Talia Lavin; fact checker resigns

| June 25, 2018

Last week, Talia Lavin, a fact checker for the New Yorker was unable to check herself before she slandered Afghanistan veteran, Justin Gaertner, a double amputee Marine Corps veteran, pictured above during the 2012 Warrior Games. The wounded warrior is now an ICE employee, a computer forensic analyst who tracks down online pedophiles for ICE and other agencies. He works for a program known as the Human Exploitation Rescue Operative Child-Rescue Corps or HERO.

Lavin’s problem with Gaertner is the tattoo he has on his elbow in this picture;

Lavin, in her ignorance, claimed that the Iron Cross-shaped image is a Nazi symbol. From Fox News;

ICE strongly pushed back against the unfounded allegations, going as far as to demand the apology from Lavin for “baselessly slandering an American hero” and pointing it out that the tattoo on the veteran’s left elbow has nothing to do with Nazi Germany at all.

In fact, said ICE last week, it is “the ‘Titan 2,” the symbol for his platoon while he fought in Afghanistan. “The writing on his right arm is the Spartan Creed, which is about protecting family and children.”

Lavin apologized and resigned from her fact checking job.

“This has been a wild and difficult week,” she wrote in now-deleted tweet last week. “I owe ICE agent Justin Gaertner a sincere apology for spreading a rumor about his tattoo. However, I do not think it is acceptable for a federal agency to target a private citizen for a good faith, hastily rectified error.”

Her intent was to get Gaertner fired, but she didn’t like it when ICE defended him and that resulted in her termination.

Category: Media, Veterans in the news

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ChipNASA

Hey you ignorant coont, Check *THIS*
(grabs crotch)

BYE FELICIA!!!

USAFRetired

The Iron Cross (German: Eisernes Kreuz (help. · info), abbreviated EK) is a former military decoration in the Kingdom of Prussia, and later in the German Empire (1871–1918) and Nazi Germany (1933–1945).

So it seems the Iron Cross pre-dated the Nazis by a few decades.

Perhaps someone should teach the “fact checker” how to do a Google search.

timactual

8 decades, at least. The Maltese Cross was the insignia of the Union Fifth Corps.

USAFRetired

Checking the VA FM 40-1330 AVAILABLE EMBLEMS OF BELIEF FOR PLACEMENT ON GOVERNMENT HEADSTONES AND MARKERS (See block 17)

She would find the Star of David as number 03 and the Maltese Cross as number 64.

Here everyone else was tweeting it defense does not inspire confidence in her fact checking ability.

desert

Another ignorant big mouth bitch! That cross was also used by the Crusaders that stupid tweety bird liberl should be fired, and it would take another idiot to hire her! imho

RGR 4-78

I hope he gets a lawyer and files suit against her. I doubt she has much to take, but they could garnish her wages for about 30 years.

Club Manager, USA ret.

Unfortunately, he has to show how he was damaged other than hurt feelings. I guess he could invoke “pain and suffering” and mental anguish. One would have thought she would want to make amends by offering him a gratuitous blow job. Oh well.

Poetrooper

From Wikipedia:

There are several things a person must prove to establish that libel has taken place. In the United States, a person must prove that 1) the statement was false, 2) caused harm, and 3) was made without adequate research into the truthfulness of the statement. These steps are for an ordinary citizen. For a celebrity or public official, a person must prove the first three steps, ”and” that the statement was made with the intent to do harm or with reckless disregard for the truth,New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254, 84 S. Ct. 710, 11 L. Ed. 2d 686 (1964) which is usually specifically referred to as “[[actual malice]

Poetrooper

As for number 2, she associated his tattoo with symbolism of known hate groups which could harm his reputation in both the business and civic communities.

desert

Seems to me like the bitch qualifies all the way around! imo

SGT Fon

i mean i was stationed in Subic for a bunch of years, but i am not sure i would want them lips anywhere near me….

Poetrooper

If she defamed him while she was in the employ of the New Yorker then they are responsible and along with their insurance company should have some very deep pockets, indeed.

Go get ’em, Marine!

The Other Whitey

There needs to be consequences for this kind of crap. Bend ‘em over!

2/17 Air Cav

The New Yorker broke a speed record in saying that her tweet was a personal, not a business, communication.

Bill M

They’re learning. Throw your employees under the bus to protect the business, regardless of whether you congratulated them on their statements or not.

CPT11A

Well…bye.

MSG Eric

I would say the irony of a fact checker screwing this up is astounding. But, fact checkers working for media systems really don’t impress me much.

Skippy

Word ^^^^

SFC D

She was selective fact checker. Only selected facts that suited her and her employer’s chosen narratives. She should also apologize to every firefighter in the US and every member of the VFW. If the Maltese Cross is a Nazi symbol, then there’s metric shit-ton of Nazis out there.

SFC D

I seem to have a problem with the letter “A” today.

2/17 Air Cav

Not to worry SFC D. There’s a Letter Omission virus going around and the A virus responds well to treatment. Be grateful you don’t have the E or O virus. They are particularly pernicious and tough to shake.

Jeff LPH 3, 63-66

Shitbird Talia would not like me. Maltese cross badge on my class A hat, class A double breasted uniform jacket, LBFD Badge, company jacket, collection of Nassau County, NY 2ND Batt. FD’S yearly parade and drill tee shirts, company golf shirts, Boynton Beach FD cap, company patch on class A shoulder. I never saved my ERFD Hose 1 tees,jackets etc nor my LBFD ladder 2 tees, jackets etc. after I moved to LBFD Floodlight unit 233 after I broke my heel in a rope slide injury back in 1986. The Nazi Swastika cross/symbol was used by the Indians and adopted by the Nazis.

Rohli

Don’t forget the Independent Trucker sign also. She might thought that it’s a Nazi symbol,too.

rgr769

Kind of hard to be impressed by a “fact checker” that doesn’t make any effort to do the job implied in the job description. These millennials and their fake jorno ilk are a bunch of know-nothings. Anyone who knows anything about 20th Century history knows the iron or Maltese cross has been a symbol of the German military since before WWI, in addition to serving as a symbol for all sorts of Christian civil and military orders since the Holy Roman Empire. It certainly pre-dates the NAZI regime by over a thousand years. Someone should point out to this stupid bint that the Maltese cross is displayed in our own Army marksmanship badges and practically every fire department’s insignia in this country. Most of the Army guys here have one in a drawer or hanging on a uniform in the form of a marksmanship badge (assuming they qualified at least “marksman”). I suppose if a deranged progtard is looking under every bush for a nail to hammer down, pretty soon every online image starts to look like a nail.

timactual

Then there is the name itself, “Maltese” cross.

Ex-PH2

There are also Maltese dogs and Maltese cats.

AW1Ed

And the Maltese Falcon, the stuff that dreams are made of…

Hack Stone

Hack Stone popped this DVD in for viewing at Stately Stone Manor. Word on the street is that the studios are looking to update this film classic. In the 2018 version, Elaine Ricci hires Jared Stern to retrieve the Maltese Jaguar.

RGR 4-78

🙂

AnotherPat

rgr769 wrote: “Someone should point out to this stupid bint that the Maltese cross is displayed in our own Army marksmanship badges and practically every fire department’s insignia in this country. Most of the Army guys here have one in a drawer or hanging on a uniform in the form of a marksmanship badge (assuming they qualified at least “marksman”).”

Yep. Have 2 of them. One for a M16. The other for a Grenade.

Guess my US Army Brothers and Sisters and I are Nazis (sarc). And I know for a fact some of them wear the Star of David.✡

timactual

CSPAN is my fact checker. It is amazing how, despite all these “fact checkers”, so much misinformation and disinformation is produced.

Hack Stone

Kind of like leading an Ethics In Government Contracting seminar at All Points Logistics or a proud but humble woman owned business formerly located in Bethesda MD.

Skippy

Please let the door hit you on the Ass and while your at it, that thing you call a head too
It may put some common sense in that thing you call a brain….

CPT11A

She’s trying hard to play all her victim cards in this one, specifically mentioning how she’s a “fat Jewish feminist with a Harvard education.”

Who cares? What does any of that have to do with you baselessly slandering someone? Where is your accountability for your stupid actions?

And then she calls it good faith. No, none of this is good faith. Go to Hell, Talia.

AW1Ed

The full quote is:

Lavin noted that she became a target because of her background, claiming she “was also a useful foil: a fat Jewish feminist with a Harvard education. ICE said I ‘baselessly slandered an American hero,’ artificially pitted me against a disabled veteran, and engineered a conservative news cycle in which I was a villain.”

Fox News Link

Poor little thing! The nerve of ICE standing up for a falsely accused and slandered employee.
/sarc

A. Young

Sarc on/
Oh,I liked her apology.
Sarc off/

Although, in apologies you can’t try and justify your actions for which you’re apologizing for.

Goodbye, bitch.

A. Young

Correction: I meant her whining about ICE condemning her actions.

SFC D

Nope.
Silly little girl picked a fight with the wrong bunch, and got her ass handed to her. That high-school “mean girl” shit doesn’t work with vets.

CPT11A

And yet, they act like they’re ready for war. Over at Ace, I just read an article about what Democratic “days of rage” would look like. It was written like shit, so it didn’t actually get me a clear picture of what that meant, except that Democrats would no longer like those yucky conservatives. But still, they are very much ready to take us down!

Yeah, right. I don’t think the “OMG you were mean to me on Twitter” crowd is going to hold up well in a shooting war. Just look up videos of Antifa, the tough guys of the political left- unless it’s twelve of them against an old woman, they routinely get their asses beat.

Their ideas will lose at the ballot box. If they can’t accept that, and they want to take action somewhere that rightists actually care about (i.e. not Berkeley), they can lose in other fashions too. It’s up to them.

SFC D

They’re slowly but surely becoming EXACTLY what the Second Amendment was intended to prevent.

timactual

Harvard education? So much money spent for so little learning.

Doc Savage

Way to double down on the stupid, you ignorant twunt.

Playing the victim card after crapping on a Hero will not save your credibility.

The Other Whitey

How’s it feel on the other foot, bitch?

NHSparky

At least she has feet.

The scrunt.

JURRASICHM

“However, I do not think it is acceptable for a federal agency to target a private citizen for a good faith, hastily rectified error.”

Really?

You attacked an individual for no legitimate reason other than trying to gain points with your leftie ICE hating buddies and you want to include the words “good faith” in your whiny reply? At least you can apply for a job with Maxine Waters, I’m sure she needs more Brick Brained Bitches on her staff.

2/17 Air Cav

You got there before I did. I find that statement of hers, which was not made hastily, to be revealing and repugnant. She is now the victim. And it is not the haste with which she credits herself in rectifying her error, it is the haste with which she drew her conclusion regarding the symbol in the first place that is the problem.

desert

How in hell is ‘ANYTHING” in good faith when you are bashing anyone , much less a vet? As for the hastily rectified…my ass, you didn’t do shyt until you were caught, a typical liberal, airheaded, communist PUKE! imo

5JC

Ah the irony. If only she knew how much so.

“His tomb is pointed to with pride, and so are his children, and his children’s children, and afterward all the race that is his.

His shining glory is never forgotten, his name is remembered, and he becomes an immortal, though he lies under the ground, when one who was a brave man has been killed by the furious War God
standing his ground and fighting hard for his children and land.

But if he escapes the doom of death, the destroyer of bodies, and wins his battle, and bright renown for the work of his spear, all men give place to him alike, the youth and the elders, and much joy comes his way before he goes down to the dead.

Aging, he has reputation among his citizens. No one
tries to interfere with his honors or all he deserves; all men withdraw before his presence, and yield their seats to him, the youth, and the men his age, and even those older than he.

Thus a man should endeavor to reach this high place of courage with all his heart, and, so trying, never be backward in war.

Translated by Richmond Lattimore

Veritas Omnia Vincit

There are consequences associated with the misuse of our personal freedoms. We are certainly free to say whatever we like about anyone, we are not at all free from the reaction to that commentary or the truth if we are spreading lies whether out of malice or ignorance.

She thinks it’s unfair she lost her job, which indicates she still doesn’t really understand the ramification of her lies in the first place. We live in a nation where the majority of people are as dumb as fuck, and the first thing they read about anyone is often all they will ever read or even remember. Far too many people will never be aware of her apology, her termination, or anything other than there’s a Nazi working at ICE….

I never realized Idiocracy might end up more docu drama than comedy. As of late I fear it is closer to the truth than I realized.

MrFace

“We live in a nation where the majority of people are as dumb as fuck, and the first thing they read about anyone is often all they will ever read or even remember.”

This so fucking much. Unfortunately.

You hit the nail on the head with this comment, VOV.

Cheers.

timactual

Remember, since intelligence has a symmetric Normal distribution, half the population has below average intelligence with the same spread as the upper half. Thus, for every Einstein there is a Harvard educated fact checker on the below average side.

Sparks

I thought they had fact checkers check facts because they didn’t want them speaking. Bummer not being a speaker now or a fact checker. I hope she gets busted for trying to scam unemployment.

Atkron

A couple of years ago, some carpetbagger moved into a historically Scandinavian neighborhood in Seattle called Ballard; and made a stink about someone flying a Swastika flag.

It was the Norwegian flag, and I believe it was May 15th….Norway Day.

The Other Whitey

Given the level of resemblance between the Norwegian flag and the swastika, which is none whatsoever, the whiner was evidently even dumber than most of the type.

Bill M

And it’s typical of the things we have to put up with here in the Seattle area.

Veritas Omnia Vincit

Dumb as fuck seems to the new normal for a lot of these poor bastards.

HMC Ret

She’s not going quietly into the night. She pulled every woe-is-me victim card right off the bat. I really don’t care if she is a fat female Jew with a Harvard education. Maybe she hopes that Harvard crap will help her in looking for a job. Not so much. Personally, I pretty much am pleased any time a member of the leftist MSM has to fall on their sword. This pleases the old Chief.

Forest Green

She already has a new job; Ass Holder which is what happens to someone when they don’t check their facts.

AZtoVA

Will probably be picked up by SNOPES any day now.

SFC D

I thought Ass Holder was the AG under Obama.

E-6 type, 1 ea

She’s an UNEMPLOYED fat female Jew with a Harvard education.

🙂

AnotherPat

Not the first time Lavin has been in the media limelight. And lost. She was a contestant on JEOPARDY! in 2015 (Hey, that’s a Weird Al song🎵🎵):

https://nypost.com/2015/09/18/jeopardy-contestant-trolls-alex-trebek-with-snl-joke/

David

A last-place contestant. If she ever got on “Cash Cab”, she would have been walking within 2 blocks.

AnotherPat

*Like*

😆😁😉

timactual

Yep, last place. Obviously she didn’t know any facts then, either. Harvard education, eh? Just a guess, but I’ll bet she graduated magna cum loud.

Ex-PH2

Oh, let her rant and piss and whine about how SHE is the victim. The more she runs her mouth about it, the stupider she sounds.

If she had a brain to use, which I doubt, it needs a good jolt called common decency and good manners. That seems to have gone into hiding in a refugee camp somewhere. I will be glad when it returns to the front.

The more people like this braindead cow rattle on, with no thought to how ignorant and obnoxious they become in the process, the less likely they are to keep whatever support they might have had in the past.

She wasn’t fired for it, was she? It says she resigned. That was her choice. So she’s a victim now? Hogwash!

CCO

And to top it off, I would argue that what she thought she saw wasn’t a *Nazi* symbol, but a the outline of a common German military decoration dating to at least the World War I. Adolf Hitler, for example, was awarded an Iron Cross, second class after being wounded while serving as a corporal in WWI.

HT3 '83-'87

If you look at any painting of Field Marshall Blucher, he’s wearing several different medals in the various shapes of the “iron cross” and he helped stop Napoleon at Waterloo in 1815.

Wow, this former turd chaser “fact checked the shit out of that cross” in just under 2 minutes without going to Harvard.

SFC D

Derek Zumbro

Actually, AH was awarded both the Iron Cross 1st and 2nd class(es)(not that it matters). The Iron Cross is based on a Christian symbol of the cross, and was first instituted in Prussia in 1813 during the “Wars of Liberation” against Napoleon. Has NOTHING to do with National Socialism.

Noah Body

The Navy Cross is what it looks like to me. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navy_Cross . The medal is a modified cross pattée. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross_patt%C3%A9e . A cross pattée (or “cross patty” or “cross Pate”, known also as “cross formée/formy” or croix pattée) is a type of Christian cross, which has arms narrow at the center, and often flared in a curve or straight line shape, to be broader at the perimeter.

rgr769

Thanks for the reference proving my comment that this symbol, in its various forms, dates back to the Holy Roman Empire, circa 700 A.D.

SFC D

OMG! Crusaders! It’s anti-muslim! Worse than Nazis!

/SARC/?

Ex-PH2

Muslims didn’t start until 975AD, SFC D.

SFC D

My mind is made up, don’t confuse me with facts!

Dennis

This is different: a lefty actually losing a job after apologizing.

I think I’ve been kidnapped by ET’s and am now in a parallel universe.

timactual

Don’t worry. She wasn’t fired, and she most likely didn’t lose her job, because she slandered a disabled veteran. They probably told her that, Harvard degree or not, she was just too incompetent a fact checker to cover the New Yorker’s ass.

The fact that she was allowed to resign says a lot.

AnotherPat
Veritas Omnia Vincit

Another asshole actor who plays tough guys thinking he’s one himself…

HMC Ret

I have news for you, Perlman. You call yourself a D list actor. You need to get much further in the alphabet, maybe to J, before your name appears on any list. Now that you rushed to judgement to give the appearance you were in any way relevant to society, go suck a bag of dicks.

Ex-PH2

The real question is not what prompted Perlman to run his yap about it.

It is: what makes him think either he or his idiot opinion is so important that he jumps to a conclusion and runs his mouth about it?

Now he looks even dumber than he used to look.

Perry Gaskill

Call me cynical. My first thought reading this was that poor Talia probably had a new job– with a raise– lined up at the Huffington Post in about 15 minutes.

HMC Ret

BTW, Warrior, thank you for the work you do with ICE. Every lowlife scumbag pedophile you can put in prison is one less pedophile abusing innocent children. The more the merrier. Lock em all up.

AztoVA

And watching the crap they have to look at while hunting Pedo’s is very taxing, many can’t handle doing this for more than a year or two at a time. Semper Fi, Marine!

A Proud Infidel®™️

TOUGH SHIT Talia, and I don’t care if the doorknob went up your ass on the way out.

Mustang Major

If Talia Lavin wants to call out Nazi tattoos, she should start calling out biker gangs. I am sure biker gangs would not be as measured in their response as DHS’s response was to her.

2/17 Air Cav

I was a skinhead as a kid. Of course, back then we called them crew cuts. And no one wants to know what sort of characters we dressed-up as at Halloween. Today, I guess those acts would be deemed hate crimes.

OWB

You are a victim, Talia, only of your own stupidity. It is your pomposity which got you into trouble.

It really doesn’t matter if the victim of your attempt at bullying was a veteran, a machinist, a firefighter, a copywriter, or a dance band director. It also doesn’t matter if you are male or female, a college graduate, or a Roman Catholic priest. What you said was indefensible no matter toward whom your venom was directed.

Rude behavior should not be rewarded. Yes, you are free to be rude and have proven yourself more than able. We are free to tell you that behaving rudely is not good.

Meanwhile pretending that ICE should not defend an employee when attacked is just silly.

Mason

That Harvard education really isn’t worth the parchment the degree is printed on now is it?

Virtue signaling twunt.

2/17 Air Cav

For many of us, a degree from Harvard is a flashing beacon warning us to KEEP BACK, STAY AWAY, and DO NOT HIRE.

Mason

Good point. When she called herself a fat feminist Harvard educated, I was thinking. You’re repulsive enough just saying Harvard educated, the fat woman and feminist really aren’t necessary but add to the image of a furry-pitted wildebeest.

SFC D

Silly girl shot herself in the foot and then blamed the gun.

AnotherPat

Am stealing this from you, SFC D!

😎

Hack Stone
timactual

Looks like how I was taught to write the letter ‘Z’.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z_with_stroke

AnotherPat

😂🤣😅 to the guy who Twittered back on her observation:

The KKK guys left their hats down the street too. pic.twitter.com/clipBPMnA7

AnotherPat

Better link of the picture referenced above on those KKK hats left on the street:

https://mobile.twitter.com/larsoneric50/status/830940515302531072/photo/1

Grunt

Having worked for one of the many agencies that, like ICE, falls under the DHS umbrella, I’m genuinely, genuinely surprised that they actually defended their man. I’m surprised they didn’t reply with some sort of appeasement like “we’ll be conducting an internal review of the tattoos to ensure compliance with DHS groupthink”

HMC Ret

My thoughts exactly. I wonder who at ICE had the stones to tell her to eat a bag of dicks. I thought for sure they would throw him at least partially under the bus. First saw the comments from the fatso from Harvard, and I thought, “Oh, shit, someone is going to lose their job at ICE.” Nope, there is at least one person there who isn’t afraid to put their head above the top of the foxhole. Good for ICE.

FatCircles0311

The left’s hatred of veterans and constant racism accusations was just too much for her to resist. These people are fucking scum and they hate you. Never forget.

HMC Ret

Ditto. Oh, they give the pat on the back, accolades and press the flesh, but for the most part I do believe you are correct.

2/17 Air Cav

Dahell does a fat checker do?

Ex-Ph2

A fat checker runs the checkout lines and cash registers at Walmart.

HMC Ret

Sweet …

NHSparky

I’m still wondering who (or what) she had to blow to get into Haaaaaahhhhvaaaaaad.

1400 SAT? Yeah, kinda doubtful.

E-6 type, 1 ea

According to Herr Google, the average rent for an apartment in the Bronx (where Google also says she lives) is $2,167. I’m guessing even with her Havahd Degree, that’s going to eat up her savings with a quickness!

Stupid should hurt.

Ex-PH2

You think she has brains enough to have savings?

That’s funny!!!

PLASTIC DUCK

German veterans who were awarded the Iron Cross are allowed to wear the cross pattée devoid of associations with Nazi symbols. The Iron Cross was an award for Military bravery and not a political award, and those who continue to wear it, do so, indicating true valour.

Jarhead

Wasn’t it Jack Webb on Dragnet who said, “Just the facts bitch” ??

Jarhead

Before anybody starts feeling sorry for this future thespian, keep in mind there is always a job pegged for just the right people. In her case it would be time share sales, where facts and truth are irrelevant.

Spydey

I doubt it was an accident. These radicals want to inflict as much pain as possible.

2/17 Air Cav

The fat checker set up a PayPal acct for donations. There’s no tracking it publicly, of course, and no donors are ID’ed. Talk about a shameless slob.

rgr1480

I’ve been sick … so this educational moment is long delayed.

The Iron Cross is a Cross pattée, not a Maltese Cross.

Cross pattée:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross_patt%C3%A9e

The Maltese cross has eight points:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maltese_cross
This cross is associated with the Catholic Sovereign Order of Malta as well as the various Protestant Orders of St. John.

OWB

While the cross commonly associated with firefighters is the Florian Cross. Makes sense since Florian is the patron saint of firefighters.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Florian