NYT roasted for swastika-like puzzle

Readers accused the newspaper of printing an oddly-shaped crossword pattern on Hanukkah

Some readers of the New York Times were perplexed by a crossword puzzle in the Sunday edition of the paper that appeared to be shaped like a swastika. Adding insult to injury in the minds of some was the fact that the puzzle was printed on the first day of Hanukkah

Several public figures went on Twitter to draw public attention to the controversial layout and ask the newspaper of record how such an oversight made it to print on the day that one of Judaism’s most important holidays begins.

Donald Trump Jr., the son of former President Donald Trump, chimed in to claim that the outrage in the US would have been much bigger if an outlet “not ideologically aligned” with the readership of the Times had published it.

Subscribers of the newspaper traditionally lean left, with nine in ten people naming it as their main news source identifying as Democrats, Pew Research reported in 2020.

A hidden Happy Chanukah message in today's @nytimes crossword? pic.twitter.com/iFVPQdTWSi

— Kalman Yeger (@KalmanYeger) December 18, 2022

The Jerusalem Post noted that this was not the first time the Times has come under fire for publishing crossword puzzles bearing a supposed likeness in shape to the swastika. Similar oversights happened in 2014 and 2017, the Israeli newspaper said.

In 2017, the newspaper’s gaming section tweeted in response to accusations: “It's NOT a swastika. Honest to God. No one sits down to make a crossword puzzle and says, ‘Hey! You know what would look cool?’”

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