CEO Reed Hastings also took responsibility for not terminating his employment sooner.
Earlier today, Jonathan Friedland — who has served as the communications director for Netflix since 2011 — sent out two tweets, cryptically explaining that he’d left the company after seven years.
It has since been reported that Friedland — who previously worked for 20 years as a reporter for The Wall Street Journal — was fired by Netflix Chief Executive Reed Hastings because Friedland had twice used the N-word. In an email to company employees, Hastings explained that Friedland was terminated for “unacceptably low racial awareness and sensitivity.” Hastings explained that Friedland had used the N-word during a PR meeting about sensitive words. Though Friedland apologized, he used the word again only a few days later in a conversation with two Black employees in the Netflix HR department who were trying to help Friedland deal with the original offense.
