{"id":46584,"date":"2025-07-07T18:05:14","date_gmt":"2025-07-07T18:05:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/46584\/"},"modified":"2025-07-07T18:05:14","modified_gmt":"2025-07-07T18:05:14","slug":"anti-woke-activist-applauds-his-friends-at-the-new-york-times-for-zohran-mamdani-college-application-scoop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/46584\/","title":{"rendered":"Anti-woke activist applauds his \u2018friends\u2019 at the New York Times for Zohran Mamdani college application \u2018scoop\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Right-wing activist<\/a> and self-styled \u201cindependent journalist\u201d<\/a> Christopher Rufo lauded his \u201cfriends at the New York Times\u201d this week after it was reported<\/a> that the Gray Lady rushed to publish a controversial story about how Zohran Mamdani<\/a> filled out his college application because it didn\u2019t want to get \u201cscooped\u201d by Rufo.<\/p>\n

Just before the July 4th weekend, the Times sparked outcry when the paper dropped a piece<\/a> about the New York City mayoral candidate having identified himself on a 2009 application to Columbia University as both \u201cAsian\u201d and \u201cBlack or African American.\u201d Mamdani is of Indian descent and was born in Uganda.<\/p>\n

The 33-year-old state lawmaker told the Times that while he doesn\u2019t consider himself Black, he does see himself as \u201can American who was born in Africa.\u201d He also explained that, as a 17-year-old, he was attempting to represent his complex ethnic and racial background with the limited options provided on the form.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost college applications don\u2019t have a box for Indian-Ugandans, so I checked multiple boxes trying to capture the fullness of my background,\u201d Mamdani said, adding that he also wrote on the application that he was born in Uganda. \u201cEven though these boxes are constraining, I wanted my college application to reflect who I was.\u201d<\/p>\n

While criticism has focused on the newsworthiness of the piece in general, with intense debate centered on the Times’ framing of how Mamdani self-identified in high school as a scandal, much of the outrage<\/a> has also concentrated on the main source of the story.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The New York Times has faced backlash over a story on how Zohran Mamdani self-identified on a college application form, with the source of the report being a supporter of white supremacist views. (Michael M. Santiago\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

As initially published, the Times article noted that the story revolved around documents that had been hacked from Columbia\u2019s computer systems and provided to the paper by an \u201cintermediary\u201d known as Cr\u00e9mieux, whom they merely identified as \u201can academic and an opponent of affirmative action.\u201d<\/p>\n

Journalists and researchers of right-wing extremism, however, quickly pointed out<\/a> that Cr\u00e9mieux is the social media pseudonym of Jordan Lasker, a purveyor of white supremacist and eugenicist views whose public identity<\/a> has been known for months. Amid the growing outcry, the paper would later update its article to indicate that Cr\u00e9mieux \u201cwrites often about IQ and race\u201d while editor Patrick Healy publicly defended the decision to publish the story and grant the source anonymity.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat matters most here is whether the information was true and factual\u2014it was, confirmed by Mr. Mamdani; that it was independently confirmed; and that it is relevant to the public,\u201d Healy told the Columbia Journalism Review, though he did acknowledge<\/a> on social media that it was \u201cfair feedback\u201d for readers to want to know more information about Cr\u00e9mieux.<\/p>\n

On Sunday night, Semafor Media added another wrinkle to the roiling controversy over the Times story when it reported<\/a> that the paper rushed to publish the story on Thursday afternoon over concerns that Rufo would beat them.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwo people familiar with the reporting process told Semafor that the paper was aware that other journalists were working on the admissions story, including Rufo,\u201d Semafor noted. Rufo has risen to prominence in recent years<\/a> as a crusader against critical race theory<\/a>, DEI policies<\/a>, and \u201cwoke\u201d ideology<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Semafor pointed out that Rufo confirmed that he had been reporting out the story when the Times article dropped on Thursday, adding that he would follow up with additional details over the coming days on his Substack.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, in an apparent effort to further tweak progressives and spark additional backlash against the paper over the Mamdani story, Rufo applauded the Times for its report and suggested they were on the same page.<\/p>\n

\u201cBummer to get scooped, but kudos to my friends at the New York Times for being first to publish the story,\u201d the conservative provocateur tweeted<\/a> on Sunday evening.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The Democrat also explained that, as a 17-year-old, he was attempting to represent his complex ethnic and racial background with the limited options provided on the form. (REUTERS)<\/p>\n

A Times spokesperson declined to comment to Semafor on whether Rufo\u2019s reporting prompted the paper to race ahead with its story, instead pointing to Healy\u2019s statement to Columbia Journalism Review<\/a> explaining his reasoning for publishing the piece.<\/p>\n

Among journalists and writers at the Times, opinions on the story have been divided, reigniting long-standing tensions between left-leaning staffers and editorial leaders. Times columnist Jamelle Bouie, for instance, has deleted several Bluesky posts<\/a> in recent days criticizing the paper, including one slamming the paper for not telling \u201creaders if your source is a Nazi,\u201d because he said it violated the Times\u2019 social media guidelines.<\/p>\n

At the same time, senior editors at the paper appeared to be in agreement over the decision to publish the piece, while veteran Times journalists felt that the reaction to the story showed why it was worth pursuing in the first place.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that this story engendered all the conversation and debate that it has feels like all the evidence you need that this was a legit line of reporting,\u201d a senior reporter told Semafor<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As for the revelation that the paper was racing against Rufo to get the story out first, several media critics took the paper to task for seemingly being manipulated by the right-wing media ecosystem.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnyway if you banged out this dumb f***ing story while running out the door for the holiday weekend, in league with racist criminals, because you were worried about getting \u2018scooped\u2019 by Chris Rufo, what you’re telling the world is that you CONSIDER YOURSELVES TO BE IN THE SAME BUSINESS AS CHRIS RUFO,\u201d Indignity editor Tom Scocca posted on Bluesky<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIndeed. The correct story is the manipulative stylings of Chris Rufo,\u201d tech columnist Kara Swisher \u2013 who once hosted a podcast for the New York Times \u2013 reacted to Scocca<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Right-wing activist and self-styled \u201cindependent journalist\u201d Christopher Rufo lauded his \u201cfriends at the New York Times\u201d this week…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":46585,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,26173,36180,31304,36182,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,34098,15353,36181,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,5301],"class_list":{"0":"post-46584","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-application","10":"tag-christopher-rufo","11":"tag-college-application","12":"tag-controversial-story","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-new-york-city","15":"tag-newyork","16":"tag-newyorkcity","17":"tag-ny","18":"tag-nyc","19":"tag-patrick-healy","20":"tag-the-new-york-times","21":"tag-the-times","22":"tag-united-states","23":"tag-united-states-of-america","24":"tag-unitedstates","25":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","26":"tag-us","27":"tag-usa","28":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114813280440435486","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46584\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}