(Oxford American magazine) Editor Fired Following Harassment Accusation
CONWAY, Ark. — The gathering, Marc Smirnoff said, was intended as a morale-boosting retreat for his staff at The Oxford American magazine, a July 4 overnight party at a mountain cabin that would fuel the creative intellect.
But things quickly went awry, beginning at night when Mr. Smirnoff berated young staff members playing drinking games, and continuing the next morning when he exploded in anger at a 19-year-old intern, then insisted that she ride home alone with him, asking her to hold his hand and accompany him to his favorite “make-out spot.”
Mr. Smirnoff founded The Oxford American in 1992, nurturing it with quirky, intellectual writing that promised to help revive the great Southern literary tradition, helped by writers like Richard Ford, J. E. Pitts and Roy Blount Jr. Over two decades Mr. Smirnoff became as closely associated with The Oxford American as Jann Wenner is with Rolling Stone.
But 10 days after that retreat, Mr. Smirnoff was out. The magazine’s board of directors fired him on July 15 after conducting an investigation that produced detailed accounts of a workplace rife with sexual harassment, as staff members described how Mr. Smirnoff, 49, called female interns “baby” and made lewd comments and unwanted sexual overtures.
full: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/09/books/oxford-american-editor-fired-in-sex-harassment.html?pagewanted=all