Conservative writer Kevin Williamson, who was fired from the Atlantic magazine just two weeks after he was hired, on Friday blamed a “Twitter mob” for taking his past comments on abortion out of context and forcing his termination.
In an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal published Friday, Williamson said the Atlantic and its editor, Jeffrey Goldberg, gave in to pressure from critics on the Left who pointed out past public comments he made calling for capital punishment for women who have abortions.
“Whatever you think of my views on [abortion], I’d suggest that they’re more interesting than hearing someone repeat the same shopworn talking points on capital punishment for the thousandth time,” he wrote. “The editors of the Atlantic thought so, too, until the mob started doing their thinking for them.”
“Without credible journalism, all we have is the Twitter mob, which is a jealous god. Jealous and kind of stupid,” he said.
In a company-wide memo earlier this month, Goldberg said “information came to our attention” that had “caused us to reconsider this relationship” with Williamson.
“Specifically, the subject of one of Kevin’s most controversial tweets was also a centerpiece of a podcast discussion in which Kevin explained his views on the subject of the death penalty and abortion,” Goldberg said in the memo. “The language he used in this podcast — and in my conversations with him in recent days — made it clear that the original tweet did, in fact, represent his carefully considered views. The tweet was not merely an impulsive, decontextualized, heat-of-the-moment post, as Kevin had explained it. Furthermore, the language used in the podcast was callous and violent. This runs contrary to The Atlantic’s tradition of respectful, well-reasoned debate, and to the values of our workplace.”
Goldberg said in his Journal article that the comments he made were in an effort to make a rhetorical point and that he is largely opposed to capital punishment.
Williamson said Goldberg “underestimated the energy with which that mob would pursue someone like me.”
