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The New York Times has won El American’s Idiot of the Week award, and doubly so. They started the week very strong with journalist Victoria Kim falling to an evidently parodic tweet about the lifting of mask mandates on public transportation, but in case there was any doubt about their merits to star in our section, they have closed the week by apologizing to actor Ezra Miller for calling him “he”, and not by his preferred pronoun “They.”
The Times, once considered a gold standard newspaper and which boasted of being very meticulous both in the correct use of grammar and in the veracity of its information, seems to have dedicated this week to definitively demolishing its already diminished prestige.
Last Tuesday, Twitter user Jared Rabel made public the hilarious message sent to him by journalist Victoria Kim after reading a message from her on the social network. “Hi, Jared, I’m a New York Times reporter, I’d like to talk to you on the phone about what happened to you on the flight this afternoon.”
It seems that the journalist was very interested in finding testimonies that confirmed the bias of an article that she probably had already written before consulting the sources. Congratulations on setting such an example of journalistic rigor, Victoria.
Jared Rabel’s message was a dream come true for anyone who wanted to denigrate Florida Federal Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle’s decision striking down the Biden administration’s transportation facemask mandate. Jared Rabel’s story included all the philias and fetishes of the left: a crying child, a deeply troubled progressive father, and some very bad Trumpist flight attendants.
“I boarded a plane today with my son and mi flight, the pilot announces that the mask madate is over. Flight attendants pulled off theur masks and sneezed directly into their hands while screaming “this is MAGA airspace”. My son turned to me in tears. I don´t know what to do.”
The only little problem is that—EVIDENTLY—it was a joke message, parodying the attack by Trump supporters that Jussie Smollett came up with, and clearly poking fun at the progressive hysteria with the face masks.
This did not stop the intrepid New York Times reporter from seeing in the message a juicy story with which to feed the phobias of her progressive readers. The left disconnection with reality—exacerbated by the pandemic—prevented Victoria Kim from realizing that this was a cartoon. Long live investigative journalism!
The worst part of the case is not that the journalist did not realize that the message itself was fake, but that she did not even bother to review the rest of Jared Rebel’s publications, all diametrically opposed to the leftist ideology. Let alone ask him any questions about the flight, the airline, or any kind of recording, witness statements or documentation that might corroborate his account.
She saw a story that fit her reality and did not question anything else. Despite the uproar when her case was uncovered, Victoria Kim has been impervious to criticism and ridicule, so much so that she finally ended up publishing the article with other tearful testimonials. All very credible.
The New York Times gets two thumbs up in a row
In another surprising, but not unexpected turn of events, the New York Times announced Wednesday that it had taken down an offensive tweet about news of an alleged assault by actor Ezra Miller on another partygoer in Hawaii.
The very serious tweet aggression was to call Ezra Miller using the pronoun “he”, when on many occasions the actor has demanded that, due to his non-binary status, he should be addressed as “they.”
The New York Times seems to be very sorry to have hurt the very tolerant, inclusive and progressive Ezra Miller, who is very aware and involved in issues of respect for his non-binary peers, but who apparently doesn’t take too well to partygoers singing karaoke. When they tried to expel him for his allegedly erratic and violent behavior, it seems that Ezra assaulted one of the guest singers, whose sexual orientation and preferred pronouns we don’t know, nor do we need to.
That’s how things stand in the new journalistic normality that the New York Times is trying to establish.
Ignacio Manuel García Medina, Business Management teacher. Artist and lecturer specialized in Popular Culture for various platforms. Presenter of the program "Pop Libertario" for the Juan de Mariana Institute. Lives in the Canary Islands, Spain // Ignacio M. García Medina es profesor de Gestión de Empresas. Es miembro del Instituto Juan de Mariana y conferenciante especializado en Cultura Popular e ideas de la Libertad.
Social Networks: @ignaciomgm