Don Hazen, the executive editor of AlterNet, was placed on “indefinite leave” after BuzzFeed News asked his oversight board about accusations that he inappropriately touched employees, sent lewd emails, and showed them explicit photographs. “I deny most of allegations,” Hazen said.
Don Hazen has been an executive at left-leaning media outlets since the 1980s, first helming the influential Mother Jones magazine as publisher and in 1997 starting AlterNet, an online outlet publishing and syndicating reporting on “the environment, human rights and civil liberties, social justice, media, and health care issues.”
But five women journalists have told BuzzFeed News that Hazen sexually harassed them while they worked for AlterNet touching them inappropriately, discussing their sex lives, making unwanted advances, sending explicit emails, and showing them explicit photographs — including one of his naked, erect penis. (The women have remained friends since.) A sixth journalist said she was sexually harassed by him, though she wasn’t his employee at the time.
After BuzzFeed News asked Hazen and the board of the Independent Media Institute, AlterNet’s nonprofit parent, for comment, the board returned a statement on Wednesday saying Hazen has been placed on “indefinite leave” as a result of the accusations. – READ MORE
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