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Fact-Checker Who Falsely Accused Disabled Veteran Of Being A Nazi Now Hired By NYU J-School
Talia Lavin, who resigned from the New Yorker in disgrace last year after helping whip up a Twitter mob claiming a disable Marine veteran was a Nazi, has been hired by NYU’s journalism school to teach a class titled “Reporting on the Far Right.” From the Wrap:
Lavin’s undergraduate course “Reporting on the Far Right” will kick off in the fall semester of 2019 at NYU’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. In its official faculty bio, the university billed Lavin as an expert in “far-right extremism and social justice.”At least one current NYU journalism student questioned the decision to hire Lavin. “I sympathize with Lavin’s politics, but I don’t know why someone who had to quit their journalism job for falsely implying someone is a Nazi should be teaching at NYU,” said the student, who requested anonymity for fear of academic reprisal. “I know there are plenty of reporters out there in need of work who haven’t made a mistake like that.”
Last June, around the time Abolish ICE was becoming a thing, a disabled Marine Corps veteran named Justin Gaertner was highlighted by ICE for his work with the HERO Corps, a group created by ICE to combat child sexual exploitation. But neither the fact that Gaertner was doing good work or the fact that he was a disabled veteran mattered to the mob of social justice warriors who worked themselves into a frenzy over a tattoo on his elbow. This was basically the Covington Catholic story but with a slightly different target. Here’s the photo that got the mob going:
Contrary to what thousands of angry SJWs were saying at the time, the tattoo was not a Nazi symbol. In fact, it was the symbol for the platoon Gaertner fought with in Afghanistan. But before that became clear, New Yorker reporter Talia Lavin jumped in to tweet about the tattoo. When Lavin realized she had made a mistake she deleted her tweet but ICE released a statement the next day explicitly blaming Lavin for stoking the outrage.
Read the full ICE statement regarding erroneous attacks on ICE employee for #military tattoo:
Per Gaertner, the tattoo on his left elbow is “Titan 2,” the symbol for his platoon while he fought in Afghanistan. The writing on his right arm is the Spartan Creed which is about protecting family and children. pic.twitter.com/qs8H3tkd6l
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To be fair, Lavin was one of many pushing this moronic claim, though she may have been one of the few journalists entertaining it. A few days later, Lavin apologized to Gaertner and resigned from her job:
This has been a wild and difficult week.
I owe ICE agent Justin Gaertner a sincere apology for spreading an rumor about his tattoo.
However, I do not think it is acceptable for a federal agency to target a private citizen for a good faith, hastily rectified error.
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I also realized I had become a weapon used to discredit my colleagues and the vital work they do holding power to account.
As a result, I have resigned after three years at the New Yorker.
This has been painful and scary, and as I move into an uncertain and financially precarious future, I will be focusing on my writing and any other freelance work I can find.
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The Wrap reports that Lavin moved on to a job at Media Matters, which seems a bit ironic given that the group is largely focused on getting people on the right fired from their jobs. Maybe Lavin had some seconds thoughts because she apparently left that job a few months ago. Her new gig teaching at NYU’s J-School starts in the fall.
To be clear, I’m not a fan of hounding people out of their jobs over political opinions. I do think a reporter should know better than to publicly accuse someone of being a Nazi based on a single, indistinct photo. I’m not sure how someone with that track record deserves to be hired as a professor teaching other people how to do the job. I suspect part of the reason it happened in this case is that Lavin is on the left. Put it this way, it’s hard to imagine NYU hiring a conservative who’d made a similar mistake.
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