The New York Times is under fire from, well, everyone, after writing that Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring once dressed in “brown makeup” while in college:

NYTimes tweet goes with AG Herring's euphemism—"a wig and brown makeup"—instead of the more accessible "blackface." If you click through, the headline is "Virginia Attorney General Says He Also Dressed in Dark Makeup." These are not good editorial decisions. https://t.co/v4p4NOuiiH — Friendly Gabriel Malor (@gabrielmalor) February 6, 2019

The tweet says “brown makeup” but the actual headline and news alert says “dark makeup,” which is even worse because at least “brown makeup” was just quoting from Herring statement:

Would have loved to be a fly on the wall for the tortured editorial discussion that led to the Times going with "dark makeup" here pic.twitter.com/KXlTO9SPBS — Christopher Ingraham (@_cingraham) February 6, 2019

dressing in "dark makeup" is no offense. blackface is. jesus. — Oliver Willis (@owillis) February 6, 2019

We expect the headline will change shortly:

"dark makeup and a wig" you can say "blackface," new york times pic.twitter.com/7a7jay6B4K — Bobby Lewis (@revrrlewis) February 6, 2019

Yes, what were they thinking?

NYT headline writers what are you thinking? “Dark Makeup” pic.twitter.com/t9dIcwWych — Yashar Ali ? (@yashar) February 6, 2019

Oh, and just as we were about to hit publish, they changed it:

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Update:

For what it’s worth, New York Times politics editor Patrick Healy has acknowledged that the original headline “wasn’t appropriate”:

Today we published an article about an episode of racist behavior by Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring. In doing so, our initial story, headline, tweet and alert used a phrase that wasn't appropriate. As politics editor, I want to share what happened https://t.co/USrkuJFNvX — Patrick Healy (@patrickhealynyt) February 6, 2019

The initial coverage was based on Herring's statement that in 1980, he put on "brown makeup" and a wig to try to dress as the rapper Kurtis Blow while an undergraduate at UVA. We relied on Herring's quote to inform our initial language; we used the phrase dark makeup in our story — Patrick Healy (@patrickhealynyt) February 6, 2019

The coverage should have said blackface; once we realized this, we made the change. It was never my intent to hide the change we were making. This was a breaking news story, and the headlines and text in breaking news stories are often revised and updated. — Patrick Healy (@patrickhealynyt) February 6, 2019

Our reporters are focused on obtaining accurate and timely information, and they are doing a great job. We updated our coverage to say blackface because blackface was the best word to convey the behavior and carried the appropriate connotations. — Patrick Healy (@patrickhealynyt) February 6, 2019