Some in the press are adjusting to life after the presidential election less gracefully than others.
Though Newsweek senior writer Alexander Nazaryan doesn’t seem to be in the meltdown category himself, his article this week about charter school advocate Betsy DeVos contains a passage that one would expect from the more hysterical corners of media.
President-elect Trump has asked DeVos to serve as secretary of education. For some critics, her nomination means the beginning of the end for the nation’s public school students. Or something.
“Betsy DeVos is coming for your public schools,” read the headline to Nazaryan’s none-too-subtly titled article.
Though most of the article is an interesting look at DeVos’ professional and personal background, with a large emphasis placed on the fact that she is a self-professed Christian, there is one section in the article that is particularly tasteless.
Nazaryan writes [emphasis added]:
Comedian Rob Delaney tweeted, “Trump’s pick of DeVos as Sec. of Education is more hateful than pouring a vat of shit out of a helicopter onto a group of 1st graders.” Crude as that sentiment may be, it reflects the prevalent perception—unfair, perhaps—that DeVos is unsuited to her post, having never worked in a school or a school district. Her nomination is in keeping with Trump’s apparent conviction that nothing fuels government work better than antipathy to the government.
[…]
DeVos … is a professional lobbyist. She may be qualified, but when it comes to the battlefields of public education, she is plainly inexperienced.
Just to be clear, the author of this Newsweek article chose a Twitter comedian to represent the voice of opposition to Trump’s choice for education secretary. Not just any Twitter comedian, mind you, but one who compared the DeVos nomination to dumping a vat of “shit” on children.
It’s hard to believe Nazaryan was unable to find a more eloquent and even-handed criticism of DeVos. It’s so hard to believe, in fact, that one suspects Nazaryan chose Delaney’s “crude” and “unfair, perhaps” (you think?) characterization because he silently concurs.
Trump is a new kind of beast, and critics are right to worry about what his administration may bring. His vengeful, ugly brand of rhetoric rightly has people deeply worried about the next four years.
But why some in media are trying to one-up him in terms of ugly is a total mystery.
(h/t Mark Hemingway)
