A Co-Founder of The Intercept Says She Was Fired for Airing Concerns

Ms. Poitras added that the focus of her criticism was not that a source was exposed — “journalists make mistakes, sometimes with serious consequences,” she wrote — but that the publication’s investigations into its handling of the Winner story were inadequate.

First Look Media disputed Ms. Poitras’s account, saying it had declined to renew her contract because she was working on projects outside the company. It also has defended its investigations.

“We did not renew Laura Poitras’s independent contractor agreement because, despite our financial arrangement, she has not been active in any capacity with our company for more than two years,” First Look Media said in a statement. “This is simply not a tenable situation for us or any company. For this and only this reason, her contract was not renewed in 2021. Any implication that our decision was based on her speaking to the press is false.”

The Intercept was started in 2014, with funding from the eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, after Ms. Poitras and Mr. Greenwald published blockbuster reports on National Security Agency secrets leaked by Edward J. Snowden. Their work earned the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, and Ms. Poitras won an Academy Award for best documentary feature for “Citizenfour,” the 2014 film she directed on Mr. Snowden.

Mr. Greenwald left The Intercept in October, claiming an article he had written on Joseph R. Biden and his son Hunter had been censored by his editors, an accusation the publication denied.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/14/business/media/laura-poitras-fired-first-look.html