Former president of The Messenger accused of using antigay slur toward editor in chief

Richard Beckman, who was president of the now-defunct news website, frequently verbally abused his staff, former employees say. He denies it.

The former president of the now-shuttered news site The Messenger has been accused of using an antigay slur toward the site's editor in chief and being verbally abusive to several other staffers.

Messenger President Richard Beckman called the editor in chief, Dan Wakeford, a “little bitch” during management meetings, two sources told The Daily Beast’s Confider column. Beckman denied doing so, and the Beast could not reach Wakeford for comment.

Beckman also referred to another senior editor as a “little weasel,” sources told the Beast. Employees told owner Jimmy Finkelstein about Beckman’s behavior and demanded that he be fired, but Finkelstein wouldn’t do it, and he engaged in abusive behavior of his own, the Beast reports.

He “repeatedly belittled the outlet’s top editors, three senior staffers noted — especially Wakeford, deputy editor Michelle Gotthelf, and politics editor Marty Kady,” according to the Beast. “Multiple insiders told Confider that Finkelstein would regularly call Gotthelf at 4 a.m. to berate her over the editorial direction of the site as she was in charge of the newsroom, including telling her he didn’t want to see any Trump trial coverage on the homepage.” The owner was “rude and aggressive” and “always seemed to be worse with women,” one editor said.

Finkelstein issued a statement saying, “I deny berating top editors in the past eight months. I think it’s fair to say there were a handful of disagreements, but I deeply respected the editorial team, and our conversations were civilized.”

The Messenger, which was based in New York City and positioned itself as a nonpartisan, centrist news site, shut down at the end of January after having been in business less than a year. Finkelstein cited the difficult economic environment for news organizations, noting that it’s even harder for startups to stay solvent. Several sources told the Beast that employees weren’t informed of the shutdown before they read the news in The New York Times. They also said workers received no severance pay and lost their health insurance immediately.

The day after the closure, employees filed a class-action lawsuit in federal court, saying the lack of notice violated both New York State and U.S. laws requiring advance notification.

Pictured, from left: Richard Beckman and Dan Wakeford