The New York Times caught heat on Tuesday after posting its sanitized obituary for terrorist Iranian general Qassem Soleimani — especially in comparison to an obituary the news outlet recently posted for a football coach who kept a female reporter out of the men’s locker room.
Blurbing the obituary for Soleimani on Tuesday, the Times simply captioned and headlined the obit: “Qassim Suleimani, Master of Iran’s Intrigue and Force, Dies at 62.”
Qassim Suleimani, Master of Iran’s Intrigue and Force, Dies at 62 https://t.co/POoNRnRz26
— NYT Obituaries (@NYTObits) January 7, 2020
By comparison, when the Times posted an obituary for former NFL coach Sam Wyche, the publication felt it necessary to highlight Wyche “barring a female reporter from the team’s locker room.”
“Sam Wyche, who was the last coach to lead the Cincinnati Bengals to the Super Bowl, but who was later fined by the National Football League for barring a female reporter from the team’s locker room, has died,” said the caption of the obituary, which was first published on Friday.
Sam Wyche, who was the last coach to lead the Cincinnati Bengals to the Super Bowl, but who was later fined by the National Football League for barring a female reporter from the team’s locker room, has died https://t.co/A2cnDDYbQu
— NYT Obituaries (@NYTObits) January 7, 2020
The two posts were published on Twitter less than seven hours apart.
Politicos online noticed the Times’ differing posts on the two very different men and took the outlet to task.
“Six hours apart,” conservative writer and podcast host Stephen Miller captioned two screenshots of the Times’ obituary posts.
Six hours apart. pic.twitter.com/rLgIGgPmtv
— Stephen Miller (@redsteeze) January 7, 2020
Popular conservative Twitter account “neontaster” mocked, “Did Soleimani ever bar a woman from a locker room? Check mate, neocons.”
Did Soleimani ever bar a woman from a locker room? Check mate, neocons.
— neontaster (@neontaster) January 7, 2020
“Sometimes the sins of the recently departed are worth highlighting. [S]ometimes they aren’t,” snarked the Washington Examiner’s Becket Adams.
sometimes the sins of the recently departed are worth highlighting. sometimes they aren’t. pic.twitter.com/cYHnVVLBwZ
— 𝚒'𝚖 𝚊 𝚑𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚠𝚊𝚢 𝚝𝚜𝚊𝚛 (@BecketAdams) January 7, 2020
“The New York Times gives more favorable PR to a brutal terrorist than to a football coach,” Daily Wire contributor Harry Khachatrian said.
The New York Times gives more favorable PR to a brutal terrorist than to a football coach https://t.co/7YY682KI5L pic.twitter.com/NxCWKCyGij
— Harry Khachatrian (@Harry1T6) January 7, 2020
Soleimani was strategically killed early Friday by a Trump-ordered airstrike near Baghdad International Airport. He was the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force, a U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization, and responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Americans.
“Soleimani was the head of the Iranian and Iranian-backed forces carrying out those operations killing American troops” during the Iraq War, Fox News reported. “According to the State Department, 17% of all deaths of U.S. personnel in Iraq from 2003 to 2011 were orchestrated by Soleimani.”
Soleimani was in the process of “coordinating” attacks on U.S. personnel, according to the State Department.
“We can confirm that in the past several days, General Soleimani had been traveling in the Middle East coordinating further imminent large-scale attacks against U.S. diplomats and service members. These threats were highly credible and the intelligence is sound,” the State Department said.
State Department: “We can confirm that in the past several days, General Soleimani had been traveling in the Middle East coordinating further imminent large-scale attacks against U.S. diplomats and service members. These threats were highly credible and the intelligence is sound”
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) January 3, 2020
As noted by The Daily Wire, the Times also published a piece lionizing Soleimani on Tuesday:
The New York Times ran a piece titled, “Why Iran Is In Mourning,” in which the Times attempted to put the best face on Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, opining of his funeral that there was a “unified national outpouring that is reserved for a small handful of figures in any country, I mean a beloved president, a civil rights leader like Martin Luther King in the United States…” The Times reporter theorized that the Trump administration had “miscalculated the level of admiration” that Iranians had for Soleimani, claiming that opposition figures who had been jailed by the Iranian government had said, “He was a national hero.”