NYT Called Out for Misleading Nikki Haley Story By Mairead McArdle
Journalists and lawmakers called out the New York Times Friday after the newspaper published a story that implied Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley had lavish spending habits, citing $52,701 curtains installed in her Manhattan residence.
The State Department bought the expensive decor, “customized and mechanized curtains for the picture windows in Nikki R. Haley’s official residence,” at the same time the department was suffering from “deep budget cuts and had frozen hiring,” the Times story said.
A reader might have stopped there, but down in the fourth paragraph the Times added a crucial tidbit.
“A spokesman for Ms. Haley said plans to buy the curtains were made in 2016, during the Obama administration. Ms. Haley had no say in the purchase, he said.”
A wide array of journalists, lawmakers, and others criticized the story, calling it a political hit job, but not before some, including Democratic representative Ted Lieu, cited it and rebuked Haley.
Parkland shooting survivor and gun-control advocate David Hogg called on Haley to resign over the report.
Dear Nikki Haley,
There are starving children in America everyday and you have the audacity to misappropriate thousands of tax dollars for your own lavish lifestyle. Resign immediately
sincerely,
America https://t.co/j9h5t50GPb
— David Hogg (@davidhogg111) September 14, 2018
Vogue ran an article in response to the curtains report dubbing Haley the “latest White House big spender” after EPA administrator Scott Pruitt was forced to resign in July over his exorbitant spending of taxpayer money, among other issues.
CNN anchor Jake Tapper called the story’s implication a “false meme” and quoted a source who told CNN that “Haley had no choice in the location of the residence or what curtains were picked out that summer [of 2016].”
Senator Marco Rubio defended Haley, saying the misleading story, especially the headline, is an example of the “subtle ways media pushes their bias.”
“How can you, on the one hand, tell diplomats that basic needs cannot be met and, on the other hand, spend more than $50,000 on a customized curtain system for the ambassador to the U.N.?” Obama administration White House official Brett Bruen said, criticizing his own administration’s move.
Previous ambassadors, including Obama administration diplomats Samantha Power and Susan Rice, lived in a penthouse at the Waldorf Astoria, where the monthly rent ran as high as $135,000.
Haley and her family currently rent a luxury condo at 50 United Nations Plaza, near the United Nations building in Manhattan.
“The U.S. Mission [to the UN] leases Ambassador Haley’s residence at a considerable costs savings from our prior residence at the Waldorf-Astoria,” a Mission spokesperson said.
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