Tom Cotton came for the media’s vaunted 1619 Project, and the media has come for the Arkansas senator. After the Republican gave an interview to the Arkansas Democrat Gazette explaining why he proposed a bill to ensure that federal funds don’t go to the New York Times project’s educational program, liberals pounced on a single line of Cotton’s, declaring that he personally deemed slavery a necessary evil.
Tom Cotton said slavery was a “necessary evil.” Congratulations, Republicans. This is what you have become.
— Wajahat “Wears a Mask Because of a Pandemic” Ali (@WajahatAli) July 26, 2020
But lo and behold, that’s not remotely what he said. Here is Cotton’s quote, intentionally explaining his historiographical qualms with the 1619 Project’s framing our founding, not his own personal feelings about the slavery’s role in our founding ideology:
Even without context, it is abundantly clear that this specific assertion, “[slavery] was the necessary evil upon which the union was built,” is an opinion Cotton is arguing the Founding Fathers held, not him personally.
Cotton reiterated as such on Twitter, and when reached by the Washington Examiner, his office said that his tweet stands as his official comment on the matter. Cotton’s office also pointed toward a tweet from the Washington Post’s Dave Weigel as “basically right.”
The Cotton quote is “as the Founding Fathers said, it was the necessary evil upon which the union was built, but the union was built in a way, as Lincoln said, to put slavery on the course to its ultimate extinction.” Isn’t that an accurate summary of some founders’ argument?
— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) July 26, 2020
And still, the Guardian is pushing the headline “Tom Cotton calls slavery ‘necessary evil’ in attack on New York Times 1619 Project” two hours after Cotton’s public statement explaining that he was referring to the opinion of the Founders, not himself. Mediaite continues to do the same, lying that “Sen. Tom Cotton Calls Slavery ‘The Necessary Evil Upon Which The Nation Was Built.'”
Words mean things, yes, but even more importantly, so do syntax, sentence structure, and context. Misreading his initial statement is forgivable, sure, although it does raise questions of the reader’s competence, but to continue to promulgate this falsehood that Cotton personally believes slavery was a necessary evil is outright political activism masquerading as mere journalistic malpractice.
Gripe with Cotton’s policies or even his opposition to the 1619 Project, but he is owed an apology and a correction from the absolute dregs of journalism continuing to smear him with a lie.
