The fact-checker for the New Yorker who mistook a Marine veteran’s tattoo for a Nazi symbol has resigned, saying the “small mistake” has ruined her life.
Talia Lavin is out of a job following her June 18 tweet that caused mass outrage.
“I feel like I made a small mistake and it’s destroyed my life,” she told New York Magazine’s The Cut.
Lavin’s since-deleted tweet was about Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Justin Gaertner, whom she falsely accused of having a tattoo of the Nazis’ Iron Cross.But the ink, ICE later explained, is really of a “Titan 2” symbol for his platoon when he served in Afghanistan.
Lavin posted a mea culpa on Twitter last week and announced she quit her job.
“To Justin Gaertner, I apologize, sincerely: all I saw in you was the photo ICE tweeted, and not the human being depicted inside it,” she wrote. “It was uncharitable, and the hasty deletion doesn’t change that. I’m sorry and I have voluntarily resigned after three years at the New Yorker.”
Lavin said her decision came after she “realized I had become a weapon used to discredit my colleagues and the vital work they do holding power to account.”
Her Gaertner tweet prompted a scathing response from ICE, which demanded she and the New Yorker apologize for “baselessly slandering” him.
Lavin slammed ICE, saying, “I do not think it is acceptable for a federal agency to target a private citizen for a good faith, hastily rectified error.”
She also noted, “ICE also lied about me, saying I originated the scrutiny of Gaertner’s tattoo, misspelling my name and misstating my job” as the story quickly went viral.
“This has been painful and scary, and as I move into an uncertain and financially precarious future, I will be focusing on my writing and any other freelance work I can find,” she wrote before asking for donations and linking to her PayPal page.