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INTO Responds to the Backlash of That Ariana Grande Thinkpiece
"We as editors failed the writer by not working with her to ensure the piece met our standards."
Stan Twitter was set ablaze yesterday when Grindr's LGBT culture website INTO published a thinkpiece about Ariana Grande's "thank u, next" music video.
In the article, the author (whose byline was removed after its initial publication due to death threats), alleged that Ariana's video was anti-queer and filled with offensive acts like blackface, homophobic jokes, and transmisogyny.
The artcle didn't go over well on social media, and it even caught the attention of Troye Sivan, one of Ariana's friends who has a cameo role in the video.
\u201c@Into This literally can\u2019t be real I\u2019m scream\u201d— \ud83d\udc7c\ud83c\udffc (@\ud83d\udc7c\ud83c\udffc) 1543876819
In response to the backlash, INTO's editor-in-chief Zach Stafford released a statement about how the piece didn't meet the publication's editorial standards, as well as addressing some allegations against the unnamed writer that came to light.
"While I could go into the HOW/WHY of why the piece missed the mark and should not have been published as is, what I am going to focus on is this: We as editors failed the writer by not working with her to ensure the piece met our standards.
And for that I am personally sorry.
After publishing, the writer immediately faced numerous death threats. No one deserves to be threatened with violence let alone face it for writing an essay on a piece of ~culture~ …good or bad. Ever. As a result, we dropped her byline and put a note up.
We were then made aware of concerning allegations made in the past regarding the writer. Given the seriousness of these allegations, I personally spoke with the writer and immediately launched an internal investigation. INTO was not aware of these until Monday after publishing. And the writer will not be contributing to INTO for the time being."
