The New York Times is defending editorial board member Mara Gay after she was criticized for comments she made during an appearance on MSNBC.
In a statement on Twitter on Tuesday night, the Times said, “New York Times editorial board member Mara Gay’s comments on MSNBC have been irresponsibly taken out of context. Her argument was that Trump and many of his supporters have politicized the American flag.”
“The attacks on her today are ill-informed and grounded in bad-faith,” it added.
New York Times editorial board member Mara Gay's comments on MSNBC have been irresponsibly taken out of context. Her argument was that Trump and many of his supporters have politicized the American flag. The attacks on her today are ill-informed and grounded in bad-faith.
— NYTimes Communications (@NYTimesPR) June 8, 2021
The statement comes after Gay said during an appearance on MSNBC, “I was on Long Island this weekend visiting a really dear friend, and I was really disturbed. I saw, you know, dozens and dozens of pickup trucks with, you know, expletives against Joe Biden on the back of them, Trump flags, and some cases just dozens of American flags, which, you know, is also just disturbing.”
“Essentially the message was clear. It was, ‘This is my country. This is not your country. I own this,” she added.
In case you missed it:
NYT/MSNBC’s @MaraGay: In Long Island last weekend, I saw “dozens of American flags,” which was “just disturbing” pic.twitter.com/RhGdqqJope
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) June 8, 2021
She also raised concerns about the “large percentage” of the population who “believe that their rights as citizens are under threat by simple virtue of having to share the democracy with others.”
“The reality is here that we have a large percentage of the American population — I don’t know how big it is, but we have tens of millions of Trump voters who continue to believe that their rights as citizens are under threat by simple virtue of having to share the democracy with others. I think that as long as they see Americanness as the same as one with whiteness, this is going to continue.”
The Times’ statement did not appease her critics.
https://twitter.com/BecketAdams/status/1402411645704589313
https://twitter.com/seanmdav/status/1402410653864935425
https://twitter.com/RichardGrenell/status/1402409597227335680
Gay responded to users who criticized her and included the American flag emoji in their comments, writing on Tuesday, “I see I’m being trolled with the American flag this morning. Trolling a Black journalist with the American flag is not the own some people think it is.”