Alexi McCammond Out As EIC At Teen Vogue, As Advertisers + Staff Say 'No'

For AOC, almost new EIC of Teen Vogue Alexi McCammond’s problems began with the guy she was dating — then White House Deputy Press Secretary TJ Ducklo. President Joe Biden’s all-women top-level communication’s team was riding high. And then a white guy had to — well rain on their parade.

All is Quiet in the Sisterhood

Politico’s Tara Palmeri is known for her own high-energy, aggressive reporting style. Dial back four years, and former Trump press secretary Sean Spicer called Palmeri “an idiot with no real sources” — a condemnation that became a badge of honor for the young reporter on her White House beat.

It came to light in February that Alexi McCammond’s dream life had hit a small snag. Only 27 years old, McCammond was seen frequently on MCNBC, moving forward on “Axios on HBO”. It was no secret at Axios that the Biden-Harris darling was dating TJ Ducklo; she told them in November after the election. Axios moved her from the Biden beat to incoming VP Kamala Harris, with an additional emphasis on progressive issues.

When the ceiling fell right before Valentine’s Day for TJ Ducklo, AOC paused over McCammond’s very familiar face and wondered about the guy she was dating. Tara Palmeri was assigned by Politico to write a story about Ducklo’s relationship with McCammond. All reports were that she did not originate the story.

Forgetting that as a Deputy Press Secretary he was seen as speaking for President Biden’s values and policies; and forgetting that Biden has been the lead sponsor in 1994 of the Violence Against Women Act; and also forgetting that Biden has a zero tolerance policy on sexism and threatening women in his administration, Ducklo let loose on Palmeri.

Vanity Fair’s headline read: “I WILL DESTROY YOU”: BIDEN AIDE THREATENED A POLITICO REPORTER PURSUING A STORY ON HIS RELATIONSHIP. The kicker, according to Vanity Fair, was a typical white male response to capable women. Ducklo accused Palmeri of being “jealous” of his relationship with McCammond.

Reading that part of the story, I gagged. I’ll admit it.

My reaction in our very complicated MeToo world, was “What is Alexi McCammond doing dating a man who threatens women with personal destruction and stoops to the typical male lob across the net that she — Tara Palmeri i — is a jealous woman, secretly lusting for him. That’s one big ego dude.

It’s fair to say “What did you expect Alexi McCammond to do, Anne? Stand up for the rights of women to not endure threats of total destruction in the workplace from her aggressive boyfriend?”

McCammond’s Downhill Ride at Teen Vogue

It doesn’t matter, really — except that people have long memories, and they would emerge big-time in McCammond world. The it-girl was about to endure her own moment in a hostile media spotlight, with the announcement in early March that she was named editor-in-chief of Teen Vogue.

Today, March 18, less than two weeks after the Condé Nast McCammond EIC announcement, the parties decided to part ways, a week before the media darling would be on the job.

Via Allegra Kirkland Twitter. Senior Politics Editor @TeenVogue

The journalist’s decade-old racist and homophobic tweets were known to Condé Nast and Anna Wintour personally. Obviously, they were not taken terribly seriously, which is strange given the year those media properties have endured on the topic of a racist culture.

Those tweets came home to roost.

"My past tweets have overshadowed the work I've done to highlight the people and issues that I care about — issues that Teen Vogue has worked tirelessly to share with the world — and so Condé Nast and I have decided to part ways," McCammond's wrote in a statement announcing her departure. "I should not have tweeted what I did and I have taken full responsibility for that. I look at my work and growth in the years since, and have redoubled my commitment to growing in the years to come as both a person and as a professional."

I’ve read that “some” staff members were upset with McCammond’s hire. In fact, more than 20 staff members complained together about her appointment to the management at Condé Nast. The Daily Beast insinuates — but does not state — that at least some staffers took issue with the new EIC’s hyper-aggressive, alpha-male, threatening women reporters boyfriend.

Anna, Remember Gigi?

It is difficult to have supermodel mom Gigi Hadid grounded from the 2017 Victoria’s Secret fashion show in Shanghai, over squinting her eyes when she was about to eat a Buddha cookie in a restaurant with friends — and not see anti-Asian tweets as problematic.

Months later, social media said that Gigi was not welcome in Shanghai. Teen Vogue covered the story with the headline: “Gigi Hadid Pulled Out of the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, and the Internet Has Opinions” — “May this be a lesson for her.”

What does that mean? “May this be a lesson for her.” Those were Teen Vogue’s choice of words. Does Wintour even know that happened? She might not, frankly.

I forgot until looking for the article that the Buddha cookie incident blew sky high again in March 2019 with the launch of Vogue Hong Kong. Gigi Hadid's Vogue Hong Kong Covers Sparks Internet Backlash Over 2017 Buddha Cookie 'Racism'.

You see how McCammond’s offensive, racist tweets could be a problem in the world of Teen Vogue, right? Given all the problems Condé Nast has experienced over internal racism in 2020, they just walked head-on into this new debacle. And don’t forget that the young media star’s passion for TJ Ducklo was still lurking in the background.

Asian Racism Reality Check

What happened in Georgia Tuesday night was no joke.

It was a far cry from McCammond’s decade old morning news: “Now googling how to not wake up with swollen, asian eyes…” she wrote in one of the tweets. “Give me a 2/10 on my chem problem, cross out all of my work and don’t explain what i did wrong...thanks a lot stupid asian T.A. you’re great,” read another social-media post.

It was an even further cry from Gigi Hadid’s Buddha cookie debacle.

Eight people were murdered in three Atlanta-area massage parlors by a young, “God-loving” (we use the term loosely) man who has lived in a treatment center and re-entry house for his sex addiction problem. Robert Aaron Long, charged with eight counts of murder, had been a client at two of the massage parlors he shot up Tuesday night. Six of the victims were Asian women.

Long, whose family and friends from the treatment center immediately called police to help in locating Long, who was arrested about 150 miles south of Atlanta. The man who admits to the murders said he was on his way to Florida to commit similar violence in a business tied to the pornography industry.

On Wednesday, shocked and concerned Americans got a double dose of racist misogyny when Capt. Jay Baker, a public information officer at the Cherokee County, Georgia, Sheriff's Office said that the shooter was having a “bad day.”

“He was pretty much fed up and kind of at the end of his rope. Yesterday was a really bad day for him and this is what he did,” Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office Capt. Jay Baker said Wednesday.

“All of us have experienced bad days,” tweeted Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.). “But we don’t go to three Asian businesses and shoot up Asian employees.”

Is GA Public Information Officer a Racist Himself?

Hours after Baker seemed to sympathetic-to-the-gunman explain away how it was that eight people were dead in Georgia — six of them Asian heritage women — an internet sleuth found Baker’s Facebook posts promoting shirts that called the novel coronavirus an “IMPORTED VIRUS FROM CHY-NA.”

Donald Trump always says CHN-NA, so we know lots about Baker’s views on just about everybody, including women. A public information officer, no less. The Washington Post reported minutes ago that Mr. Baker had been removed from his speaking role about the case, and “his future with the office is under evaluation.”

Anna Wintour Meets Up With Capt. Jay Baker

One wonders exactly what the folks at Conde Nast were thinking in their appointment of Alexi McCammond to the top spot at Teen Vogue in this climate.

There’s always risk to hiring a golden girl with a digital past. Did anyone talk to staff about the potential problem? Surely there’s 2-3 insiders who could give higher-ups the lay of the land. Were they even asked?

For me, the problem with McCammond’s boyfriend was a blazing red flag that said “STOP ; . . WAIT . . . PROCEED WITH CAUTION . . . LET THE DUST SETTLE . . . “

Conde Nast had no way of knowing that racism against Asians would take center stage in America this week, a horrific sequence of murder straight out of the Bible-toting, white-men-rule Confederacy. But if the ivory tower didn’t understand that they were playing with fire around their golden girl with a problem far worse than Gigi’s moment of Buddha spontaneity — as models are known to do for a living — well what were they drinking!!!

After a year of race-related horrors at Conde Nast, I’m right back at Grace Coddington’s mammy jars. I would say “I can’t breathe” but that’s no joke in the land of racist cops — who don’t believe they’re racist, by the way. Read: Capitol Siege Prompts Concerns Over Extent of White Supremacist Infiltration of US Police

Nobody ever does. Those are the first words out of the Atlanta law-enforcement officials before they decided to investigate and not just accept the killer’s words verbatim that this was not a racist series of murders. Clearly it was misogynistic and we know misogyny runs rampant in Trump world.

When Anna Wintour gives a big hug to a young media star whose alpha-male boyfriend has just threatened to destroy a reporter doing her job . . . you just gotta wonder how much of what’s going on really permeates Wintour’s brilliant brain.

Really smart people struggle to see the world around them. Rather, they see it as they want it to be and have the power to make it in their vision. Being so powerful and recently promoted to mega power status at Conde Nast, Anna Wintour clearly thought she had her dream girl in place . . no matter what outside world realities lay at her doorstep.

To close out this media mess at Teen Vogue, it appears that advertisers Burt’s Bees and Ulta Beauty suspending their ad campaigns is what resulted in Wintour and McCammond bringing their tango to an end today. At least these two brands can read the writing on the wall. ~ Anne

AOC shares more insights and opinions on this dreadful week of six dead Asian-heritage women and two others in Georgia.

It Was A Banner Year For Asian Representation. Now What? Refinery 29

Racism Against the AAPI Community Is a Beauty Industry Problem ELLE US

Why This Wave of Anti-Asian Racism Feels Different The Atlantic

The Wave of Anti-Asian Hate Could Last Beyond the Pandemic Vanity Fair