‘I Screwed Up’: David Brooks Addresses Airport Tweet That Got Him Roasted Into Oblivion
New York Times columnist David Brooks finally addressed the now-infamous tweet that made him the main character on Twitter/X for a couple of days this week.
On Wednesday night, Brooks tweeted a photo of his meal at Newark Liberty International Airport. It showed a burger, fries, and a glass of what appeared to be brown liquor.
“This meal just cost me $78 at Newark Airport,” he wrote. “This is why Americans think the economy is terrible.”
Brooks, a right-of-center millionaire caught flak online immediately. The backlash was so bad, the tweet was inundated with “Community Notes.” He even took incoming from the restaurant in question.
“Looks like someone was knocking back some serious drinks — bar tab was almost 80% and he’s complaining about the cost of his meal. Keep drinking, buddy — we get paid off everything,” the establishment posted online.
Brooks was a panelist on Friday’s PBS Newshour, where guest host William Brangham asked the columnist about his misfire.
“David, before we go, I want to ask you about this tweet you put out this week where – and we can put this up on screen – you posted this tweet that showed a dinner you are having at an airport and that it cost $78,” said the host, who read Brooks’ tweet back to him. “You got roughed up a little bit online about this, but I’m just curious more about what you were trying to convey with that.”
Here was Brooks’ response:
BROOKS: Well, first it started out hatched in my mind as a joke ’cause if you looked at what I was eating, it was bourbon and a very fattening hamburger and fries. So, I can’t afford to make bad lifestyle choices.
But the problem with the tweet, which I wrote so stupidly, was it made it seem like I was oblivious to something that is blindingly obvious – that an upper-middle-class journalist having a bourbon at an airport is a lot different from a family living paycheck-to-paycheck.
And when I’m getting sticker shock, it’s like an inconvenience. When they’re getting sticker shock, it’s a disaster. And so, I was insensitive. I screwed up. I should not have written that tweet. I probably should not write any tweets. But–
BRANGHAM: That’s advice we should all be taking.
BROOKS: I made a mistake. It was stupid. But the one point that is– maybe can be drawn – if anything can be drawn – was you can experience inflation as a chart with a downward slope, inflation’s coming down. But the way we experience it day-to-day is as that moment of sticker shock. You’re in the grocery store, you’re at the gas station, and suddenly something costs way more than you anticipated.
And for people who are less fortunate than I am, that is a disaster. And so, we have to understand why– we’ve seen inflation is coming down. For people living and seeing those sticker shock moments, it doesn’t feel that way.
Watch above via PBS.
