PicoBlog

Last week a video went viral on TikTok that featured a “hot” Houthi pirate apparently attacking a cargo ship off the coast of Yemen.

Everyone was talking about it.

The video I saw on Twitter had nearly 25 million views as of Monday afternoon. And practically every media outlet in the world was reporting about the “hot Houthi pirate,” identified as Rashid Al Haddad, a 19-year-old Yemeni man.

The fact that my brain immediately began to wonder if Al Haddad’s virality was an Operation Mockingbird-style plot by the CIA, which has a long history of media manipulation, is something that I will (for now) attribute to my own cynicism, which runs pretty deep these days (for good reason).

Sometimes stories go viral just because they are good, and this is a pretty good story.

Piracy is hardly unusual, of course. (One of my favorite news stories I ever wrote was an interview with a Florida man who was robbed by Somali pirates at gunpoint somewhere in the Indian Ocean.) But a good looking pirate brazenly posting Tik-Toks as he raids ships checks all the right boxes for a viral story.

Despite the story’s virality, all week I somehow missed all the articles and videos on the hunky Yemini pirate raiding ships. (I’m guessing most readers did as well.)

That changed Monday when I saw a letter posted by misha꙳(@schizarella), whose bio says she’s an intern at the New York Times.

From what I can tell from her posts, Misha is a young writer and investigative journalist who has demonstrated a knack for creating viral social media content, largely through biting sarcasm and a nose for explosive stories that goes beyond her years.

Misha is a teen, according to her posts, and her bio says she wrote for the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and Dexerto before she joined the Times for a writing internship.

As a former newspaper writer, I can tell you that an internship with the New York Times is a big deal. The paper has its flaws, but it’s the place most young journalists dream of landing.

I bring all this up because Misha’s internship at the paper appears to have ended rather abruptly on Monday, apparently because of an interaction she had with the hunky Houthi pirate, Rashid Al Haddad. (Get ready for me to use the word “apparently” a lot, because I don’t want to get sued.)

According to an email she posted on X, Misha was informed by Scott Perlin, Human Resources Business Partner at The New York Times, of termination from the Newsroom Fellowship Program.

“Your presence has been a pleasure, and you have been an amazing part of the team since day. I am personally excited about your future in the industry, as you have been one of our brightest talents,” the email read. “However, we have deemed that your talents would be of better use elsewhere.”

The action appears to stem from a steamy dm she sent to Al Haddad, who recently was banned from Tik-Tok for his pirate video antics.

From what I can tell, Misha has a history of “catfishing” men on X. Catfishing is when someone uses a fake social media account (often of an attractive woman) to message people in an attempt to get something from them, such as compromising information.

Apparently Misha did this in December with a semi famous Hollywood actor older readers will remember for playing Hercules on TV, which prompted a semi famous conservative commentator to reach out to Misha in an attempt to get more dirt on the actor. (Apparently they have a feud.)

Misha did something similar with Al Haddad, who actually replied to her sexual advances and invited her to Yemen.

“no sex,” he wrote back. “you have ship?”

Putting the ethics of catfishing aside, the fact that Misha was able to get a reply from the young pirate as he was going viral is rather impressive and hilarious.

But some apparently didn’t find it funny.

Apparently Misha was accused of harassing Al Haddad, and blowback over the DMs seems to have triggered her termination.

“You're all responsible for this, I hope you feel so proud of putting a teenager out of a job right now 😐,” Misha tweeted.

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