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HuffPost slammed for racy Steve Bannon headline
Published September 25, 2017
The liberal Huffington Post website was pressured to change a derogatory homepage headline about the exit of White House strategist Steve Bannon after a social media backlash on Friday.
The website first headlined its story “Goy, Bye!”
The word “goy” is used to describe someone who is not Jewish.
Bannon has long faced accusations of anti-Semitism from some of his fiercest critics -- accusations he denies. He was often portrayed in the press as clashing with top White House aides, including the president’s daughter and son-in-law, who are Jewish.
Even some left-wing figures took issue with The Huffington Post's headline swipe.
“Say, @HuffPost, WTF?” tweeted former MSNBC anchor Keith Olbermann.
Others expressed shock at a website that often calls out others for political-incorrectness.
“I love your work, but wish you hadn't gone with this headline,” tweeted Julia Ioffe, a writer at The Atlantic.
“What is @HuffPost thinking?” tweeted Michael Wilner, a Washington correspondent for the Jerusalem Post.
Responding to the criticism, Lydia Polgreen, the site’s editor in chief, defended the outlet, saying its headlines are intended to be “edgy and playful.”
She said the headline was meant to be a “tribute to Yiddish and Beyoncé” (a Beyoncé song features the line, "boy, bye") and any “other interpretation was completely unintended.”
The website then changed its Bannon headline to “White Flight.”
That wasn’t received well online either.
“I would say @HuffPost's new Bannon headline ('White Flight') in exactly the same bad taste as the one it replaces ('Goy, Bye'),” tweeted Eugene Kontorovich, a professor at Northwestern law school.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/huffpost-slammed-for-racy-steve-bannon-headline