By Guy Page
Journalist Auditi Guha criticized communities “full of white people” as “boring” on Twitter on March 15, just two days before VT announced her hiring as a senior editor at VTDigger.
The tweet provides a link to a Massachusetts news website story on “the top 25 places to live in Massachusetts.” Above the link she comments, “Ugh another whitewashed Boston piece. This is what happens when white people make news according to their income and (limited) interests.” She comments beneath, “These are all extremely wealthy communities that maybe 5% can afford to live or buy in. They are also largely boring and full of white people and entitlement.”
Taken on face value, her comments appear to link white skin color with being boring, wealthy, and entitled. Vermont Daily emailed VTDigger publisher Anne Galloway last week to comment on Guha’s tweets. No reply has been received.
According to the March 17 announcement, “Guha will join veteran journalists Jim Welch and Tom Kearney as a senior editor of VTDigger, working closely with writers from pitch to publication.”
In other words, readers may not see her byline, but they will see her influence in story selection, angle, choice of language, etc.. Maybe VTDigger wants Guha to bring more racial and gender diversity and national and international news gathering balance to the senior leadership team? Welch and Kearney are both reputable, veteran journalists with extensive Vermont experience. Welch was a helpful, approachable editor when I interned at the Burlington Free Press in 1979.
One certainly can’t blame Guha’s racially-charged tweet on journalistic inexperience. The March 17 story lists her resume:
“Most recently, Guha served as northeast regional reporter for Rewire.News, focusing on social justice issues across New England. Prior to that, Guha worked for several Massachusetts newspapers, including the New Bedford Standard-Times, the Somerville Journal and the Cambridge Chronicle. Guha, who has a master’s degree in journalism from Emerson College, got her start reporting for television and print news organizations in Mumbai, India.”
She was let go from Rewire.com in 2019 as a seeming victim of union busting, according to a GoFundMe page by Rewire.News Union. (VT Digger is no stranger to apparent union-related dismissals. Former political reporter John Walters reportedly linked his departure with taking a leadership role in the VT Digger union.)
The ‘boring’ tweet isn’t the only comment that makes one wonder why Guha took a job in Vermont. On March 20 she tweeted about a good Maryland vaccine program, “and people wonder why I constantly dream about living outside of New England.” (Although in all fairness, by mid-March many life-long Vermonters also dream about living elsewhere, too.)
Guha’s hiring by VTDigger raises some questions. For example: does she have negative stereotypes about white people? Does she find white people “entitled” and “boring?” Boring is a real problem for journalists and their subjects. Boring people by definition have nothing interesting to say. Boring people get ignored. Vermont is 94.2% white. Has she mentally written off most or all of 94.2% of Vermont as boring, uninteresting, and having nothing worthwhile to say?
One would hope not. Perhaps her tweet merely swung and missed at making a more subtle point about the need for more diverse media coverage. Vermont Daily welcomes a response from VT Digger or Ms. Guha herself. All Vermonters can agree that it would be unconscionably racist for a reporter to tweet negative comments about a community “full of BIPOC people.” Yet recently a UVM professor was pressured to resign for protesting the anti-Whiteness campaign at UVM. Is it okay to single out white people for criticism? Why, or why not? Your constructive, civil thoughts are welcome on the comments section below this news story.
Categories: Media
Well certainly, VTDigger needed a leftist editor considering it’s content is generally so conservative and traditionalist…..lol!!! Talk about propaganda – VTDigger is the WORST!
I myself come from a racially diverse demography. I’m not comfortable in the racial prevalence in the NEK. Does that mean it needs to change to accommodate me? Certainly not.
Concerning union busting, et al. It is a standard political trick to blame firings, moves, etc., on such causes. In Phila. a woman claimed to have been fired from Border’s for organizing for the IWW. The real story was that she was abusive toward customers. It seemed that she was goading management to fire her.
Rich communities? I’m in Irasburg as it was the only place I could find affordable housing. What is “boring about NE VT is the isolation. That isn’t the fault of the people who live here. This woman has options. I don’t.
There is thinly disguised Marxist, totalitarian ideology becoming more and more obvious in the “woke” movement.
Guha is a racist as well as a hypocrite. She speaks of white people as ‘boring” and “entitled.” BLM and CRT is ENTITLEMENT, and boring. שלום
As VTDigger drifts more into social engineering and virtue signaling, not surprisingly their journalism seems to suffer and the whole rag becomes less and less relevant. Maybe I’m not a good judge since I rarely click there anymore and certainly dont send them checks like I used to
ever since they thought it beneath themselves to allow commentary on their articles. At this point I have to wonder if even the Burlington Free Press will outlast VTDigger.
Why do we even look to Digger for anything other than Leftist bias – the addition of Auditi Guha is totally within character.
Vermont is littered with leftist publications masking as the free and independent press of Vermont. Hogwash. These are Marxist publications that continue to infiltrate the politics of Vermont to control the citizenry as well as to seize their property through Government theft. Moreover, these publications are the catalyst for the ever increasing crime and violence in Vermont. Rather than rolling over, the citizens of Vermont need to stand up and call these leftists out for who they are. Moreover, to fight them at the polls, in publications, and through increased community involvement. Apathy is the enemy here.
Vermont Digger is Vermont’s Pravda. Just a tool of the Vermont wokerati.
A visit to Vermont Digger’s website will reveal its staff is almost entirely white, and its board of trustees is entirely white with one exception. That could be something for her to write about.
One of the advantages of living in a freedom loving democracy is that if for whatever reason you don’t like where you are living, you can move to a place that makes you happy !
It’s odd to find out how fragile white people really are despite all the advantages of never being enslaved. A woman tweets that rich white people are boring, and it is news? It is worthy of Guy’s deep thoughts ?! Most of the rich white people I know are exceedingly boring. The women spend their energy on botox and hair dye and the men pretend that the women love them for themselves and not their money. Get out more! Play golf! Listen closely. You will come to agree that rich white people are not only boring, but tragic in their insecurities and lack of self reflection.
I have always viewed Digger as a CIA publication……..but someone should ask just how a person with views this ignorant about Vermont GOT APPOINTED EDITOR. HOW DID IT HAPPEN? BY WHOM?