“N.Y. Post” beefs up security after Aaliyah column

Rod Dreher, the former lead film critic of the New York Post, who now writes a conservative opinion column for the newspaper, has told the New York Observer that since his Aug. 31 column criticizing the elaborate funeral for singer/actress Aaliyah appeared, his phone has been flooded with angry, threatening complainers, virtually all of them calling him a racist. He subsequently recorded this message on his office answering machine: “If you’re calling about the Aaliyah column, press 1 to leave a death threat. Press 2 to leave a bomb threat. Press 3 if you want to get me fired. Press 4 if you wish to use profanity. Press 5 if you wish to use racist rhetoric. Press 6 if you want to use anti-Semitic slurs. And please remember to speak as grammatically as you can.” The Observer reported that the Post took the threats seriously enough to beef up security at its newsroom and offices. Dreher told the newspaper that his column was “about celebrity worship, not black celebrity or anything like that.”