Journalists rebuked the New York Times for an article that linked Monday’s deadly mass shooting to Michigan State University’s past sexual assault scandal. The article, titled “The mass shooting places Michigan State back in an uncomfortable national spotlight,” was included in the outlet’s live coverage of the shooting, which resulted in the deaths of three students and the injuries of five others. The NYT took this as a means of pivoting to the school’s notorious past, including the conviction of sex abuse doctor Larry Nassar. NYT reporter Tiffany May dedicated only a few sentences to the shooting. Twitter users blasted the Times for publishing such a perplexing and “tone-deaf” article about the shooting. “Is the @nytimes serious with this headline? Biggest scumbags ever,” Barstool’s Dave Portnoy tweeted. “The inexplicably tone-deaf article places @nytimes back in an uncomfortable national spotlight,” journalist Ty Schalter tweeted.
NEW YORK POST: NYT ripped for dredging up Larry Nassar case in Michigan State shooting coverage
By Emily Crane; February 14, 2023
People ripped into the New York Times on Tuesday over the outlet’s “disgusting” decision to link its coverage of the Michigan State University deadly shooting to the school’s history of sex abuse scandals.
The news outlet was accused of using Monday night’s incident, which left three students dead and five others injured, as a talking point to dredge up the school’s notorious past — including the conviction of sex abuse doctor Larry Nassar.
The article — titled “The mass shooting places Michigan State back in an uncomfortable national spotlight” — was included in the outlet’s live coverage of the deadly shooting.
“The shooting at Michigan State University on Monday upended the lives of thousands of students. It also put the school back in the national spotlight, years after a sex abuse scandal involving a prominent sports medicine doctor on its faculty became public,” the article read.
The backlash was swift, with many outraged users blasting the left-leaning outlet for being “tone-deaf” online.
“Is the @nytimes serious with this headline? Biggest scumbags ever,” Barstool’s Dave Portnoy tweeted.
“The inexplicably tone-deaf article places @nytimes back in an uncomfortable national spotlight,” journalist Ty Schalter added.
Another user, Adrian Dater, tweeted: “Echoing many others, this is a really really stupid headline by the @nytimes and wildly inappropriate content to be included in a tragic mass shooting story.”
“There was a mass shooting at Michigan State & the NYT thought it would be appropriate to have one of their writers barf up a piece on the Larry Nassar case. What a joke,” user Jimmy Brunn chimed in.
The Michigan State shooting unfolded when the gunman — since identified as Anthony Dwayne McRae — stormed the campus and opened fire at the university’s Berkey Hall, an academic building, and later at the nearby MSU Union, which is a popular hub for students to eat or study.
Hours later, McRae, 43, fatally shot himself after being confronted several miles away by cops following a manhunt that forced frightened students to hide in the dark.
The three students killed in the shooting have been identified as Alexandria “Alex” Verner, Brian Fraser and Arielle Diamond Anderson.
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