{"id":350099,"date":"2018-02-28T00:28:13","date_gmt":"2018-02-27T23:28:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/atlantic-bravely-confronts-twitter-insults-ignores-threat-of-decades-in-prison\/"},"modified":"2018-02-28T00:28:13","modified_gmt":"2018-02-27T23:28:13","slug":"atlantic-bravely-confronts-twitter-insults-ignores-threat-of-decades-in-prison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/atlantic-bravely-confronts-twitter-insults-ignores-threat-of-decades-in-prison\/","title":{"rendered":"Atlantic Bravely Confronts Twitter Insults, Ignores Threat of Decades in Prison"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Atlantic:<\/p>\n

An opinion piece in The Atlantic<\/strong> (<\/span>2\/17\/19<\/span><\/a>)\u00a0<\/span>takes issue with the phenomenon of people sharing their opinions: “Twitter\u2019s socially conscious denizens probably only realized they should be outraged at Weiss after they saw other people being outraged.”<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Which journalists need protecting and which are deemed expendable tells us a lot about media priorities.<\/span><\/p>\n

New York Times <\/b>editorial page deputy editor Bari Weiss\u2014a <\/span>boilerplate neocon warmonger, anti-Arab racist<\/span><\/a>, and <\/span>sexual abuse soft-peddler\u2014<\/span><\/a>got into hot water when she sent a tweet last week praising Asian-American Mirai Nagasu (born in California) for being \u201can immigrant\u201d who \u201cgot things done.\u201d When <\/span>several people<\/span><\/a> noted not only that Nagasu was born in the US\u2013and thus not an immigrant\u2013but that the assumption that Asian-Americans are inherently foreign is a pervasive, deeply toxic trope that should be apologized for, Weiss had a classic <\/span>Twitter<\/b> meltdown, ending in <\/span>claims<\/span><\/a> that animosity leveled at her was \u201canother sign of civilization’s end.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Right on cue, fellow blue-checkmark Serious People rushed to her defense, most prominently\u2014and uniformly\u2014from the ultimate arbiter of seriousness, <\/span>Atlantic Magazine.<\/b> The centrist outlet published not one but two articles on the topic<\/span> of <\/span>Twitter<\/b> being mean to Weiss: \u201cThe Excesses of Call-Out Culture\u201c by Conor Friedersdorf (<\/span>2\/19\/18<\/span><\/a>) and \u201cBari Weiss and the Left-Wing Infatuation With Taking Offense\u201d by Shadi Hamid (<\/span>2\/17\/19<\/span><\/a>).<\/span><\/p>\n

Other <\/span>Atlantic <\/b>staff writers chimed in with their outrage on <\/span>Twitter<\/b>. \u201cNot taking offense easily is as important a moral commitment\u2014and perhaps even more productive of mental health\u2014as not giving offense carelessly,\u201d <\/span>The Atlantic<\/b>\u2019s David Frum <\/span>tweeted out<\/span><\/a> in solidarity. <\/span><\/p>\n

The Atlantic\u2019<\/b>s Julia Ioffe added in an exhaustive <\/span>five-tweet thread<\/span><\/a>:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Thread: I love Bari Weiss. I don’t always agree with her, but I have always found Bari to be a brilliant, interesting, hilarious, and engaging person. I hate Twitter<\/strong>. It’s a useful resource but is also home to roving bands of echo-chamber outrage. On both sides.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Extreme-centrist Ioffe was certain to get the “both sides\u201d in there, just so people know how Serious and Reasonable her perspective was. <\/span><\/p>\n

In response to a well-paid editor under siege from mean people on <\/span>Twitter<\/b> for saying something mindlessly racist, then doubling down and playing victim, one of the nation\u2019s most influential magazines marshaled its tremendous influence and intellectual resources to defend her. <\/span><\/p>\n

As FAIR has noted several times before (<\/span>9\/26\/18<\/span><\/a>), two journalists, as well as scores of protesters, faced decades in federal prison for simply being in the proximity of a few broken windows during Donald Trump\u2019s January 20 inauguration in Washington, DC. This official action sent \u201ca chilling message to journalists covering future protests,\u201d <\/span>according<\/span><\/a> to the Committee to Protect Journalists, a nonprofit focusing on press freedom. How many articles on this unprecedented attack on free speech did <\/span>The Atlantic<\/b> run? How many hot takes defending <\/span>Santa Fe Reporter <\/b>staff writer and editor at the <\/span>New Inquiry<\/b> Aaron Cant\u00fa, facing <\/span>75 years in federal prison<\/span><\/a>, were penned by Friedersdorf, Frum, Ioffe and Hamid? How many did they write about independent photojournalist Alexei Wood, who was threatened with a similar sentence before being <\/span>acquitted by a jury<\/span><\/a> last December?<\/span><\/p>\n

Zero. None. Not one mention of Cantu or Wood in <\/span>The Atlantic <\/b>since their detention and indictment in early 2017. <\/span><\/p>\n

Actual threats on journalists\u2014with actual prison sentences and actual legal fees resulting in an actual chilling effect\u2014are met with a yawn, because those affected aren\u2019t in the club, or in favor with the Extreme Center\u2019s positions on perma-war, Israel and Russia fearmongering; while mild <\/span>Twitter<\/b>-dragging by people with 344 followers and rose-emoji AVIs is a national crisis in urgent need of all hands on deck. <\/span><\/p>\n

When <\/span>Nation <\/b>and <\/span>Outline<\/b> contributor Sean McElwee confronted<\/span> Atlantic<\/b> staff writer Conor Friedersdorf about an unrelated pout session over \u201cfree speech\u201d attacks by other obscure leftists, while he ignored the official prosecution of over 100 people for unrest during Trump\u2019s inauguration, Friedersdorf <\/span>responded<\/span><\/a>:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

It is not possible for me to write about *every* free speech abrogation. That I did not write about the one you care about most does not mean I \u201cignored\u201d it.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

And yet ignore it he did, and continues to do. As do Frum, Ioffe, Hamid and <\/span>Atlantic <\/b>editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg. Because the issue isn\u2019t \u201cfree speech\u201d or the problems with \u201cPC\u201d online culture; it\u2019s simply the pundit class protecting its own\u2014while leaving those not in the Serious Person club out to dry. <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>