MY BAD

NYT Columnist David Brooks on His ‘Insensitive’ Airport Food Tweet: ‘I Screwed Up’

“I should not have written that tweet,” David Brooks said, noting that he “probably should not write any tweets.”

David Brooks says he’s seen the error of his ways after provoking mockery and backlash with a tweet earlier this week complaining about the cost of airport food. The New York Times columnist acknowledged in an interview on PBS NewsHour late Friday that his comments were “insensitive.” He was ridiculed for days after suggesting his $78 tab at Newark Airport—most of it spent on booze—was proof of “why Americans think the economy is terrible.” The “blindingly obvious” problem with his tweet, he said Friday, is that “an upper middle-class journalist having a bourbon in an airport is a lot different than a family living paycheck to paycheck.” He went on to say, “I screwed up. I should not have written that tweet. I probably should not write any tweets.”