A New York Times columnist blamed a far-left ‘mob’ for her woes. But maybe she deserves them.
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After retracting public comments three times in a little over a month, New York Times opinion columnist Bari Weiss defended her columns and tweets on Friday, claiming a social media “mob” is smearing anyone who departs from far-left political orthodoxy.
“Saying ‘I am offended’ is a way of making someone radioactive; a way of smearing their reputation,” Weiss told HBO’s Bill Maher, two days after the Times corrected her essay criticizing college protest movements because she had quoted a hoax site.
Weiss caused a furor with a tweet about something as innocuous as the Winter Olympics.
Figure skater Mirai Nagasu had just become the first American woman to land a triple axel.
In praise, Weiss tweeted: “Immigrants: They get the job done.”
“She was born in California,” someone replied a moment later.
“Yes, yes, I realize,” Weiss wrote. “Felt the poetic license was kosher.”
Weiss has since deleted the original tweet, and told The Washington Post that she regrets it “left any room for interpretation. If anyone was hurt by it, I am sorry.”
But at the time, she lashed out.
“For this tweet I am being told I am a racist, a ghoul and that I deserve to die,” she wrote. “So I deleted the tweet. That’s where we are.”
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