New York Times columnist Bret Stephens, who got furious at a college professor for calling him a bedbug earlier this week, has a new column out on the anti-Semitic rhetoric of the Nazis and bedbugs but it looks like he’s totally effed it up:
I just followed Bret’s own link. What are we doing here? https://t.co/vUoxKZFYDI pic.twitter.com/iyd2UvNcqp
— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) August 30, 2019
As you can see if you click on the bottom right photo, Stephens didn’t bother reading the footnote for his quote on the burning of Warsaw’s Jewish ghetto, “The bedbugs are on fire. The Germans are doing a great job.” You see, at the time, there really was a bedbug epidemic in Warsaw and the author of the book from where Stephens got that quote said it should be taken literally:
Lol the quote Brett Stephens used to “prove” the term “bedbugs” has been used to describe Jews appears to, contextually, possibly be about literal bedbugs literally burning.
Where are the editors? https://t.co/pDkGbWva5A
— Wesley (@WesleyLowery) August 31, 2019
Even worse? The link shows that Stephens searched “Jews as bedbugs” on Google books. That was his research:
Yup, it seems like Bret did the "jews as bedbugs" search himself. Following the lead of @nycsouthpaw I clicked the link in his column and got the same result. Here's a screenshot. https://t.co/iHLaToZBnE pic.twitter.com/N9UREigLA9
— Adam Jentleson ?? (@AJentleson) August 31, 2019
Take a bow, New York Times:
Bret Stephens, NYT opinion columnist, in order to compare his being mocked on Twitter to the death of 12 million people in the Holocaust turns to googling "Jews as bedbugs" in Google Books.
That's it. That's the extent of his research for a column in the world's largest paper. pic.twitter.com/6Da4mYEkLt
— Eoin Higgins (@EoinHiggins_) August 31, 2019
Where are his editors?
I don't even blame Bret Stephens, as he's been allowed to do this over and over. I blame his editors, up to the top, and I can't believe this is OK at a great newspaper, or even a mediocre one. Anyway, off to drink or not, I can't decide
— Bruce Arthur (@bruce_arthur) August 31, 2019
It’s how the sausage is made:
I really could not have conjured up a funnier outcome than Bret googling “Jews as bedbugs” and building his next column around the first Google Books result he could find but that’s exactly what happened https://t.co/ol4PLhzpxZ
— Dylan Matthews (@dylanmatt) August 31, 2019
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Related:
AOC's swipe at Bret Stephens' 'bedbug' tantrum would be a lot funnier if she weren't a colossal hypocrite https://t.co/rOOlwHxTOD
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) August 28, 2019
'Just. Keeps. Getting. Better!' GWU provost responds to Bret Stephens' attempt to get professor in trouble over 'bedbugs' comment https://t.co/6u0DN8iTNj
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) August 27, 2019
'No bedbugs at Doral': Trump blames 'Radical Left Democrats' for the 'false and nasty rumor' about his Miami resort https://t.co/oZMp5C1kNg
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) August 27, 2019
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