> I fundamentally don't understand why the Times didn't explain this early on. Not necessarily release these statements verbatim, but certainly provide some of

> I fundamentally don't understand why the Times didn't explain this early on. Not necessarily release these statements verbatim, but certainly provide some of this context. This message is too complex to be accurately relayed across the Internet. It's a virtual certainty that it will be mangled into headlines like "NY Times reporter uses racial slurs, denies systematic racism, endorses blackface." If you've played the children's game Telephone (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_whispers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_whispers) then you have seen this in action. The message they released was simple enough to hopefully cause the scandal to go away.