- Washington Free Beacon - https://freebeacon.com -

NY Times Laments Iranian Protesters Are Ignoring Government's 'Call for Calm'

As the Iranian regime continued to crack down on citizens protesting the country's hardline Islamic government, the New York Times tweeted Monday that authorities "clamped down" because demonstrators were ignoring "calls for calm."

The tweet borrowed language from the lede of a Times piece published Monday, which the tweet linked to, headlined "Deadly Iran Protests Prompt Warning of Harsher Response."

"Ignoring pleas for calm from President Hassan Rouhani, Iranian protesters took to the streets in several cities for the fifth day on Monday as pent-up economic and political frustrations boiled over in the broadest display of discontent in years," the Times reported.

The tweet was widely-shared by detractors, who pointed out that it seemed to pin blame for the hundreds of arrests and dozens of deaths on the protesters rather than government security forces.