The Boston Globe issued a correction after publishing an opinion article by a self-described journalist calling for Kirstjen Nielsen, who announced her resignation as secretary of Homeland Security, to be kept unemployed.
“Keep Kirstjen Nielsen unemployed and eating Grubhub over her kitchen sink,” the title of the article read.
The Globe later updated the article, stating: “A version of this column as originally published did not meet Globe standards and has been changed. The Globe regrets the previous tone of the piece.”
Writer Luke O’Neil had written that he wished he had urinated in salmon he served Bill Kristol while waiting on the neoconservative and current Never Trumper. The urination portion was removed.
Little else was changed in the article, with O’Neil’s hyperbolic rhetoric still littered throughout the piece.
“One of the biggest regrets of my life is not pissing in Bill Kristol’s salmon.”
lol this is one my favorite ledes I’ve ever written. https://t.co/0I8nLAnSyE
— luke oneil (@lukeoneil47) April 10, 2019
The writer claimed that immigration policies put forth by President Donald Trump to combat a crisis at the border and enforced in part by Nielsen were a form of “ethnic cleansing.”
O’Neil also wrote that he was delighted when Nielsen was accosted by a group of far-left protesters while dining in Washington last year, only to experience dismay when people on both sides of the political spectrum decried the treatment.
“Sadly, the scolding seems to have done its job. It’s been a while since we’ve been treated to a soulless Trumpist going viral for going hungry, and the sacristy of the restaurant seems to have held,” he wrote.
Unlike many on the left, O’Neil said that the treatment of migrants has been going on since well before Trump entered office, saying: “Throw the Obama-era lot in prison too, for all I care. At the very least, throw them out of a restaurant.”
He then relied on anonymously-sourced reports in other outlets without citing any specifically about Nielsen supposedly not being comfortable with the policies proposed and put into place by the Trump administration.
Referencing a letter from a coalition of progressive groups calling on CEOs across the nation not to give jobs to former members of the Trump administration going forward but said that merely not giving the former officials jobs wouldn’t be enough.
Linking back to his lede, where he wrote about wishing he’d urinated in Kristol’s salmon, O’Neil wrote:
“Invariably the bad guys, like the rest of us, will have to eat. And when they show up in our restaurants, you have my permission, as an official member of the mainstream media, to tell them where to go and what they can do with themselves when they arrive there, but, you know, said in a more specific and traditional Boston colloquialism.”
He added, “As for the waiters out there, I’m not saying you should tamper with anyone’s food, as that could get you into trouble. You might lose your serving job. But you’d be serving America. And you won’t have any regrets years later.”
The Globe promoted the controversial piece across social media.
“As for the waiters out there, I’m not saying you should tamper with anyone’s food, as that could get you into trouble. You might lose your serving job. But you’d be serving America.”
What is wrong with you? @lukeoneil47 https://t.co/pFcKTu0fIh
— Caleb Hull (@CalebJHull) April 10, 2019
O’Neil, who recently shared an opinion by far-left Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) calling Stephen Miller, a Jewish Trump administration official, a white nationalist, was heavily criticized by some for the piece.
“One my favorite things about liberals is that they are often worse human beings than the people they hate. Either they don’t know it, or they do and don’t care. This is garbage,” wrote one Twitter user.
“Get some help dude,” wrote another.
“What is wrong with you?” wondered another user, Caleb Hull, a Republican political strategist.
Declining to apologize even after the correction by the Globe was made, O’Neil wrote: “People who carry out policies of ethnic cleansing or cheerlead for disastrous wars leading to tens of thousands suffering or dead should not expect to be able to show their faces in public anymore thank you for understanding this basic premise.”
