Poynter asked the Huffington Post’s Washington bureau chief Ryan Grim about the decision to hire Donte Stallworth, a former NFL wide receiver who has used his Twitter account to spread provably false conspiracy theories about the September 11th, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center.
Grim told Poynter, “That doesn’t represent how he thinks today. You know, that was five years ago, and people say dumb things, but that shouldn’t define him.”
Except it wasn’t just five years ago. Less than a year ago, in November, Stallworth was still spreading his 9/11 Trutherism:
Oops, I sent that tweet a little too early like the young lady from @BBCNews on the collapse of building 7 on 9/11…
— Donte' Stallworth (@DonteStallworth) November 25, 2013
Incredibly, Stallworth has been hired by the Huffington Post to write on issues involving American national security.
John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC