New York Times faces backlash for changing headline of op-ed on far-left streamer Hasan Piker

The New York Times quietly swapped the headline on a contentious op-ed about Hasan Piker — the far-left Twitch streamer notorious for declaring “America deserved 9/11” — following backlash over a column that cast the pro-Palestinian firebrand as “not the enemy.”Ezra Klein, a left-leaning opinion writer for the Gray Lady, penned a column on Sunday that was originally headlined: “Hasan Piker Is Not the Enemy.”The Times then changed the headline, which as of Monday morning read: “This Is Why There’s No Liberal Joe Rogan.”In the piece, Klein weighs in on the debate among Democrats over whether mainstream party politicians should appear on Piker’s Twitch streams.He also called on Dems running for office to appear on podcasts hosted by those who have been critical of their party, like Joe Rogan.“I have deep disagreements with Piker, but he isn’t a ‘Jew hater.’ He’s an anti-Zionist,” Klein wrote.

“And here, I think, the real stakes of this fight come into view.”X users took the Times to task for the headline change, with some accusing Klein and the paper of sanitizing Piker’s views.“Wow — hey @nytimes are you gonna explain to your readers why you changed the headline to this @ezraklein piece about @hasanthehun? Who did you capitulate to?” one account posted.“Even the @nytimes was embarrassed by a headline declaring that the man who said ‘America deserved 9/11’ isn’t the enemy,” another user wrote.“They didn’t change the story defending Hasan Piker, but at least they made the title a little less obvious.”“It’s crazy watching the moderate left defend Piker.

This guy is basically Nick Fuentes of the left but he gets invited to Oscar parties, is objectively evil in very obvious ways, and is not very smart,” one X user wrote.“Why circle the wagons for this guy?”Hen Mazzig, a pro-Israel commentator, wrote on X: “It’s a comforting notion, that if we just allow people to spread lies and hate about our...