NYT slammed for insensitive headline about Joe Biden 'still grieving' his son Beau

The Times decision to change the headline was also criticized, with Lara Trump calling it double standards

PUBLISHED SEP 6, 2021

The original headline read, ‘Biden, Still Grieving His Son, Finds That Not Everyone Wants to Hear About It’ (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

On September 4, the New York Times published a piece titled ‘In Invoking Beau, Biden Broaches a Loss That’s Guided His Presidency’. Katie Rogers reported on the Gold Star families who met with Biden at Dover Air Force Base. Some blamed him for the deadly bombing. Others said he appeared "distant". Mark Schmitz, father of Lance Cpl Jared Schmitz who was killed by the bomb in Afghanistan, was bothered by how Joe Biden talked about his own son Beau Biden.

Beau, an Army veteran, died of brain cancer in 2015. Schmitz said that Joe Biden bringing up his own son while his son died in Afghanistan was “too much” to bear. “I respect anybody that lost somebody,” Schmitz said in an interview, “but it wasn’t an appropriate time.” The report said that “Biden is still haunted by the memory of a son he had always described to confidants as ‘me, but without all the downsides’.”

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Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden (L), stands with his father U.S. Democratic Vice-Presidential nominee Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) during day three of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) at the Pepsi Center August 27, 2008 in Denver, Colorado. U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) will be officially be nominated as the Democratic candidate for U.S. president on the last day of the four-day convention. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

The report, however, had a different headline when it was first published. And the headline was met with a lot of outrage. The original headline read, ‘Biden, Still Grieving His Son, Finds That Not Everyone Wants to Hear About It’.

One person wrote on Twitter, “This piece is appalling. It ‘both sides’ whether Biden is grieving too much for his adult son, who died much too young.” Another person tweeted, “Wow, what a-holes.The original: @nytimes: ‘Biden, Still Grieving His Son Beau, Finds That Not Everyone Wants to Hear About It’. Now: ‘In Invoking Beau, Biden Broaches a Loss That’s Guided His Presidency’,” sharing screenshots of both headlines.

Another tweet said, “@katierogers, whether or not people support President Biden over the loss of his son didn't make it right for you to right that piece. The original headline was harsh and I think the @nytimes owes President Biden an apology.” One person wrote, “The New York Times is now attacking Joe Biden over his dead son Beau. There is no low to which they will not sink,” adding, “For context, Beau only died 6 years ago…the only people attacking Biden over this are nasty Republicans. But NYTimes reports it as an agenda-free fact.”

This piece is appalling. It "both sides" whether Biden is grieving too much for his adult son, who died much too
young.🙄
— Art Martin (@gartmartin9) September 4, 2021

Wow, what a-holes.

The original: @nytimes: "Biden, Still Grieving His Son Beau, Finds That Not Everyone Wants to Hear About It"

Now: "In Invoking Beau, Biden Broaches a Loss That’s Guided His Presidency" pic.twitter.com/6IHuzr52q6
— Tommy moderna-vaX-Topher (@tommyxtopher) September 4, 2021

.@katierogers, whether or not people support President Biden over the loss of his son didn't make it right for you to right that piece. The original headline was harsh and I think the @nytimes owes President Biden an apology.
— David Weissman (@davidmweissman) September 5, 2021

For context, Beau only died 6 years ago…the only people attacking Biden over this are nasty Republicans. But NYTimes reports it as an agenda-free fact.
— Kaivan Shroff (@KaivanShroff) September 5, 2021

But the fact that the Times changed the headline was also criticized. Lara Lea Trump, who is married to Donald Trump's son, Eric Trump, appeared on Fox News to slam the Times. She said, “I can think of a lot of headlines, a lot of stories… that were flat out wrong, reported by not just the New York Times but a slew of media outlets across America. When did they ever change those for Donald Trump? When did they ever change those for our family? I'll answer that for you: they never did.”

She added, “It is such a double standard that exists. And gosh, it makes you wonder, if they actually did report the truth…what a different situation might we be in now as a country.”