Jonathan Chait has ‘made a copy editing tweak’ after Christopher Rufo asks for a correction

Saying it’s a “copy editing tweak” shifts the blame over to the copy editor, who should have caught whatever it is in the first place; it’s obviously not the writer’s fault.

As Twitchy reported earlier, Christopher Rufo learned that the Washington Post would be appending a correction to its hit piece on him. Rufo also reached out to Jonathan Chait’s editor at New York magazine for a correction. Christina Pushaw has been branded as a homophobe and transphobe because she once called Florida’s Parental Rights in Education bill “the anti-grooming bill” — that’s the type of rhetoric that extremism experts told a New York Times reporter can increase the likelihood of violence against trans people.

Andrew Sullivan once asked Rufo if he’d condemn the use of the word “groomer”:

But you can surely condemn the use of the word “groomer” as a slur to suggest teachers are pedophiles, right?

— Andrew Sullivan (@sullydish) March 23, 2022

Rufo insists he’s never called anyone a groomer and has advised people not to use the term.

Part of the Orban playbook is putting schools in the hands of political hacks like Chris Rufo https://t.co/WPzY84sMYY

— Jonathan Chait (@jonathanchait) January 9, 2023

Hi Jonathan, what’s the best contact for your editor? You’ve included a significant factual error in your recent piece. I have never called any person a “groomer”; in fact, I have explicitly counseled *against* doing so.

You should issue a correction. pic.twitter.com/iGGuH6x4eT

— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) January 9, 2023

Hi, Chris. Here is a story discussing your practice of describing Ron DeSantis’s critics as groomers. https://t.co/WVLKykUnuP https://t.co/r95Qg98L8o

— Jonathan Chait (@jonathanchait) January 9, 2023

FYI, the original scare quotes were intended to convey skepticism toward the charge Rufo employs, not a direct quote. We have made a copy-editing tweak to clear up any potential confusion. https://t.co/f1Nc7cfkHr

— Jonathan Chait (@jonathanchait) January 9, 2023

As Rufo notes, the charge Rufo prefers to use against various DeSantis critics is “grooming,” not being a “groomer.” We have tweaked the copy to make sure no erroneous impression is possible. pic.twitter.com/hkxVSd5BFO

— Jonathan Chait (@jonathanchait) January 9, 2023

So you lied.

— jimtreacher.substack.com (@jtLOL) January 9, 2023

I have done a control+F search for “groomer” and “groomers” in your article, but neither yielded any evidence that I have “attacked [my] critics as ‘groomers.'”

Specifically, which critics have I attacked using that word? Cite your sources (besides yourself).

— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) January 9, 2023

Just own up to it. You saw a lot of people using the term as an attack and you assumed that I have used it, too. But you didn’t actually check to make sure that was a fact and you got it wrong.

It’s time to make the correction. Just own up to your mistake.

— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) January 9, 2023

Source: trust me bro

— g (@gkvky6zffq) January 9, 2023

Chait works like 4 hours a week and pounds out these articles in ~30 min. We should be grateful his word processor has spell and grammar checking. Same people who keep “fact-checking” everything except their own writing.

— Cerberus (@Cerberus0fHades) January 9, 2023

Anecdote related to this. I saw @realchrisrufo speak at an off-the-record event, & then after his talk listened to him talk circle of others, & did not once here him utter the g-word. I was actually quite impressed at his diligence in taking the high-road & avoiding that language https://t.co/x6SoapgqWL

— jonstokes.(eth|com) (@jonst0kes) January 9, 2023

We did a piece about conservatives arguing both for and against using the term groomer to describe, say, the dean of students saying the great thing about his job is watching students pass around butt plugs and lube. Why, if Jesus Christ were alive today, He would be called a groomer by the far-right, says Matthew Dowd.

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Related:

Christopher Rufo spotlights WaPo fessing up to ‘supreme embarrassment’ in hit piece https://t.co/jpveM8gGw3

— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) January 9, 2023