When last we met, NY Times columnist Bret Stephens was being mocked on the Internet for complaining rather publicly about Dr. David Karpf, a relatively unknown associate professor of media and public affairs at George Washington University making a mostly unseen joke comparing Stephens to the crop of bed bugs found in the Times’ newsroom.
Don’t know this story? Follow the link above back to my previous post to catch up. It’s ok. We’ll wait.
So at this point we have a ticked off columnist for one of the most important papers in the country and a professor behaving analytically.
And then I saw this tweet from Mike Godwin (yes, that’s the Godwin of Godwin’s Law of Nazi Analogies…)
Think twice when you liken Bret Stephens to a bedbug. Because this is what you get. World War II and the Ingredients of Slaughter https://t.co/nXC2CoMGe3 https://t.co/nXC2CoMGe3
— Mike Godwin (@sfmnemonic) August 31, 2019
Bret Stephens was so irate that he wrote a whole column for the Times essentially comparing Karpf’s bed bug joke to the Holocaust. And it is worth remembering that no one would have ever noticed Karpf’s joke had Stephens not blown it up.
Lehigh journalism professor Jeremy Littau was surprised the Times let Stephens take out his anger at Karpf with his column:
I am shocked @nytopinion let this piece run without mentioning Stephens’ email that was was clearly the inspiration for the piece but not something all readers know. This is score-settling dressed up as intellectual exercise and lacks the transparency we need from our journalism. https://t.co/3F6ZvNt0tr
— Jeremy Littau (@JeremyLittau) August 31, 2019
Washington Post columnist (and international affairs professor) Dan Drezner had a thoughtful critique of Stephens behavior:
Let’s dispense with the subtweets. https://t.co/dJtUzEpLoS
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) September 3, 2019
The lesson the Stephens just hasn’t seemed to learn is that although he has a big, big pulpit, he cannot beat up on lower figures without impunity now. Here is how Dr. Karpf responded through a commentary on Esquire’s site:
I think my favorite comment on the whole affair game from TCU’s Dr. Emily Farris: