Erin Marquis tops the list of leftist meltdowns for her shameless name-dropping of her employer — the New York Times — when leaving a profanity-laced message with a gun-rights group.

She used her employer's media clout to intimidate and abuse those she deemed as "f------ ghouls" for exercising their First Amendment right to distribute a press release by the Michigan chapter of the National Association for Gun Rights defending the rights of adult citizens to bear arms.  This was especially galling to Ms. Marquis in the wake of a school shooting.  There was no reference in the "f-bomb" rant about the realities of stopping a rampaging student on campus from further causing the harm and death of fellow classmates.

It was much easier for Marquis to use her platform as an editor with "Wirecutter," an NYT product recommendation service, to threaten the group members with "informing everyone at the Times that the members of the group were "f------ a-------."  Her sophomoric message included the memorable sign-off: "Congrats on being a laughing stock," according to voicemail posted in Townhall.

Somehow Marquis got lost in a wilderness of self-righteousness and took the liberty of posting on her Twitter account the phone number and email address of the group, "urging supporters to oppose" the Michigan-based group.  The realities of her unprofessional conduct came crashing down on Marquis when the organization published the editor's embarrassing rant — which caught the attention of her employer.

The "newspaper of record" apparently hasn't lost all standards of objectivity and professionalism.  Marquis was terminated with the following admonition from the Times' management: "We expect our employees to behave in a way that is consistent with our values and commitment to the highest ethical standards."  Marquis — who had repeatedly invoked the name of the employer as part of her bully pulpit — was reminded in the dismissal message: "Repeatedly invoking the New York Times' name in an unprofessional way that imperils the reputation of the Wirecutter, the Times, and all our journalists is a clear violation of our policies."

It's nice to know that the Times has standards.  How broadly the paper applies them remains to be seen.

Image: N.Y. Times.

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