On Sunday, the New York Times revised conservative columnist Bret Stephens’ op-ed “The Secrets of Jewish Genius,” which claimed that Ashkenazi Jews are intellectually superior, due to overwhelming backlash over the column citing of a racist study.
Shorter New York Times editors: we have no problem with a racist editorial as long as you don’t explicitly reference the racist screed at it’s foundation. our bad.
Above all else Bret Stephens is a civic arsonist, a rhetorical bomb-thrower, and that’s what the NYT pays him for just as the WSJ did before.
Fire him because it’s a shitty argument. You can’t wave your arm at a certain percentage of the population and say they’re particularly original and resourceful thinkers because you have a vague, impressionistic sense that certain celebrities drawn from their ranks were innovators and so forth. Any sophisticated person could name innovators from any race and apply exactly the same characterization to that particular race. It was a fool’s errand from the moment he sat down to write and the shitty nature of the one source is only part of it.
The New York Times pays him, defends him and cleans up every time he shits on the Persian carpet in the living room because the entire worldview that drives its editorial narrative universe depends upon the existence of sober, sensible, good faith, centrist Republicans and if none exist, they will drop a bomb-throwing WSJ douche into the role and treat him as if he is one.
Right up to and including responding to a discovery that he’s selling pie made from the fruit of the poisonous tree by just scratching the word “poison” off the ingredients list on the box.
So why is that racist still employed by the Times?
Yup, it’s long past time and I can’t fathom what the NYT sees as the benefit of keeping him.
UPDATE: Stephens’ Wikipedia bio claims his parents were secular Jews of Euro extraction.
“He’s just filling column inches with his latest musings.””
Sounds like a pundit…
Douthat is worse? Where does Bari Weiss rank?
Yet another erosion of the NYT’s waning influence on anyone. It’s a real shame, once upon a time they were a credible news source. Crap like this just erodes what little is left.
“After publication Mr. Stephens and his editors ‘learned’ (my edit) that one of the paper’s authors, who died in 2016, promoted racist views,” the note read. “Mr. Stephens was not endorsing the study or its authors’ views, but it was a mistake to cite it uncritically.”
It always surprises me when people with 2nd rate intellectual power and a modicum of ability to turn a phrase become the news story because they manage to write some drivel that exposes them for what shallow thinkers they are. These people have no real skin in the game besides the need to stay relevant and keep their high-paying job turning out a few paragraphs a week. Stephens is not the worst, but he is rapidly laying claim to the bottom third. He should just rename his column White Privilege and be done with it.
It is a continuing puzzle why Stephens has a writing career. Can’t Times editors find any other out-of-work bigots in New York who need a job?
Hey, I have two legs, you know. Pull the other one.
A related issue is that there isn’t a need for op-ed columnists, particularly; moreover, many of them use their positions to slip unedited falsehoods into the discourse. I don’t need to know what David Brooks thinks, nor do I need his garbage to be the topic of the internet’s dinner conversations, week after week. Right wing contributors are not the only culprits, but at major newspapers they are the worst.
While most op-ed columnists are worse than useless, there is a genuine need to employ real experts to explain key issues of the day. For example, instead of publishing Stephens’ absurd takes on climate change, hire a real scientist. Also, it would help if editors would eliminate the goal of maintaining political balance. Simply hire excellent writers with a proven record of fact based output, and who bring some expertise. For example, the NYT could do a lot worse than hiring the American historian Kevin Kruse.
Is Kevin Williamson available?
According to NYT, neither they or Bret knew that HH was cuckoo for cocoa puffs.
That’s clearly bull, because a Google or YouTube search would have given them time, before cutting Stephens, his check.
I’m ok with their answer.
Though i’m not an online piracy and theft fan, I’m so happy that the Times has allowed this exception to be used as an appropriate excuse.
edited
Or Mary Rosh, at the very least.
#firebretstephens