Various verified Twitter personalities coalesced to defend Sarah Jeong — the New York Times‘s latest hire — on Thursday following recent circulation of tweets in which she derided whites.

The New York Times issued the following statement:

We hired Sarah Jeong because of the exceptional work she has done covering the internet and technology at a range of respected publications. Her journalism and the fact that she is a young Asian woman have made her a subject of frequent online harassment. For a period of time she responded to that harassment by imitating the rhetoric of her harassers. She sees now that this approach only served to feed the vitriol that we too often see on social media. She regrets it, and The Times does not condone it. We had candid conversations with Sarah as part of our thorough vetting process, which included a review of her social media history. She understands that this type of rhetoric is not acceptable at the The Times and we are confident that she will be an important voice for the editorial board moving forward.

Our statement in response to criticism of the hiring of Sarah Jeong. pic.twitter.com/WryIgbaoqg — NYTimes Communications (@NYTimesPR) August 2, 2018

Assorted Twitterati with blue check mark profiles offered defenses of — and deflections away from — Jeong’s derision of whites.

The Daily Beast’s Ken Klippenstein alluded to the New York Times’s recent hiring of Bret Stephens, indirectly referring to Stephen as “an unabashed climate denier”:

[calculating how many thousands of times worse it is to hire an unabashed climate denier *in 2017* than Sarah Jeong] — Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) August 2, 2018

The New Yorker‘s Helen Rosner disparaged unspecified “motherf*****s” as inferior to Jeong:

Sarah Jeong will outwrite, outthink, and outlast all you motherfuckers but good luck being fragile racist misogynists — your friend Helen (@hels) August 2, 2018

The rule is if you’re gonna pop up in my mentions calling Sarah Jeong a racist you’ve gotta include in your tweet which alt-right source fed you that opinion — your friend Helen (@hels) August 2, 2018

Josh Shahryar, a self-described “refugee writer” with bylines at Qatar’s state-run English-language news media outlet and the UK-based Guardian dismissed Jeong’s recently highlighted tweets as “trolling”:

Yesterday: “Being called racist is the worst thing that can ever happen to you.” Today: “Sarah Jeong is a racist for trolling her harassers because Twitter never did shit to protect her.” Tomorrow: “The proceedings of the last two days is driving me to supporting Trump.” — ☪️ Sha Naqba Īmuru ✡️ (@JShahryar) August 2, 2018

Media Matters for America alumnus Oliver Willis accused “the people attacking” Jeong as “the same ones” who threaten non-white persons on Twitter:

most of the people attacking sarah jeong are the same ones sending all of us who are nonwhite on twitter the threatening messages that we have to report. — Oliver Willis (@owillis) August 2, 2018

S.E. Smith, a self-described “essayist” focusing on “social issues like reproductive justice, disability rights, class, [and] LGBQT subjects,” described criticisms of Jeong as “racist”:

Let’s be clear: Trying to derail the career of women of colour who clap back on harassment is racist, and also shitty. Sarah Jeong is a fantastic journalist with tremendous integrity and I’m excited to see what she does next. Period. — s.e. smith (@sesmith) August 2, 2018

But also, ftr, I have seen the tweets, thanks. ‘Reverse racism’ is not a thing and the people who claim it is are racist. And let’s be real: All of us have tweeted things that are Not So Great, or what we wouldn’t say today…and most of them are a lot worse than The Tweets. — s.e. smith (@sesmith) August 2, 2018

City University of New York professor Angus Johnson described Jeong’s highlighted tweets as “parodies”:

If you’re tsk-tsking about that Sarah Jeong compilation screenshot, you’re endorsing a deliberate hatchet job and you’re a punk. — Angus Johnston (@studentactivism) August 2, 2018

If you don’t know which of Jeong’s tweets are deliberate, direct parodies of other people’s statements, intended to expose the fatuity of racism through ridicule, what the hell are you doing expressing an opinion on them? — Angus Johnston (@studentactivism) August 2, 2018

Eugene Gu, a medical doctor and contributor to HuffPost and The Hill, described Jeong as a victim of “trolling abuse”:

As an Asian-American woman, Sarah Jeong suffered twice the amount of trolling abuse that I have experienced on social media. It was too much for me, and I cannot imagine how much it was for her. Venting anonymously against her tormentors may have been immature. But it was human. — Eugene Gu, MD (@eugenegu) August 2, 2018

Owen Ellickson, a producer of TV series It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Office Space, and The Office, framed Jeong’s critics as hypocritical on “racist” tweets:

welcome to the popular new game Is There A Sarah Jeong Critic Who Hasn’t Tweeted Something Racist? round 1: no pic.twitter.com/F5Z613tOe2 — Owen Ellickson (@onlxn) August 2, 2018

Wajahat Ali, a New York Times op-ed contributor and alumnus of the Guardian, called for his followers to “protect” Jeong:

Protect Sarah Jeong. — Wajahat Ali (@WajahatAli) August 2, 2018

MSNBC’s and the New York Times‘s Mike Isaac praised Jeong:

Sarah Jeong is supremely talented and we are lucky to have her join the times. Proud to call her a colleague. — ಠ_ಠ (@MikeIsaac) August 2, 2018

SBNation’s Graham MacAree parroted the neo-Marxist meme that it is impossible for minorities to be racist.

the sarah jeong stuff is a fun reminder that white people like to see racism as a question manners rather than like, reflecting institutional power — Graham MacAree (@MacAree) August 2, 2018

News media observers will recall ABC’s termination of Roseanne Barr from her eponymous TV series following her description of Valerie Jarrett as a cross between the Muslim Brotherhood and the Planet of the Apes.

Follow Robert Kraychik on Twitter.