Inside the Article:
The disgrace of the New York Times’ initial reporting of the Michigan State tragedy has not been answered. As Detroit Sports Nation previously reported, The New York Times released an article by writer Tiffany May that led with a title and story discussing the figure of Larry Nassar while covering the events that occurred Monday night on the Michigan State campus.
The internet reacts to the New York Times’ reporting
Many across the internet lambasted the Times for this horrendous equivocation of the two horrible events, tying together a sloppy thread that awoke trauma suffered by Nassar’s victims along with this reeling from the heinous crimes committed by the mass shooter that left three students dead and five more needing hospitalizations.
I myself reacted on our DSN TikTok page, calling for action from the purported leader in journalistic integrity, pleading for them to right this irresponsible wrong that May penned. The title of the piece was in woefully poor taste and the beginning of the article brought back painful memories, recklessly creating a false comparison between the two traumatic events and showing that the writer’s reporting caliber was below the grade that the NYT pretends itself to hold.
The New York Times needs to apologize
It’s baffling to even have to write these words, to ask for a response from such a large news outlet. Journalistic responsibility matters, and to be so blase with a leading article in the aftermath of yet another mass shooting plaguing the state of Michigan, the editor of May’s piece felt it appropriate to invoke Nassar. Nassar’s crimes are wholely immoral, reprehensible, and hauntingly tragic in their own right. To pair that sordid affair with the needless suffering of Monday’s evil ensnares the mind in a neverending sea of questions. Who thought this through? Why have that thought at all? What do these two events have to do with each other?
By bringing Larry Nassar and his sins back into the fray of Michigan State, the New York Times brought back institutional crimes while also covering the horrific events that unfolded seems like the NYT is saying the State got what was coming for it. I call on the New York Times to apologize not for self-aggrandizement, not to copy the outrage police and cancel culture that has struck America but because their apology will serve a greater purpose. The apology is needed to mend the wounds that were re-opened, to make right the mental anguish that comes from picturing the cruelty of Nassar’s endless assaults on the innocent and the cowardice of a lonely man striking against the society he wished to exterminate.
The New York Times claims itself to be above the fray, to be the beacon of light in a dark time in the American zeitgeist. Simply removing the article in question, scrubbing the internet of any trace of this ill-conceived article does not erase the pain that its existence needlessly created. To live up to that self-imposed mantle, NYT and Tiffany May must apologize, to the victims of Nassar for drudging up the bitter past, and to all Spartans who weep in silence as another act of evil goes unanswered.
