NYT reporter slammed for saying friends want to raise kids outside America after Uvalde shooting

The New York Times‘ United Nations bureau chief is being taken to task for suggesting all of her friends want to raise their children outside America in the wake of the Uvalde mass shooting. 

Farnaz Fassihi, a former bureau chief for the Wall Street Journal in Baghdad who has covered Iran for the Times in the past, tweeted her reaction to the massacre.

‘I’m a child of immigrants,’ she wrote. ‘When I was a kid, everyone I knew wished they could raise their children in America. Now, everyone I know wishes they could raise their children outside of America.’

Fassihi, who was born in the United States and split time growing up in Tehran and Portland, Oregon, expanded on her thoughts but closed off replies to her tweet.

‘This is an observation. It’s what I’m hearing in reaction to the Texas school shooting, parents terrified of gun violence and the recent shootings in NY subways and elsewhere.’

‘As an American who loves this country this observation makes me sad. So does all the hateful attacks,’ she added. 

The New York Times’ United Nations bureau chief, Farnaz Fassihi (above) is being taken to task for suggesting all of her friends want to raise their children outside America in the wake of the Uvalde mass shooting

Farnaz Fassihi, a former bureau chief for the Wall Street Journal in Baghdad who has covered Iran for the Times in the past, tweeted her reaction to the massacre

The reaction on Twitter, particularly from conservatives, criticized Fassihi for living in a liberal bubble.

‘This sounds like someone with a rich and diverse social circle who is not in a bubble at all,’ wrote Richard Hanania, who is president of The Center for the Study of Partisanship and Ideology (CSPI).

A. G. Hamilton, the pseudonym of a licensed attorney who writes for National Review, tweeted: ‘Obviously not even remotely true and posting it is just a silly way to score points with a certain crowd. We know it isn’t true because it’s actually not that hard for an American to move elsewhere and there are still hundreds of millions of people who come here.’

Red State managing editor Kira Davis chimed in: ‘We have a door that swings both ways. Please feel free to use it.’

New Jersey conservative Matt Rooney wrote: ‘What’s stopping ‘everyone’ you know? They’re welcome to leave.’

One Twitter user even compared Fassihi to the film critic Pauline Kael, who once famously said that she didn’t know how Richard Nixon could’ve won the presidency because no one she knew voted for him.

Fassihi has previously courted controversy for posting video of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, shortly after he was killed in a US drone strike ordered by President Donald Trump in January 2020.

The video showed Soleimani reciting poetry. Fassihi wrote: ‘Rare personal video of Gen. Suleimani reciting poetry shared by a source in #Iran. About friends departing & him being left behind.’

Many called that video propaganda and deemed it sympathetic to a man who the Trump administration claimed murdered thousands of people, according to Fox News. 

She refused to delete that tweet and defended it, saying it wasn’t meant to endorse anything Soleimani did in battle.  

‘Folks attacking me for sharing this video: It’s called reporting. It’s not an endorsement or sympathy. I share whatever info I get for all to see. That’s all,’ she wrote.

She’s also previously been criticized for spreading what many journalists called ‘fake news when she shared ‘unconfirmed’ reports about the Islamic Revolutionary Guard firing missiles at an American base in Iraq. 

Those reports were later confirmed to be wrong and Fassihi deleted the tweet after receiving confirmation from Iraqi military. 

Fassihi’s latest ‘observation’ comes after the murder of 21 people, including 19 children, at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. 

Memorials and funeral services have continued for the victims of the massacre this week. 

Fassihi’s latest ‘observation’ comes after the murder of 21 people, including 19 children, at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas

Memorials and funeral services have continued for the victims of the massacre this week