This week’s media drama unfolded at The Atlantic, after editor Jeffrey Goldberg hired, and then fired, Kevin Williamson, a conservative commentator for the National Review and other outlets.
Over his career, Williamson has expressed plenty of odious beliefs (at least to those of us on the left). In a 2014 essay entitled “Laverne Cox Is Not a Woman,” he wrote of the transgender actress: “Regardless of the question of whether he has had his genitals amputated, Cox is not a woman, but an effigy of a woman.” This was, at the very least, rude as fuck. Even if you don’t agree with transgender ideology, purposely mis-gendering someone is unnecessary and cruel, and Williamson has a long history of being both.
But it was a Twitter exchange, also from 2014, in which Williamson argued that women who have abortions should be hanged, that brought waves of condemnation upon both Goldberg’s and Williamson’s heads.
Goldberg explained his reasoning for hiring Williamson, and the controversy he clearly knew it would inspire, in a memo to staff last month.
“I don’t think anyone should try to defend Kevin’s most horrible tweet. I expect that Kevin will explain this tweet himself when he gets here,” Goldberg wrote. “He will also have the opportunity to explain other controversial aspects of his writing. But I don’t think that taking a person’s worst tweets, or assertions, in isolation is the best journalistic practice. I have read most, or much, of what he has written; some of his critics have not done the same.”
This week, however, Goldberg took it back, after Media Matters uncovered a podcast (also from 2014) in which Williamson defended his statements about hanging women who’ve had abortions. After this came to light this week, Goldberg reversed course and issued a new memo to staff:
“Late yesterday afternoon, information came to our attention that has caused us to reconsider this relationship,” he wrote. “Specifically, the subject of one of Kevin’s most controversial tweets was also a centerpiece of a podcast discussion in which Kevin explained his views on the subject of the death penalty and abortion. The language he used in this podcast—and in my conversations with him in recent days—made it clear that the original tweet did, in fact, represent his carefully considered views. The tweet was not merely an impulsive, decontextualized, heat-of-the-moment post, as Kevin had explained it. Furthermore, the language used in the podcast was callous and violent. This runs contrary to The Atlantic’s tradition of respectful, well-reasoned debate, and to the values of our workplace.”
As for whether or not Williamson did the right thing here, I don’t know. I’m generally against bowing to the Media Twitter mob (which loves nothing more than a good intra-media HR battle), but it’s not hard to imagine that the women who work at The Atlantic would feel uncomfortable knowing one of their colleagues actually thinks they should be hanged for ending a pregnancy (something nearly 25 percent of American women will do before the age of 45). I’ve never personally had an abortion, but would I feel uncomfortable around people who think that homosexuals should be sentenced to death? Yes, which is why I’ll never have Thanksgiving at my girlfriend’s parents’ house. In the interest of not causing a mass resignation, Goldberg probably did the smart thing.
However, I think Williamson did get something right: hanging. If the government is going to kill people, they should do in the public square, where everyone can observe the bulging eyes, the swollen tongue, the broken neck, and the piss and shit that runs down the dead man’s legs. We, all of us, should be forced to confront the ugly reality of government sponsored death, whether the targets are criminals here or soldiers, “enemy combatants,” or civilians abroad. For this reason, I also think the military should do away with guns, drones, and bombs, and bring back hand-to-hand combat. If you’re going to kill someone, you should be forced to look into their eyes. Death isn’t pretty or antiseptic, and killing shouldn’t be either.
