As news broke Friday that the Justice Department would not bring charges against the former IRS official who oversaw the targeting of conservative groups, members of the press appeared far more preoccupied with an article about time travel and killing a baby version of Adolph Hitler.
A two-year long investigation by the Justice Department found “substantial evidence of mismanagement, poor judgment and institutional inertia leading to the belief by many tax-exempt applicants that the IRS targeted them based on their political viewpoints,” Assistant Attorney General Peter Kadzik said Friday in a letter to Congress. “But poor management is not a crime.”
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The scandal first broke in 2013 when Lois Lerner, the then-director of the exempt organizations office at the IRS, apologized in response to a planted question at an American Bar Association event in Washington, D.C., for targeting conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
Lerner stepped down soon thereafter, and Congress launched multiple investigations, hearing from the leaders of groups targeted directly by the IRS.
On Friday, after a years-long probe by the justice Department, the nation learned that Lerner’s role in the admitted targeting would merit no charges.
However, at around the same time that news broke of the Justice Department’s decision, the New York Times Magazine asked its readers whether they would kill baby Hitler if given the chance to travel back in time.
“We asked … readers: If you could go back and kill Hitler as a baby, would you do it? (What’s your response?)” they asked in a tweet.
The response on social media from members of the press was immediate and overwhelming.
“Who will be the first 2016 candidate to weigh in on the baby Hitler question?” the Verge’s Andrew Hawkins jokingly asked.
Talking Points Memo’s Katherine Krueger added, “Think baby Hitler really shows NYTMag’s relaunch has been a resounding success.”
“Time Travel Pro Tip: If you’re gonna kill Baby Hitler, just be extra sure that dude ain’t your grandfather,” said Forbes’ Helen Popkin.
The New York Times’ Nick Confessore said, “I wish people would take my campaign finance Tweets as seriously as they take my Baby Hitler tweets but oh well.”
“Can we all just step back and marvel at the term “Baby Hitler” being in the NYT. Seriously. BABY HITLER,” International Business Times’ David Sirota added.
And so on and so on.
On this Friday afternoon, Twitter is debating whether or not to kill baby Hitler: https://t.co/cajSWqUp5X pic.twitter.com/MZGSTlFJVQ
— CBSN (@CBSNLive) October 23, 2015
For reporters and pundits, theorizing on social media about murdering baby Hitler appeared far, far more interesting than discussing news that the woman who oversaw the targeting of conservative groups would go free.
The lopsided interest was soon made evident by trends on social media: By 5:00 pm on Friday, the top trending topic on Twitter in the United States was “Baby Hitler.”
“Lois Lerner” was number four, behind “Adele.”
