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Commentary editor John Podhoretz apologized for an “aggressive and rude” tweet that called for journalism schools to be “neutron bombed.” His tweet specifically was in reference to NYU hiring Lauren Duca and Talia Lavin to teach journalism classes this year.
Duca formerly wrote for Teen Vogue where her article, “Donald Trump is Gaslighting America,” went viral. Lain resigned from the New Yorker as a fact checker last year after wrongly tweeting it appeared an ICE agent had a Nazi tattoo; she apologized and deleted her tweet after learning the agent’s tattoo was a Maltese cross. Commentary is a conservative magazine.
His tweet read, “J Schools should be neutron bombed and their building given to Rick Singer for no show side door people.”
Podhoretz deleted his Twitter account after the post, but the next day, March 21, apologized, commenting “I regret my attacks on Lauren Duca and Talia Lavin.” He noted his comments “were unprovoked and therefore entirely unseemly.”
Lavin tweeted in response, “I don’t accept the apology of a man who will neither recognize nor atone for his rank, abusive misogny. Stay gone, Podhoretz.”
On Commentary‘s website, Podhoretz wrote:
“On Wednesday, I wrote an aggressive and rude satirical tweet involving a neutron bomb, the NYU Journalism School, journalism schools in general, and two writers. I regret my attacks on Lauren Duca and Talia Lavin, which were unprovoked and therefore entirely unseemly. I wholeheartedly apologize to them.
“I am a journalist. I employ journalists. I publish journalists. I have spent a 37-year career working in and around and among journalists. I have worked full-time at six major journalistic institutions. Let me assure anyone who might have believed otherwise from my tweet that I love my profession and I do not wish to see any fellow journalists come to harm.
iMediaEthics has written to Lavin and tweeted Duca to ask if they have heard from Podhoretz directly. We’ve also written to Podhoretz.
Hat Tip: Mediaite