A headline on CNN goes like this: “Ta-Nehisi Coates’ slam on Bernie Sanders.” Readers should be excused for thinking the link leads to a story fitting that description. It doesn’t.
The article is actually a rebuttal to Atlantic writer Ta-Nehisi Coates’s criticism of the presidential candidate’s position on slave reparations. The author is the noted academic and commentator John McWhorter, a prolific scribe no one needs to be tricked into reading.
This deception exemplifies how the media has treated Coates of late: He’s more clickbait than critic.
The object of McWhorter’s column is the Coates piece “Why Precisely Is Bernie Sanders Against Reparations?” It appeared originally at The Atlantic. Then it appeared distilled at the Grey Lady.
“Ta-Nehisi Coates Criticizes Bernie Sanders Over His Opposition to Reparations,” the New York Times wrote. The newspaper hasn’t written its own article on Sanders and reparations, an issue the Vermont senator addressed briefly during a campaign appearance in Iowa last week. It hasn’t written one on Hillary Clinton and her stance on the matter, either. (She has prevaricated in the past.) But it did perform an act of Tumblr and “reblogged” what a “thought leader” said about an issue it hasn’t otherwise touched.
The Associated Press wants you to know that “Ta-Nehisi Coates [Is] Among Finalists for Book Critics Awards” — a National Book Critics Circle prize, specifically. The Washington Post relayed the same information. So did the Los Angeles Times. This year, their headlines were “Ta-Nehisi Coates is among finalists for National Book Critics Circle Awards” and “Book Critics award finalists include Ta-Nehisi Coates, Paul Beatty, Mary Beard, more,” respectively.
Last year, their headlines were “National Book Critics Circle finalists” and “National Book Critics Circle announces 2014 awards finalists“.
This creation of web celebrity isn’t unique to Coates. Lena Dunham has said far less newsworthy things and wound up on the homepage of the Times, and Rep. Trey Gowdy, a prosecutorial superhero of the right, is in headlines every time he breathes at a committee hearing.
But as it is with the others, internet media is using Coates for page views. It’s doing so to the point that an authoritative voice like McWhorter’s is subordinated to a clickable headline.
