punished