No, this isn't a story from The Onion. It really happened.
Yesterday, the New York Times announced at 3 pm they'd hired Quinn Norton to join their editorial board. By 9 pm yesterday they announced they'd "parted ways."
The New York Times continues to devolve into a parody of its former self. Or at least what it was once reputed to be.
Source: Ny Daily News
A controversial blogger who calls herself a “friend” of neo-Nazis was tapped to join the New York Times editorial board on Tuesday — but she rapidly pulled her nomination after an avalanche of backlash ensued.
Quinn Norton — whose previous work includes a lengthy essay sympathetic to the notorious neo-Nazi internet troll known as Weev — was supposed to join the newspaper as a “lead opinion writer on the power, culture and consequences of technology,” according to a statement.
“We're excited to have Quinn to help our readers understand what's possible and what's sensible, and where we're all headed,” The Times said in the statement.
But The Gray Lady backpedalled on that glowing assessment of Norton after Twitter users pointed to her checkered past.
How checkered?
Beyond her off-color Twitter handle, Norton penned an essay in 2014 marveling about Weev, the widely-reviled Internet troll whose real name is Andrew Auernheimer.
Auernheimer co-runs the overtly neo-Nazi Daily Stormer site and once called for the “slaughter” of Jewish children.
Auernheimer isn't the only Nazi Norton has written favorably about. In December 2013, she self-published an essay about John Rabe, a German businessman and member of Adolf Hitler's Nazi Party.
In the essay, Norton described Rabe as a “humanitarian” and urged readers to delve into the “moral complexity” of the 20th century Nazi.
Norton also once used the N-word to describe former President Barack Obama.
WAPO: BOOM. Just hired an out-of-touch libertarian to write essays that only resonate with people making six figures.
NYT: Hold Mein Kampf— Parker Molloy (@ParkerMolloy) February 13, 2018
