With his sharp mind, rapid-fire delivery, and fearless disdain for political correctness, conservative commentator Ben Shapiro frequently challenges progressive orthodoxy.
In a recent campus speech, Shapiro said, “The idea that that sex or gender are malleable is not true. OK, and I’m not denying your humanity if you are a transgender person, I am saying that you are not the sex to which you claim to be, you’re still a human being, and you’re a human being with an issue that I’m, you know, I wish you Godspeed in dealing with in whatever way you see fit. But if you are going to dictate to me that I’m supposed to pretend — I’m supposed to pretend that men or women and women are men. No, my answer is no.”
It often infuriates his opponents.
Early this month, Shapiro was invited to guest edit “Politico Playbook,” Politico’s widely read column for Washington insiders. A variety of guest editors rotated in and out, including progressives, Chris Hayes of MSNBC and Don Lemon of CNN. But for more than 100 of Politico’s editorial staffers, the conservative talker’s one-day stint was too much.
They wrote publisher Robert Allbritton, noting Shapiro’s history of what they called “bigotry,” asking for an apology and a list of demands.
Shapiro’s response: “One day! One day I wrote A piece for Politico! And like One Hundred people are like, “HOW DARE YOU!” He added, “What this is about is pressuring editors into never having anybody who’s remotely right-wing, write for their publication.”
Management responded to angered staffers with a memo saying, “Mischief making has always been a part of Politico’s secret sauce. We were an upstart. Some of that sensibility is always going to be a part of this publication.”
But the conflict is not unique to Politico, as new generations of reporters populate newsrooms, raised in campus “wokeness” and inspired to inflict cancel culture.
Yesterday, arguably the world’s most influential media mogul, Rupert Murdoch, warned in a speech of the dangers of this new attitude sweeping the media world, saying, “In a wave of censorship that seeks to silence conversation, to stifle debate and ultimately stop individuals and societies from realizing their potential, is rigidly enforced conformity, aided and abetted by so-called social media. It’s a straightjacket on sensibility.”
Influential publications have seen waves of retirements, firings, and resignations — none more eye-opening than Bari Weiss, of the New York Times, last year. After she accepted Republican Sen. Tom Cotton’s op-ed calling for a military presence to quell Black Lives Matter and antifa protests during summer, she was tormented by colleagues and resigned.
Weiss said, “My own forays into Wrongthink have made me the subject of constant bullying by colleagues who disagree with my views. They have called me a Nazi and a racist. … Op-eds that would have easily been published just two years ago would now get an editor or a writer in serious trouble, if not fired.”
The risk in this is massive. If it continues, if it grows and expands, it threatens not only the First Amendment but all the others, because without free speech, who can speak for the others.
