The spirit of the times may be the death knell for whatever shreds of journalistic objectivity big-city daily newspapers still may possess, but that isn’t stopping them from hurtling head-first into the fashionable progressive causes of the day. The Boston Globe is surrendering all pretense of non-partisanship by partnering with an especially radical black academic to launch The Emancipator, “an independent antiracist multimedia platform.” The venture was announced March 16.
Racist vs. Antiracist
Ibram X. Kendi, director of Boston University’s Center for Antiracist Research, is the key collaborator in the new effort. Kendi takes a severely rigid approach to his war against racism. “There is no such thing as a not-racist idea,” he has written, only “racist ideas and antiracist ideas.” Kendi literally sees racism everywhere. “Every policy in every institution in every community in every nation is producing or sustaining either racial inequity or equity,” he has stated.
Also onboard are incendiary MSNBC host Joy-Ann Reid and Nikole Hannah-Jones, who spearheaded The New York Times’ controversial 1619 Project. Hannah-Jones ludicrously was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for the identity politics re-telling of the founding of this nation despite her writings being filled with basic errors relating to American history.
Political Operatives With a Newspaper Masthead
Most striking about this latest venture is its overtly political nature, operating under the auspices of the city’s leading newspaper. A post on the project on Boston University’s website spells things out unmistakably. The GOP is specifically cast as the opposition in The Globe’s quest for racial justice:
“The timing of The Emancipator, which is expected to launch by this summer, is noteworthy. It comes as President Joe Biden moves to address racial inequities amid the growth of white supremacist groups and domestic terrorism, and with opposition from many Republicans who remain loyal to former President Trump, despite his role in inciting the January 6 attack on the US Capitol by Confederate flag–waving white rioters. Republicans are also stepping up efforts aimed at reducing the Black vote.”
A “Meet the Founders & Advisory Board” post on The Globe’s website further lays out the progressive activist nature of the new platform. Emancipator co-founder (along with Kendi) Bina Venkataraman is The Globe's editorial page editor. “She formerly served as a climate and science policy adviser in the Obama administration” before joining the paper, her bio reads.
Other names listed include:
“Kimberly Atkins is a Boston Globe columnist and the inaugural columnist for The Emancipator, focusing on the nexus between the principles underpinning the original abolitionist essays, and the antiracist solutions to the systemic racism that exists in America today.”
“Ian Haney López is the Chief Justice Earl Warren Professor of Public Law at the University of California, Berkeley. For the last decade, he has focused on the use of racism as a class weapon in electoral politics and on how to respond.”
“Julian Brave NoiseCat's work cuts across the fields of journalism, policy, research, art, activism, and advocacy, often engaging multiple disciplines at once.”
Jose Antonio Vargas “is the author of ‘Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen’ and his second book, ‘White Is Not a Country,’ will be published in 2023.”
In other words, The Emancipator is a political organization pursuing purely partisan goals while being sponsored by a brand-name big-box American newspaper.
“We’re thinking of the city of Boston as being a pioneer in this regard,” Monica Wang, an associate professor at the Boston University School of Public Health, says of the platform’s mission. “How can we lead the way in showcasing antiracist opinion, ideas, and data-driven solutions to promote equity in government, industry, media, the nonprofit world, and other spheres of influence?”
Projects like this from prominent and once-great journalistic giants lead one to wonder whether establishment journalism has become a lost cause.
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