Today in the Robust Public Discourse With Bret “Bedbug” Stephens
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I can’t believe what I just saw:
Alright fine… here is the email: pic.twitter.com/A4E5I6CoB6— davekarpf (@davekarpf) August 27, 2019
Sending a whiny “I shall have my honor!” email to a an obscure academic over a mild joke that got no traction is pathetic enough, but cc’ing the provost is [chef’s kiss.] It helps if you read the Stephens email in a Foghorn Leghorn voice.
This would be embarrassing behavior from anybody. But let us remember that Bret Stephens wrote this:
A newspaper, after all, isn’t supposed to be a form of mental comfort food. We are not an advocacy group, a support network, a cheering section, or a church affirming a particular faith — except, that is, a faith in hard and relentless questioning. Our authority derives from our willingness to challenge authority, not only the authority of those in power, but also that of commonplace assumptions and conventional wisdom.
In other words, if we aren’t making our readers uncomfortable every day, we aren’t doing our job. There’s an old saying that the role of the journalist is to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted, but the saying is wrong. The role of the journalist is to afflict, period. News is new — new information, new challenges, new ideas — and it is meant to unsettle us.
We must have a robust discourse in which people aren’t afraid to PROVOKE READERS and CHALLENGE AUTHORITY and…JAMES HE CALLED ME A NAME ON THE INTERNETS CALL HIS MOMMY RIGHT NOW!
The people who talk the biggest game about how special snowflakes need to suck it up invariably have the thinnest skins. And to state the obvious:
if "bedbug" is truly the worst thing br*t st*ph*ns has ever been called wait until he hears about "being a woman"— Alison Herman (@aherman2006) August 27, 2019