Since the deadly Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on Israel, many companies have struggled to mitigate internal conflicts over the issues. According to reports, over a year after the attack, this also applies to one of the world’s largest mass media companies.
Following the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, Jewish and pro-Israel employees at Condé Nast began complaining about the anti-Israel and anti-Jewish stance that other employees had taken. They claimed Condé Nast staffers had participated in pro-Palestinian protests and that the company also took a pro-Palestinian stance in its magazines.
Condé Nast is responsible for publishing popular magazines like Vogue, The New Yorker, GQ, Glamour and Vanity Fair, among others.
In June, the company’s chief diversity and inclusion officer quietly stepped down after Jewish employees at the publishing giant filed antisemitism complaints against her with human resources, according to Semafor.
Yashica Olden became head of diversity, equity, and inclusion in September 2020.
Olden was accused of not cracking down on journalists who allowed a pro-Palestinian bias to seep into their post-Hamas attack coverage and also for not disciplining Condé Nast employees who allegedly attended pro-Palestinian protests.
Last year, just days after Oct. 7, Vogue’s editor-at-large, Gabriella Karefa-Johnson, posted public remarks on her social media, calling Israel an “apartheid state” committing “genocide” and compared the Israel Defense Forces to a “terrorist organization,” the New York Post reported.
At the time, a spokesperson for Vogue said Karefa-Johnson’s views were her own and not that of the company. Karefa-Johnson resigned her position in February this year.
Teen Vogue also produced stories about the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, and they were flagged by Condé Nast’s content integrity group, which monitors standards and conducts fact-checks for having an anti-Israel bias, according to Semafor.
Neither Olden nor Condé Nast have responded publicly to Semafor’s report.