{"id":583,"date":"2019-08-22T20:12:59","date_gmt":"2019-08-22T20:12:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nyadfactcheck.com\/annex\/2019\/08\/22\/the-new-york-times-diana-nyad-problem\/"},"modified":"2023-11-13T19:12:37","modified_gmt":"2023-11-13T19:12:37","slug":"the-new-york-times-diana-nyad-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nyadfactcheck.com\/annex\/the-new-york-times-diana-nyad-problem\/","title":{"rendered":"The New York Times\u2019 Diana Nyad Problem"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week, Irv Muchnick posted an article about the muffled change that the New York Times <\/em>made to Diana Nyad\u2019s op-ed, \u201cMy Life After Sexual Assault<\/a>\u201d (original here<\/a>). Notice of the change apparently appeared nowhere but at the bottom of the on-line article. That notice reads:<\/p>\n

Correction:<\/strong> Aug. 10, 2018
\nAn earlier version of this article incorrectly described an event associated with the initial assault on the author. It was a swim meet, not the state swimming championships.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n

In \u201cMy Diana Nyad Problem\u2014and Ours<\/a>,\u201d Muchnick explains that the\u00a0Times\u2019<\/em> correction opens to scrutiny Nyad\u2019s entire abuse tale:<\/p>\n

It is simply not normal for a victim to misremember the setting of the core anecdote. If that testimony is unreliable, then the whole story becomes a house of cards.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This, Muchnick explains, taken along with the rest of Nyad\u2019s actions and the \u201cethos of hype [that] seems fundamental to every angle of her public figure,\u201d makes Nyad a poor torchbearer for our response to child sexual abuse in sports, flawed as it is.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the Times <\/em>left Nyad\u2019s other fabrications intact: Her lie that she confronted her alleged abuser, coach Jack Nelson, in front of the school principal and \u201c[t]he next day he was fired\u201d? Still there. Her allegation that there were multiple other victims\u2014although not a single person other than Nyad has ever come forward publicly? Still there.<\/p>\n

And then there\u2019s this:<\/p>\n

That first savage episode signaled the beginning of years of covert molestation.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But that claim bears little resemblance to what she told the Atlanta Constitution<\/em> in 1998. Back then, she related only two incidents\u2014one when she was fourteen, a second two years later (\u201cSome Male Coaches\u2026<\/a>\u201d).<\/p>\n

By 2007, the number of incidents had more-than-tripled:<\/p>\n

The second incident occurred in either 1965 or 1966 in Nelson\u2019s office at Pine Crest, Nyad says.<\/p>\n

She recounted five additional incidents that occurred in the back seat of Nelson\u2019s car, a motel room, and a bathroom. (\u201cJack and Diana<\/a>,\u201d 14 Jun 2007)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

By 2014, Nyad\u2019s story had changed so much it feels more like vengeance than truth. She shed all numerical limitations for Ariel Levy of the New Yorker:<\/em><\/p>\n

Throughout high school, Nyad says, he persuaded her to meet him in hotel rooms, at his office, in his car, and molested her. (\u201cBreaking the Waves<\/a>,\u201d 10 Feb 2014)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

To the tale that Nyad manufactured for the Times<\/em> op-ed, she adds:<\/p>\n

These molestations were the cornerstone of my teenage life.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That may or may not be. However, the cornerstone of her adult<\/em> life seems to be a solo version of the children\u2019s game Telephone<\/a>. Her stories constantly change, always in the direction of putting Nyad in a more admirable or pitiable light. Take, for instance, her kaleidoscopic convalescence<\/a> from a high school illness.\u00a0 Her recuperation time begins at six weeks, balloons to three months, then to six months. It finally becomes fully inflated at one year.<\/p>\n

Or take her academic achievements<\/a>. In Nyad\u2019s tales, she either \u201csuspended her pursuit of a Master\u2019s degree,\u201d or she has \u201ca master\u2019s degree in comparative literature,\u201d or she \u201cholds a PhD in comparative literature,\u201d or any number of variations thereof. The truth?\u00a0 She earned a BA at Lake Forest University.<\/p>\n

Or take her stories about the 1968 Olympic trials<\/a>. She was either not fast enough to qualify for them, which was the truth; or she was fast enough but got sick so couldn\u2019t qualify; or, as she dramatizes in a commencement address at Lake Forest, she swam in the Olympic trials but didn\u2019t make the team.<\/p>\n

In other words, Diana Nyad is a habitual liar. Therefore, she is not the ideal spokesperson for the #MeToo movement or for the Time\u2019s Up campaign or for any other battle that matters.<\/p>\n

And now it\u2019s up to the Times<\/em>. They can choose to believe that everything\u2019s chill because they corrected Nyad\u2019s one careless mistake, or they can take a moment to look into who Diana Nyad really is\u2014a compulsive liar who shamelessly deceived them and their readers about sexual abuse in order to focus attention on herself.<\/p>\n

><((\u0317(\u0302(\u00b0> \u00a0 \u00a0<\u00b0))\u0302)\u0316)><<\/p>\n

For more about Nyad and her abuse allegations, please see:<\/p>\n