The Boston Globe's top editor is under investigation by management amid public allegations of misconduct against a former employee he once dated.
The Boston Globe reported Wednesday they are investigating "an inappropriate text exchange" between editor-in-chief Brian McGrory and former Boston.com editor Hilary Sargent. McGrory disclosed in a letter to staff members that he and Sargent "dated many years ago."
The investigation comes after Sargent tweeted about an exchange between her and McGrory on Monday.
In the text exchange, Sargent said she was asked, "What do you generally wear when you write?"
Sargent did not mention her relationship with McGrory when she first shared the text exchange. When she was asked Thursday on Twitter if they were dating at the time, she replied, "No. Absolutely not."
A memo from top Globe management states that officials began investigating the incident as soon as they became aware.
A Globe spokesperson told NBC10 Boston that Globe officials spoke with McGrory about the nature of the text messages and whether they happened during Sargent's employment. The Globe has also reached out to Sargent "to ascertain the timing and context of the text in question," the spokesperson said.
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In his letter to staffers, McGrory said he didn't remember sending such a text to Sargent.
"I can't believe I have to write these words, but I have never harassed Hilary Sargent or any other women at the Globe or anywhere else — ever," McGrory wrote.
Sargent also spoke out about her allegations against McGrory on Thursday.
"With the @BostonGlobe threatening a lawsuit, I will only say this. This isn't about one text. This isn't about just him. And this isn't about just me. I'm horrified that the newspaper that purports to shine a 'Spotlight' is doing everything in their power to do just the opposite," she tweeted.
McGrory previously came under fire in December 2017 following the newspaper's initial decision to not name Jim O'Sullivan in an article about sexual misconduct allegations against the former reporter. The decision was then reversed in a letter from McGrory to Globe readers amid the ongoing #MeToo movement.
"We believed that we were adhering to our journalistic principles, standards on sourcing, and sense of basic fairness. We believed that the misconduct was not at the level of what we had been covering and uncovering in other organizations. We didn't believe we had definitive proof to name him in a news story," McGrory wrote. "Time and circumstances in this extraordinary national movement have given us, or at least me, a different perspective."
