The editorial director, Kate Hartson, was fired by Hatchet after publishing the book Unmasked: Inside Antifa's Radical Plan to Destroy Democracy by Ngo. The book details the Antifa's organizational efforts and patterns of violence, most notably in Portland and Seattle.
Hartson, who has a history of supporting Republicans, says that while she was given other reasons for her firing, the real reason was because of her politics. Hachette has said that they would be prohibiting "false narratives" from being published by them.
The firing also comes a month after 10 Hachette employees signed a petition calling upon major publishers to ban the publishing of books written by former Trump administration officials.
The firing comes as multiple book and news publishers have waged a campaign of censorship against conservative figures. Simon & Schuster, another major publisher, recently decided to revoke their book deal with Republican Senator Josh Hawley due to his questioning of the 2020 election results, which they have suggested helped inspire the storming of Capitol Hill by pro-Trump rioters on Jan 6.
The New York Times has also faced criticism for its adoption of cancel culture. The paper gained attention last year after firing an editor who published an article by Republican Senator Tom Cotton, who called for troops to be called in to deal with violent BLM rioters who caused billions of dollars in property damage over the summer of 2020.
More recently, the newspaper was criticized for ousting long-time science reporter Donald McNeil after he used the N-word to answer the question of a girl who was present on a trip organized by the newspaper to Peru. The girl had asked a question pertaining to peoples' reactions to her using it in a separate situation.
Similar to the situation at Hachette, The New York Times ousted McNeil due to outcry from their own employees. Originally, McNeil was going to receive a slap on the wrist until his fellow employees, who are unionized, called for stronger action to be taken against him.
Conservative publishers, however, are expected to take advantage of the shuttering of major publishers to conservative writers. "As much as I regret what's happening in the Big Five publishers as a conservative, the self-destruction of our competition is probably good for Regnery," said Thomas Spence, who runs Regnery Publishing.
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