In yet another instance of liberal insanity, a former “fact-checker” for the virulently anti-Trump New Yorker, just lost another job, this time with the radical NYU as a teacher for an elective created by the University to report on the far right.
Only minutes ago, the disgraced “journalist” who apologized in June for falsely accusing a wheelchair-bound ICE agent of wearing a Nazi tattoo, has taken to Twitter to blame the “child caging government” and ICE for starting a rumor about her. (see below)
According to The Wrap – New York University has canceled an undergraduate journalism class that former New Yorker fact-checker Talia Lavin was scheduled to teach this fall after only two students signed up.
The decision to hire Lavin to teach the elective, “Reporting on the Far Right,” had drawn criticism since she resigned her New Yorker position last June after falsely accusing an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent of having a Nazi tattoo.
Adam Penenberg, director of undergraduate studies at NYU’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute, said that low enrollment forced him to cancel the class. “Canceling the class had nothing to do with Talia’s writings, tweets, or anything else. We canceled it because too few students enrolled,” Penenberg added.
In her original course, Lavin promised a fulsome exploration of the “far right,” saying she would show students how to track and identify online extremism.
“In an era when hate is on the rise, this course will provide student journalists with a thorough grounding in far-right and white-supremacist movements in the United States, briefly examining their history and delving into their sprawling present incarnations,” reads a now deleted course description, which also promised “a careful analysis of pieces that have fallen short of the mark.”
Here’s a screenshot of the course description:
Lavin’s three-year career as a fact checker at The New Yorker was derailed last June after she tweeted an accusation that Justin Gaertner, a wheelchair-bound ICE agent, of sporting a Nazi Iron Cross tattoo over his left elbow.
some vets said this ICE agent's tattoo looked more like a Maltese cross than an Iron Cross (common among white supremacists), so i deleted my tweet so as not to spread misinformation pic.twitter.com/xaR6bqzSoP
— Talia Lavin (@chick_in_kiev) June 18, 2018
She later deleted the tweet and apologized after learning the tattoo represented a Maltese Cross, a symbol commonly used by members of the U.S. Veterans of Foreign Wars.
The New Yorker magazine fact-checker who falsely accused an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) employee of being a Nazi over an innocuous tattoo has resigned and apologized on social media.
Lavin apologized to the ICE agent in a tweet and revealed that she’s no longer working as a “fact-checker” for the anti-Trump publication, the New Yorker.
To Justin Gaertner, I apologize, sincerely: all I saw in you was the photo ICE tweeted, and not the human being depicted inside it. It was uncharitable, and the hasty deletion doesn't change that. I'm sorry and I have voluntarily resigned after three years at the New Yorker.
— Talia Lavin (@chick_in_kiev) June 23, 2018
More recently, however, Lavin seems to be backtracking on her apology and blaming ICE for blowing her false accusations out of proportion.
P.S. I’m not ashamed ICE lied about me that I’d started a rumor about one of their agents. I said a cross tat looked like an iron cross well after others had noticed, then deleted it after 15 min w/correx. I never used the word “Nazi.” or the guy’s name. ICE did.
— Talia Lavin (@chick_in_kiev) May 30, 2019
Talia’s most recent tweet shows her blaming the ‘child snatching government’ for the horrific lie she spread about the wheelchair-bound ICE agent.
More embarrassing for the brutal child-snatching government agency so desperate for good PR they fabricated a lie about a fact-checker, and the right-wing running dogs that lapped it up as major news, in my opinion. https://t.co/SMzA42JCJv
— Talia Lavin (@chick_in_kiev) May 30, 2019