THE New York Times Descends to Racist Sleaze

Those who love the New York Times – you know, the folks who put strong emphasis on “THE” when referring to the publication by name — often refer to it as “the newspaper of record.” It is one of those descriptives that sounds very impressive until you ponder what it exactly means. I have asked a few friends who are subscribers and even though they have often heard the term, they could not explain what it exactly means. That came as great relief to me since I, too, have no idea what it means.

Have you ever noticed that those who read the Times regularly seem to believe it is a prima facie bestowment of sophistication and intelligence? Perhaps when the Tin-man in the Wizard of Oz lamented not having a brain, the Wizard, instead of presenting a diploma as a testimonial of intelligence, could have just as easily handed the oversized beer can a subscription to the Times.

As long as I can recall – and unfortunately (or fortunately), that is more than a half-century – I have always thought of the New York Times as just another local hometown newspaper. So, I can appreciate the fact that my New York friends read it and like it – just as I keep up with the Chicago Tribune and Sun-Times.

If the Times is not the most important newspaper in the country … world … universe … as so many seem to believe, it has always been a decent local publication. That was until lately. The Times is now part of the incestuous New York/Washington bubble. Reporters and editors of the Times make multiple appearances on MSNBC and CNN on a daily basis and in return, the newspaper prints opinion columns by MSNBC and CNN personalities – who, in turn, read their own writings from the Times on air. It is a very small world inside that bubble.

Sadly, the Times has dropped out of the “decent local publication” category. They recently added Sarah Jeong to their August editorial board and when there was a public outcry over the appointment, the Times doubled down to defend the hiring.

But, I shall explain.

According to the official resume, Jeong is a lawyer-journalist who specializes in “law, technology and the internet culture.” Before joining the Times, she was senior writer for The Verge and contributor to Vice’s Motherboard. She has also written a book, “Internet of Garbage” about cyber harassment. There is a great irony in that subject matter which will be revealed below.

She got her undergraduate degree from the University of California at Berkley (now you know where this is heading) and her law degree from Harvard University, where she was editor of the Harvard Journal of Law & Gender.

With a resume like that, she is an ideal person to serve on the editorial board of the New York Times, but then there is her dark side. She is a hate-filled rabid racist of the first order. Here is a sampling of some of her tweets.

Jeong is not guilty of a thoughtless or indiscreet comment which can be overcome with an apology. She is a serial racist. She is the low-life cyber harasser that she condemns in her book. (I told you we would get to the irony).

In defense of her hiring, the Times claims that her tweets were simply retaliatory – as if that justifies them. Of course, you are not going to come up with a good response if you have to defend the indefensible.

According to the Times defense, Jeong now understands that such responses “only served to feed the vitriol that we too often see on social media” – and she “deeply regrets them.” If she did not understand that her vicious and racist responses were part of the problem, she may be too stupid to work for any serious news publication. She may officially “regret” those tweets but considering the volume and the targets of her cyber-attacks, it is likely that they represented her demented opinion. She was not responding to specific tweets, as the Times suggests, but attacking all white people – and especially men.

The Times is confident that Jeong will be an important voice for the editorial board moving forward. Methinks not. She will have no credibility, and the fact that the Times will allow her to shape its editorial views is a disgrace to journalism. As long as she is employed by the Times, their editorials – and the publication in general — will have diminished credibility.

Maybe for balance, the Times might consider hiring David Duke. It could not damage its reputation any more than hiring Jeong.

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