Valenti writes: "The Atlantic's attempt at representing a 'broad spectrum of views' indicates a serious moral crisis in mainstream media."
Kevin D. Williamson has a history of making extreme, anti-abortion commentary. (photo: Fox News)
26 March 18
The Atlantic’s attempt at representing a ‘broad spectrum of views’ indicates a serious moral crisis in mainstream media
rump-era media really is something else. Otherwise smart and interesting publications are working so hard to “appeal to both sides” that they’ve completely abandoned their integrity in the process.
Take the Atlantic, who announced a new roster of high-profile columnists this week, including Kevin D Williamson – a writer who compared a nine-year-old black child to a primate, and who argued that women that have abortions – along with their doctors and nurses – should be executed by hanging. (In case you were wondering, yes, this is a literal plotline in The Handmaid’s Tale. Chapter 6.)
When I asked the Atlantic for comment, a spokesperson responded that the magazine has “a large number of contributors who represent a broad spectrum of views”. She wrote that while “diverse viewpoints” are core to the magazine’s mission, they have “strict standards for how these viewpoints are expressed in our pages”.
In other words, the Atlantic doesn’t mind employing a marquee columnist who thinks women should be hanged for having abortions so long as he doesn’t say as much in the magazine.
But believing America should execute women in genocidal numbers (one in four women in this country will have an abortion) is not a “diverse viewpoint” – and the fact that one of the nation’s leading political magazines could defend it as such indicates a serious moral crisis in mainstream media.
Glass half full
The March for Our Lives is this weekend in Washington – and I, for one, cannot wait to see America’s kids in action. (Already this week they’ve guest-edited Guardian US.)
