The New York Times drew a wave of condemnation after it dropped a romance columnist who reposted criticism of its handling of a rape allegation against President Donald Trump.
Olivia Waite, who wrote the romance fiction column for the paper’s Book Review, gave her account to the romance site Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, which reported Tuesday that the Times had terminated her contract.
“On Friday the Times declined to continue my contract as a fiction columnist, via a one-paragraph email praising the quality of my work but citing my presumably negative feelings about the NYT as inferred from my Bluesky posts, which they admitted they have been monitoring,” Waite said in a statement to the site.
The posts Waite shared faulted how the Times covered an Oct. 26 House report on Trump and the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The report by Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee detailed accounts from 11 women, including five who accuse Trump of rape or sexual assault in Epstein’s company or presence, the committee said. One, former Swiss pageant contestant Beatrice Keul, told staff that Trump raped her in a Plaza Hotel suite in 1993.
“None of these allegations are true,” White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis said in a statement obtained by NBC News.
The Times’ story on the report ran 323 words, according to a Popular Information count. NBC News’ story on the same report ran 925 words by Raw Story’s count, nearly three times as long.
A top Times editor defended leaving Keul out of the story when independent journalist Marisa Kabas challenged him.
“I emailed Patrick Healy, assistant managing editor for standards and trust at NYT, to ask why their story about a House report with new details of rape allegations against the President of the United States included neither those details, nor a single use of the word ‘rape,’” Kabas wrote on Bluesky on Oct. 27.
In an emailed response, Healy told Kabas that the paper "corroborated those allegations with other sources before publishing that story," referring to a 2025 piece in which Keul said Trump began groping her and trying to lift her dress.
“Many news outlets have not corroborated Keul’s latest allegation at this point,” Healy wrote. When Kabas pressed him, he said the story “included a link to the House report for people to read.”
The Times had checked Keul’s earlier claims and printed them, but on her new allegation, its story offered readers only a link to the report.
“Healy gives an unacceptable answer,” former Chicago Tribune metro editor Mark Jacob wrote on Bluesky of the exchange. Waite reposted his post without comment.
Although the Times once referred to its employees on social media as a "watchdog," its rules now bar employees from even reposting criticism of its journalism.
“The email demurs that they would never ask me to censor myself on social media — but it’s hard not to view being let go so abruptly as retaliation for one of the most minor modern forms of speaking out,” Waite said. The Times has not commented publicly on her departure.
More than 200 Bluesky users quote-posted the Smart Bitches report within three hours, most of them condemning the paper.
"I know Olivia, and the NYT is a bunch of craven sycophants to the elites and their rape culture Smart Bitches," UX designer Dylan Wilbanks wrote.
“They contracted me as a critic, and critical I remain,” Waite said.
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