Jeff Charles writes at Townhall.com about the latest mystifying decision from a major legacy media outlet.
These are the types of stories that make you wonder what some in our once-vaunted Fourth Estate are smoking.
The New York Times included ousted Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro on its midyear list of the most stylish people of 2026 before quickly removing the entry after a backlash coming from people with common sense.
The decision centered on the viral image of Maduro wearing a Nike tracksuit during his January capture by U.S. forces and transport to New York, according to reporting that emerged this week. Sure, he may have been a brutal dictator who violated the rights of countless numbers of people, but at least he knows how to dress, right?
The New York Times Styles Desk placed Maduro on “The 39-ish Most Stylish People of 2026, So Far,” a roundup published in early July that mixed celebrities and public figures. The paper connected his inclusion to the popular online reaction to photos showing him in gray Nike sweats while blindfolded, wearing soundproof headphones and handcuffed during the journey after his seizure.
The Times had earlier covered how that tracksuit image turned into a meme, and the list entry pointed readers to that prior Styles story about the Nike gear Maduro wore when U.S. Special Forces took him into custody, according to Page Six.
Other names on the list included Justin Bieber, John Travolta, Amy Poehler, Olympian Eileen Gu, former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Bad Bunny, according to the same reports. Unfortunately, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un didn’t make the list.
The New York Times issued an update after the inclusion drew criticism. The paper added a note at the bottom of the article that read: “This article has been updated to remove an entry on Nicolás Maduro.” The note continued: “Read our Styles story about how an image of him in a tracksuit became a meme.”
