Update: After all the backlash, the Times decided it would probably be a good idea to accurately describe how the Twin Towers were taken out on 9/11.
Here's how the updated paragraph reads now:
Eighteen years have passed since terrorists commandeered airplanes to take aim at the World Trade Center and bring them down.
Original Story:
In an article published on the 18th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks, The New York Times decided to blame airplanes for taking down the World Trade Center, completely ignoring that it was terrorists who hijacked those planes.
“Eighteen years have passed since airplanes took aim at the World Trade Center and brought them down,” reads the second paragraph in the piece titled “Remembering Those Lost 18 Years Ago on 9/11.” In fact, terrorism isn’t even mentioned in the article, except for in the subheading.
To make matters worse, this is the section the NYT tweeted to promote the article, prompting widespread backlash. The death count was also wildly off. They have since deleted the tweet, but not before Twitchy captured it.
Some Twitter users pointed out it sounded an awful lot like Rep. Ilhan Omar's description of 9/11 as when "some people did something."
Did Omar and Tlaib write that article?
— GlennAC (@GlennAC14) September 11, 2019
Some planes did something
— Comfortably Smug (@ComfortablySmug) September 11, 2019
Man, those towers really must have done something to upset those airplanes. https://t.co/N0WUjV2Gt5
— Stephen Miller (@redsteeze) September 11, 2019
“On December 7, 1941, airplanes took aim and seriously damaged the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor." https://t.co/8mh6i0f4sv
— Jim Geraghty (@jimgeraghty) September 11, 2019
This may be the worst tweet of the day.
— Pradheep J. Shanker (@Neoavatara) September 11, 2019
Great job. https://t.co/vNrtILiBgc
Here is the first insensitive and incorrect tweet NYT deleted followed by edited one. Geez. “airplanes” https://t.co/KVPFG6doPr pic.twitter.com/bWxAuJ3KTf
— Juanita Broaddrick (@atensnut) September 11, 2019
Join the conversation as a VIP Member