Seattle Times Reporter Suspended Over Lewd Messages

SEATTLE, WA — One of the Seattle Times' most prominent reporters was suspended on Sunday afternoon after he was exposed for sending a lewd message to another journalist. The suspension will remain in place pending a human resources investigation, the Times said in a statement.

Reporter Mike Rosenberg was trading direct messages over Twitter with Brooklyn, N.Y., writer Talia Jane early Sunday morning when the conversation took an explicit turn. Rosenberg appeared to be giving Jane career advice before he began sexually harassing her.

"Anyway you're so beautiful," he wrote, next saying, "Anyway you are hilarious." The next message contained a pornographic reference.

Jane took screenshots of the exchange, later posting them in a Twitter thread. She also contacted the Seattle Times' top editors. Jane was also able to get Rosenberg to delete his Twitter account, which had close to 40,000 followers.

At one point, Rosenberg offered to donate $1,000 to the National Organization of Women (NOW) to keep the conversation secret.

"Wrong move. Women are not toys. We certainly should not be played with and efforts to manipulate us will not be tolerated. Live with your choices," she wrote with a screenshot of Rosenberg's offer.

Rosenberg told Jane that the lewd message was not intended for her. A Crosscut reporter was able to interview Rosenberg on Sunday afternoon, but he declined to say who the message was for if not Jane.

Rosenberg was known for his coverage of the Seattle area's housing affordability crisis. Before the Seattle Times, he worked at the San Jose Mercury News. Rosenberg is on the board at the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) Western Washington Chapter, but has been suspended from that role.

"The SPJ Western Washington chapter is aware of sexual harassment allegations involving one of our board members. We take this claim very seriously and have suspended the board member pending further information," the organization said in a statement Sunday.

Jane is known for an open letter she wrote to the CEO of Yelp, exposing low-wage working conditions at the company's headquarters in the San Francisco Bay Area while she was employed there as a customer service rep — and she got fired for it. She's also a contributor to the New York Post and Vice.