Jeffrey Goldberg's announcement that The Atlantic had "parted ways" with our old friend Kevin Williamson — what a gutless way to announce you've fired someone, a week or so into the job — represents a successful effort to redefine "beyond the pale" in the political debates of 2018, or to close the Overton Window, if you prefer that metaphor.
A week ago, Goldberg told his staff this in a memo:
I don't think that taking a person's worst tweets, or assertions, in isolation is the best journalistic practice. . . He's an excellent reporter who covers parts of the country, and aspects of American life, that we don't yet cover comprehensively. . . Diversity in all its forms makes us better journalists; it also opens us up to new audiences. I would love to have an Ideas section filled with libertarians, socialists, anarcho-pacifists and theocons, in addition to mainstream liberals and conservatives, all arguing with each other. If we are going to host debates, we have to host people who actually disagree with, and sometimes offend, the other side. Kevin will help this cause.
Yesterday, allegedly because of Kevin's ...
 | | | April 06 2018 | | | | |
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|  | | | Jim Geraghty Jeffrey Goldberg's announcement that The Atlantic had "parted ways" with our old friend Kevin Williamson — what a gutless way to announce you've fired someone, a week or so into the job — represents a successful effort to redefine "beyond the pale" in the political debates of 2018, or to close the Overton Window, if you prefer that metaphor. A week ago, Goldberg told his staff this in a memo: I don't think that taking a person's worst tweets, or assertions, in isolation is the best journalistic practice. . . He's an excellent reporter who covers parts of the country, and aspects of American life, that we don't yet cover comprehensively. . . Diversity in all its forms makes us better journalists; it also opens us up to new audiences. I would love to have an Ideas section filled with libertarians, socialists, anarcho-pacifists and theocons, in addition to mainstream liberals and conservatives, all arguing with each other. If we are going to host debates, we have to host people who actually disagree with, and sometimes offend, the other side. Kevin will help this cause.
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