New York Times editorial board member Mara Gay has humiliated her employer.
Again.
Gay revealed this week she is "disturbed" by conspicuous displays of the American flag, claiming the type of person who flies the flag from the back of a pickup truck is the type of person who wants to keep the United States all white. That a member of the New York Times's editorial board would assert such an asinine thing is embarrassment enough for the newspaper. But it gets worse. The paper of record is tripping over itself to defend Gay's half-baked musings, claiming she did not, in fact, say the thing she absolutely said.
Her “comments on MSNBC have been irresponsibly taken out of context,” the New York Times’s communications team said , suggesting there is a responsible way to take comments out of context. “Her argument was that Trump and many of his supporters have politicized the American flag."
This is not what Gay said.
Here are her full comments in context [emphasis added]:
You know, the reality is here that we have a large percentage of the American population, I don't know how big it is, but we have tens of millions of Trump voters who continue to believe that their rights as citizens are under threat by simple virtue of having to share the democracy with others. I think as long as they see Americanness as the same as one with whiteness, this is going to continue. We have to figure out how to get every American a place at the table in this democracy but how to separate Americanness, America, from whiteness. Until we can confront that and talk about that, this is really going to continue.
I was on Long Island this weekend, visiting a really dear friend. And I was really disturbed. I saw, you know, dozens and dozens of pickup trucks with you know, expletives against Joe Biden on the back of them, Trump flags, and in some cases, just dozens of American flags, which, you know, is also just disturbing, because essentially the message was clear — this is my country. This is not your country. I own this. And so until we're ready to have that conversation, this is going to continue.
What really is concerning to me as well is, it's not just Democrats in Congress. I think there's a large percentage of Americans, even some of my colleagues in journalism, who are invested in some way in pretending that this isn't the threat that it is. That is the real concern. Because, you know, the Trump voters who are not going to get on board with democracy, they're a minority. You can marginalize them, long-term. But if we don't take the threat seriously, then I think we're all in really bad shape.
The American flag is ubiquitous. You see it flown everywhere in this country, in both heavily Democratic and heavily Republican counties. You see it flown with great pride in our largest cities and smallest towns. In fact, there are no small amount of pictures online showing trucks bearing both the American flag and pro-Joe Biden paraphernalia . Also, the very idea that the flag has been "politicized" is rather preposterous as flags are inherently political. Have you ever heard of an apolitical national flag?
If you’re somewhat taken aback by Gay’s particularly foolish take on civilians proudly displaying the American flag, suggesting they’re likely backwoods white supremacists, you shouldn’t be. She is not — how do we put this gently? — the sharpest tool in the shed.
Recall, she’s the same wonder-brain who asserted in March 2020 that $500 million could be divided up to provide 327 million people with exactly $1 million apiece, with plenty leftover. No, $500 million dollars divided would provide $1 million to no more than 500 people. As others have noted, this leaves 326,999,500 people who get nothing if it is indeed divided into millions. This is basic arithmetic.
Gay later wrote a teary-eyed opinion article, claiming the mantle of victim-hood for all the deserved mockery her bungling of basic math called down on her head. The op-ed, by the way, is titled “My People Have Been Through Worse Than a Twitter Mob.”
Come down from the cross. We could use the wood.
Elsewhere, Gay blamed the then-president for a broken water main in East Harlem , New York, apparently unaware of both the existence of her mayor and what his job entails.
It’s tempting at this point to wonder whether Gay is ignorant or deliberately dishonest. To the latter point, that she is not merely ignorant but is intentionally disseminating left-wing agitprop to a wider audience, there may be some merit.
Recall, Gay was one of the most prominent voices in media who claimed, falsely, in March 2020 that former President Donald Trump told governors at the outset of the coronavirus pandemic they’re “on their own.”
“Trump told governors this morning they are on their own: ‘Respirators, ventilators, all of the equipment — try getting it yourselves,’ Mr. Trump told the governors during the conference call, a recording of which was shared with The New York Times,” Gay said on social media .
This is not what he said.
Trump told governors they could streamline their respective responses by taking specific actions at the state level. He also told them they have the support of the White House.
“Respirators, ventilators, all of the equipment — try getting it yourselves,” he said.
“We will be backing you, but try getting it yourselves,” Trump added. “Point of sales, much better, much more direct if you can get it yourself.”
Gay would have known this from reading the New York Times’s coverage of the president’s remarks to governors. Curiously, she somehow managed to bungle her paper’s own reporting.
Whether Gay is actually as dimwitted as she makes herself out to be is up for debate.
As for the New York Times itself, there is nothing but shame.
Indeed, after this week, with its knee-jerk, dishonest defense of Gay’s comments about flags, the paper of record owns this mess. Gay is an embarrassment to the New York Times, one the paper is apparently all too happy to coddle and excuse.
