The print version will arrive Sunday, but online readers of the New York Times were able to read writer Richard Fausset's profile of a white nationalist living in New Carlise, Ohio, a day early. As Twitchy reported Friday, a New York Times profile of conservative Ben Shapiro - whom some laughably consider "alt-right" - was enough to convince Debra Messing to allegedly cancel her subscription, so what reaction would Times readers have to an actual, self-declared Nazi sympathizer profiled in its pages? The reception was not good, overall.
Comic Michael Ian Black wasn't necessarily contrary at all: why not profile white nationalists, especially if they seem more pathetic than powerful in the telling?
Going to be contrary: maybe it's a good thing to show the world who modern Nazis are. He isn't some jackbooted 'roid raging freak. He's just a wannabe rock-n-roller with too many cats. He's nothing.
- Michael Ian Black (@michaelianblack) November 25, 2017
ESPN's Jemele Hill took the same tack:
The journalist in me understands that your job sometimes is to explain why awful people are so awful. It's a delicate process. It's a fine line between explaining and giving hateful people a platform that normalizes their hate. Swing and a miss, here https://t.co/KkEE2rmhTv
- Jemele Hill (@jemelehill) November 25, 2017
Late night TV writer Bess Kalb was not a fan of Fausset's take:
I don't mean to sound intolerant or coarse, but fuck this Nazi and fuck the gentle, inquisitive tone of this Nazi normalizing barf journalism, and fuck the photographer for not just throwing the camera at this Nazi's head and laughing. https://t.co/Pxfx2KU9AN
- Bess Kalb (@bessbell) November 25, 2017
