Home > Life

The internet roasts the New York Times Opinion section with memes

Yikes.

Brian Koerber

on August 30, 2017

The opinion section of a newspaper is expected to ruffle a few feathers, but two recent New York Times opinion pieces are being criticized so much that the internet is busting out the memes.

The Times published a piece from Erik Prince on Wednesday titled "Contractors, Not Troops, Will Save Afghanistan." The problem? Prince, who happens to be Betsy DeVos' brother, is the founder of Blackwater, now renamed Academi.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

The company previously worked with the U.S. government to supply mercenaries for both Iraq and Afghanistan, raking in billions of dollars in the process.

Basically, Prince's "opinion" published in the paper of record is a blatant misuse of editorial resources. As GQ put it, it's not an opinion, it's an "advertorial."

Mashable Trend Report

Decode what’s viral, what’s next, and what it all means.

By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

Thanks for signing up!

Prince himself will benefit from more contractors in Afghanistan, making his opinion piece a huge conflict of interest. Prince is no longer part of Academi, but he is involved with Frontier Services Group, another private security contractor.

Prince even stated in the piece that he would actively pursue a bid should the president go down that path.

If the president pursues this third path, I, too, would vigorously compete to implement a plan that saves American lives, costs less than 20 percent of current spending and saves American taxpayers more than $40 billion a year.

Additionally, the Times also published a piece by Bari Weiss titled "Three Cheers for Cultural Appropriation." It did not go over so well.

So what did the internet do after seeing the pieces? Mocked the crap out of the New York Times Opinion section with memes, of course.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

The Times responded to criticism over Prince's piece, telling CNN's Oliver Darcy that the piece met its editorial standards, which it refused to discuss.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

Topics Memes

Brian Koerber

Brian was the Culture Editor and has been working at Mashable on the web culture desk since 2014.