Scientific American Is Getting Slammed For Deleting A Blogger's Post About Being Called A 'Whore'
DNLee
The post was written by Danielle N. Lee, who goes by the blogger name DNLee. Her blog on Scientific American is called "The Urban Scientist."
The removed post referenced an email exchange between Lee and an editor who claimed to be from Biology Online. The editor asked Lee to freelance for them, without pay. Lee declined. In response, the editor allegedly wrote: "Are you an urban scientist or an urban whore?"
You can read Lee's original blog post here. The back-and-forth emails are included in the post.
Here is how Mariette DiChritsina, Editor-in-Chief of Scientific American, responded to the removal of the post on Twitter:
Re blog inquiry: @sciam is a publication for discovering science. The post was not appropriate for this area & was therefore removed.
- Mariette DiChristina (@mdichristina) October 12, 2013
Science bloggers and communicators are firing back, generating the hashtag #standingwithDNLee. Even other Scientific American bloggers are rushing to support their colleague, noting that a number of other recent posts haven't been directly about science.
Here are some of the reactions:
.@mdichristina Since when does @sciam censor blogs for lacking science content? No one took down my posts like this: http://t.co/eNZAhpjuUz.
- Christie Wilcox (@NerdyChristie) October 12, 2013
SciAm's position on @DNLee5's post: utterly inconsistent w/ network's prev blend of straight sci & personal writing https://t.co/tqxNT5SFJY
- Ed Yong (@edyong209) October 12, 2013
#standingwithDNLee #ThorWhore Bringing the hammer down on the person who decided it was a good idea to call my friend Danielle a whore. #WTF
- Kristopher Hite, PhD (@thorsonofodin) October 12, 2013
Scientific American has stepped in it, badly. Hopefully they'll make amends soon. #standingwithDNLee http://t.co/bK4M9I4rFB
- Sean Carroll (@seanmcarroll) October 12, 2013
.@sciam, you tried to make @DNLee5, and the wrongs she faced, invisible through censorship. Indefensible #standingwithDNLee
- Brian Switek (@Laelaps) October 12, 2013
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