Reporter Mike Rosenberg Resigns from the Seattle Times After Allegedly Sending Inappropriate Twitter Messages

Hes out.

He’s out of here. SEATTLE MUNICIPAL ARCHIVES

Seattle Times reporter Mike Rosenberg resigned on June 7, according to a spokesperson for the paper. Rosenberg’s resignation comes a little over a month after journalist Talia Jane accused him of sending inappropriate messages via Twitter.

When the paper was made aware of the sexual harassment allegation, the Times suspended Rosenberg and launched an internal investigation. The Times confirms the company has completed their investigation, but they refuse to disclose the findings “as it is a personnel matter handled directly by our human resources group.”

The spokesperson would not answer several questions about the nature of Rosenberg’s departure, but did say that the paper is “as we have always been, committed to fostering a respectful workplace.” She added that the company has “continued to invest in training and elevate awareness of our employee assistance program for counseling consultations as needed.”

Seattle Times executive editor Michele Matassa Flores did not immediately return a request for comment.

“Every freelancer, new voice and marginalized body has experienced instances where power imbalances are abused,” Jane said in a message. “Calling out inappropriate behavior shouldn’t be shocking. It should be standard. As the dust settles, I hope what is remembered of this situation is the importance of identifying inappropriate behavior and not laughing it off or pretending you didn’t see it, but rejecting it point blank. I hope Mike’s decision to resign leads him toward a happier, healthier future, however that may manifest.”

Independent journalist Erica C. Barnett first reported the news about Rosenberg’s resignation.

According to screenshots Jane posted to Twitter last month, Rosenberg sent her a series of direct messages early Sunday morning on May 5. After asking Jane if she had been thinking about applying for journalism jobs, Rosenberg appeared to take the conversation in a different direction. “Anyway you’re so beautiful,” he wrote, followed shortly thereafter by, “Anyway you are hilarious.” And then, about 45 minutes after those two messages, he wrote, “there is so much cum on your face.”

Jane posted screengrabs of the conversation to her Twitter feed, adding “being a woman is totally normal and very cool.”

Rosenberg claimed he meant to send the messages to someone else, but he wouldn’t reveal the identity of the recipient to Crosscut.

Jane freelances and in 2016 wrote an open letter to the CEO of Yelp criticizing the company for paying low wages. After publishing the letter, Yelp fired Jane but ended up raising the hourly wages for its customer service representatives, according to Quartz.

Rosenberg covered real estate for the Times for over two years after spending six years at the San Jose Mercury News.

The Times faced another “personnel matter” recently when local black artist Alexis Taylor incorporated into her show a previously unreleased recording of columnist Nicole Brodeur asking if she could touch the artist’s hair. Brodeur had faced accusations of racism in 2017 after characterizing Columbia City as a “pass-through” neighborhood until a bunch of white-owned businesses moved there.

Last week, Barnett reported that Brodeur kept her job at the paper but lost her column and was reassigned to “covering ‘newsmakers’ as a general assignment reporter.”

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