Alleged ‘Shitty Media Men’ list creator steps forward, Twitter erupts

2025-04-28 06:14:31admin

The alleged creator of "SHITTY MEDIA MEN," an anonymous spreadsheet used to report men accused of sexual misconduct in the publishing industry, has outed herself — and Twitter is ablaze.

Writer Moira Donegan came forward as the author of the shared document, launched in October, in an article for New York Magazine. In the piece, she explained that "the anonymous, crowdsourced document was a first attempt at solving what has seemed like an intractable problem: how women can protect ourselves from sexual harassment and assault."

SEE ALSO: Woman steps forward as creator of the ‘Shitty Media Men’ list

Originally meant as a private "whisper network" document, but picked up by BuzzFeed and Reddit, the spreadsheet caused some media companies to investigate some mentioned employees, who, as Donegan writes, "left their jobs or were fired."

Donegan wrote of the backlash in her NY Magpiece:

Many called the document irresponsible, emphasizing that since it was anonymous, false accusations could be added without consequence. Others said that it ignored established channels in favor of what they thought was vigilantism and that they felt uncomfortable that it contained allegations both of violent assaults and inappropriate messages. Still other people just saw it as catty and mean, something like the “Burn Book” from Mean Girls.

After a Harper's article by essayist Katie Roiphe apparently could have outed Donegan as the list's creator, Twitter became quite the platform for protecting her identity. Multiple women, including Lexi Alexander, Jenn Hoffman, Mandy Stadtmiller, Ana Breton, Marisa Kabas, Jenny Jaffe and Kate Pasola among others pulled an IRL "I am Spartacus," tweeting that they were the author.

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On Wednesday, Donegan tweeted her own claim to the authorship, sharing her article written for The Cut.

Tweet may have been deleted

Following the article's publication, many in the media industry took to the social media platform with an immense amount of support for Donegan, praising her efforts to create a space for women to report sexual harassment and abuse. Many had apparently been personally affected by the names on the list, or had added to it.

Tweet may have been deleted

Some targeted Harper's and Roiphe, criticising them for moving to out Donegan, though, in an interview with The New York Times, Roiphe said her article did not name the author, and said “I would never put in the creator of the list if they didn’t want to be named.” Donegan had been approached by a Harper's fact checker, however.