The Huffington Post’s Washington bureau has hired professional football player and 9/11 truther Donte Stallworth as a fellow, covering national security.
Stallworth, a wide receiver in the NFL since 2002, is currently an unsigned free agent and has not played in any games since 2012. He is also a 9/11 truther, and has publicly stated that Osama bin Laden was not responsible for the attacks and that the Pentagon was not hit by a plane.
“NO WAY 9/11 was carried out by ‘dying’ Bin Laden, 19 men who couldn’t fly a damn kite. STILL have NO EVIDENCE Osama was connected, like Iraq,” Stallworth tweeted in 2009. Stallworth also doubted tweeted, “Gggrrrrrrrrrrrrr @ ppl who actually believe a plane hit the pentagon on 9/11… hole woulda been ASTRONOMICALLY bigger, God bless lost lives.”
In a statement Wednesday, Huffington Post Washington bureau chief Ryan Grim said Stallworth “has a quick mind, an insatiable curiosity and a passion for politics — the necessary qualities of a great journalist.”
He’ll be a killer reporter…
In 2009, Stallworth plead guilty to DUI manslaughter after killing a 59-year-old man in Florida. Grim said Wednesday, “We obviously believe in redemption and second chances.”
UPDATE (10:23 a.m.): Poynter’s Andrew Beaujon asked Grim about the truther tweets:
“That doesn’t represent how he thinks today,” Grim said. “You know, that was five years ago, and people say dumb things, but that shouldn’t define him.” … Journalism, Grim said, “is like football in the sense that it’s done in public and people are judged by how they perform on the field or in print.”
UPDATE (10:33 a.m.): Several folks on Twitter have pointed out that Stallworth’s most recent truther tweet was from November 2013, less than a year ago.
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