NYT‘s Haberman Deletes Tweets Ripping ‘Garbage’ Fox News Criticism of Media’s Florida Parade Crash Coverage
New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman deleted a number of tweets criticizing Fox News for its coverage of the media reaction to a deadly car accident at an LGBTQ pride parade in Florida.
The incident occurred over the weekend when a pickup truck drove into parade spectators in Wilton Manors, FL, leaving one person dead and 2 others injured. The crash prompted speculation that this was a deliberate attack on the LGBT community or Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), who was nearby when it happened.
The speculation that followed ran rampant when Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis claimed, “this is a terrorist attack against the LGBT community. This is exactly what it is. Hardly an accident. It was deliberate, it was premeditated, and it was targeted against a specific person.” The mayor’s comments were widely reported.
But local police have since come to the belief that the crash was actually a “tragic accident,” and NOT a “terrorist attack” as the mayor flatly stated. Trantalis apologized for jumping to conclusions. Fox News published an article calling out Haberman and others who covered Trantalis’ comments or amplified the notion that the crash was anti-LGBT terrorism.
The FoxNews.com article is titled “Reporters, activists rush to judge Florida Pride parade crash before investigation” and ledes with “Reporters and liberal activists were quick to label a vehicular incident at a Florida Pride parade as a ‘terrorist attack.'” It doesn’t take a degree in journalism to note that the reporters were simply citing the comment made by the local mayor, which is, of course, newsworthy. The reporting of which does not make a journalist a liberal activist.
Haberman was named in the Fox News article because she retweeted another reporter who quoted Trantalis’ claim.
The Times reporter punched back at the website, calling its media coverage “such garbage.” Those tweets were eventually deleted, but the screenshots survived:
Haberman later explained why she deleted her tweets, saying Fox “shows aired comments I made for several days out of context, and some reporters used them in media stories on the website out of context.” She also called out Fox’s “ideological leap” of blaming reporters covering Trantalis for the fact that his remarks turned out to be faulty.
I deleted an overly broad tweet about the Fox media team. I should be more specific – some Fox shows aired comments I made for several days out of context, and some reporters used them in media stories on the website out of context. A tweet also got mischaracterized today.
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) June 21, 2021
Here’s a follow-up to the mayor’s comment, where an official involved in the parade says he knows the driver of the car involved in the Fla LGBTQ parade incident and debunks what the mayor said. https://t.co/Ib5k3pTDim
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) June 21, 2021
It was right to call out the mayor for this rather newsworthy but, as it turned out, not grounded in fact statement. It’s the blaming of media for the mere act of reporting it that makes an illogical leap. Kind of like blaming reporters for covering a president’s remarks https://t.co/GbKu55brKK
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) June 21, 2021
“It was right to call out the mayor for this rather newsworthy but, as it turned out, not grounded in fact statement,” she said. “It’s the blaming of media for the mere act of reporting it that makes an illogical leap. Kind of like blaming reporters for covering a president’s remarks.”
