New York Times food writer Mark Bittman has found himself in some hot water recently. First he tried to alienate his dairy-loving readers by going on a bit of an anecdotally-based anti-milk crusade. Conveniently, his next book will try to launch his concept of a "vegan before 6" diet into the mainstream.
This time around, Bittman is apologizing after referring to the recently deceased vice president of corporate relations for Chick-fil-A as a "pig."
In Bittman's original August 3 link round-up, he wrote: "Speaking of pigs, the VP of PR for Chick-fil-A dropped dead of a heart attack the week after the chain’s latest homophobia/anti-gay marriage scandal." After the Freakonomics blog picked up the text, the statement spread around the web, and Tuesday afternoon Bittman was forced to apologize. He writes:
In a recent blog post, I used an inappropriate phrase to refer to the late VP of PR for Chick-fil-A. My choice of words did not rise to either my own standards or to The Times’s, and the phrase has been removed from the post. I regret this lapse.
His original post now omits the "speaking of pigs" line.
UPDATE -- 8/8/12, 5:30pm:
Mark Bittman, mysteriously, seems determined to keep going there. On Wednesday afternoon he re-tweeted a follower's message that seems to be defending Bittman's use of the slur (which, remember, he's already apologized for). Or something?
Might want to just lay low on the topic of the deceased Chick-fil-A VP, Mark.