Fake News: Nikki Haley’s $52k curtains

Fake News: Nikki Haley’s $52k curtains

Once again, if you don’t want to be called fake news, DO NOT PUSH OUT FAKE NEWS.

The New York Times published an article this morning that curtains in Nikki Haley’s apartment cost $52,701. Buried within the article? The Obama administration ordered the curtains in 2016 and Haley had no say in it!

But muh narrative.

The State Department in 2016 decided to lease this apartment for the US ambassador to the United Nations, “with an option to buy, according to Patrick Kennedy, the top management official at the State Department during the Obama administration.”

SIX paragraphs into the article, the NYT writes that Haley’s spokesman said the ambassador “had no say in the purchase.” Yet, the article continues to call it Haley’s curtains:

A spokesman for Ms. Haley said plans to buy the curtains were made in 2016, during the Obama administration. Ms. Haley had no say in the purchase, he said.

The curtains themselves cost $29,900, while the motors and hardware needed to open and close them automatically cost $22,801, according to the contracts. Installation took place from March to August of last year, during Ms. Haley’s tenure as ambassador.

Ms. Haley’s curtains are more expensive than the $31,000 dining room set purchased for the office of Ben Carson, the secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. That purchase became so controversial that President Trump considered firing Mr. Carson, though the spending rules covering agency chiefs are different from those for ambassadors.

While Ms. Haley’s curtains were being ordered and installed, Rex W. Tillerson, the administration’s first secretary of state, had frozen hiring, pushed out many of the department’s most senior diplomats and proposed cutting the department’s budget by 31 percent. In embassies around the world, projects were eliminated, jobs were left unfilled and the delegation to last year’s United Nations General Assembly meeting was slashed.

Then the publication has the nerve to put a quote in from an Obama official, trashing the purchase…even though it was said administration that purchased the curtains:

“How can you, on the one hand, tell diplomats that basic needs cannot be met and, on the other hand, spend more than $50,000 on a customized curtain system for the ambassador to the U.N.?” asked Brett Bruen, a White House official in the Obama administration.

But Mr. Kennedy defended the purchase, saying that it would probably be used for years and that it was needed for both security and entertaining purposes.

“All she’s got is a part-time maid, and the ability to open and close the curtains quickly is important,” Mr. Kennedy said.

When The Washington Post has to correct you….if you look up “buried lede” in the dictionary, this portion of the NYT article is there as a classic example.

This seems like a pretty important paragraph that we should get to the bottom of before calling them “Nikki Haley’s $52,000 curtains” https://t.co/2RfJkFqvch pic.twitter.com/AZOJwsofwS

— Aaron Blake (@AaronBlake) September 14, 2018

Others quickly tried to put out the fire…

Why people distrust the NY Times, Part 8,967,465. Breathlessly announces curtains in Nikki Haley’s official residence cost $52,701 at a time of “deep budget cuts.” Forgets to mention curtains had been ordered in 2016 by Obama admin. #FakeNews #Hackeryhttps://t.co/arXHzUAQpy

— Roger Kimball (@rogerkimball) September 14, 2018

Six graphs in before they tell you Obama’s Administration ordered the damn curtains. A better headline would be, “Haley Fails To Cancel Obama Era Curtain Order.”https://t.co/OFj49FfmdA

— Did you… read the article? (@bungarsargon) September 14, 2018

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