Top editor quits The Messenger pre-launch: ‘I was not willing to lower my ethical standards’

Is the much-hyped, hiring-just-about-anyone startup The Messenger already running into problems? It sure seems so — or in the words of the top departing editor, “What was presented to me as the job and what the job was [were] two entirely different things.”

Kristin Bender, a West Coast breaking news editor who has also worked at The Associated Press, left her post at The Messenger just before the startup’s launch.

Bender quit on May 11.

An excerpt from The Daily Beast reads:

“Multiple Messenger sources familiar with the situation told The Daily Beast that Bender’s exit stemmed from frustrations over the work demanded of the West Coast breaking news team: an emphasis on aggregated news stories with little, if any, original reporting and a large workload that could have amounted to up to two dozen stories from the team on any given day. Those coverage objectives were not what was presented to reporters and editors upon hiring, the sources added.

“Bender confirmed her resignation in a phone call with The Daily Beast. “What was presented to me as the job and what the job was [were] two entirely different things. I was told that this was going to be long-form journalism and all it was was aggregated content and clickbait, and to me, that’s not journalism,” she said. “I was not willing to lower my ethical standards in working for an organization that did not align with my objectives.”