How the N-word got on New Times back page
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A profane, pro-Trump political ad in the Miami New Times features several uncensored uses of the N-word and displays a misleading quote from President Biden using the slur in 1985.
Why it matters: The full-page "advertorial" does not disclose who bought it, but directs readers to a conspiracy-laden website affiliated with Blacks for Trump, a local fringe political group whose signs often appear prominently at Donald Trump rallies.
- The ad ran on the back cover of the New Times June 13–19 print edition. Copies of the issue remained available in news boxes as of Wednesday.
What they're saying: Miami New Times publisher Adam Simon tells Axios the ad is unacceptable and he's changing the alt weekly's ad review process.
- Normally, he said, staffers — including himself — review ads prior to publication. But in this case, the ad came in past their deadline and Simon did not review it.
- The New Times will no longer take ads so late that they can't be reviewed, he said.
- "Naturally, had I seen it, which I should have, I would not have let it run as is."
Context: The Biden claim refers to a 1985 Senate hearing in which then-Sen. Biden, while questioning a nominee for federal office, quoted racist remarks made by a state legislator.
- Ahead of the 2020 election, social media users shared edited clips of the hearing to claim Biden used the N-word, omitting the context of his comments.
- Biden was reading verbatim from a memo highlighting racist language used by lawmakers to support a redistricting plan in Louisiana, per the Associated Press.
The other side: Maurice Symonette, the Miami activist who founded Blacks for Trump, told Axios he stood by the ad's claims.
- "I've heard a lot of white men quoting people but when they get to that word, every decent white person says 'the N-word,'" he said.
Zoom in: The ad also features Trump's and Symonette's mugshots side by side.
- Symonette, who used to go by Maurice Woodside, once belonged to the black supremacist Nation of Yahweh cult, which was accused of plotting 14 murders, according to the Miami Herald.
- Symonette, who also goes by "Michael the Black Man," was charged with conspiracy to commit two murders, but was later acquitted, the Herald reported.
"The bottom line is that it was gross and unacceptable oversight by our local leadership, and I take 100% responsibility for allowing that language to run in an ad," Simon told Axios.