Village Voice Lays Off Nat Hentoff
Ever wonder why print media is sinking beneath the waves? Here's an example. The Village Voice has laid off my pal Nat Hentoff, who has churned out thoughtful and even prescient columns there for 50 years. From the story:
The troubled Village Voice laid off three employees Tuesday, including Nat Hentoff, the prominent columnist who has worked for the paper since 1958, contributing opinionated columns about jazz, civil liberties and politics..."Nat Hentoff wrote liner notes for every great musician that I've ever loved, from Billie Holiday to Bob Dylan and Aretha Franklin, and that's not even what he's been writing about for the last 30 years," said Tom Robbins, a Voice staff writer.Not surprisingly, the Times failed to note that Hentoff is one of the country's most prominent pro life columnists, who has fought abortion (leading some VV colleagues to shun him), written against assisted suicide/euthanasia, unethical medical experiments on babies with disabilities, infanticide, the dehydration of Terri Schiavo, the "duty to die," in favor of mandatory testing of newborns for HIV, etc., for decades. Indeed, I would say that standing up for human exceptionalism and the sanctity/equality of human life as a prominent atheist, is as worthy of mention in this story as his splendid work in jazz and his absolutist belief in civil liberties. Along this line, Nat Hentoff was named a Great Defender of Life by the Human Life Foundation a few years ago. Perhaps the Times found that aspect of his career too embarrassing to mention.
posted by Wesley J. Smith @ 9:27 AM
12 Comments
12 Comments:
It seems to me that he's well rid of The Village Voice and much better off without it. Congratulations to him on being clear of it. I never did like that paper.
I always thought of Nat Hentoff in terms of his association with the Voice, and because of what I thought of the Voice, I never read his work, except one column, I don't remember about what, which raised my opinion of the Voice somewhat, but nevertheless left me confused about why he was part of it, and concluding that without him the Voice couldn't have lasted as long as it had. If he's a liberal (hard to imagine the Voice having someone who would be considered conservative on staff) obviously he's the type of liberal intellectual who actually thinks and has courage of conviction, and honestly I don't understand how he put up with that paper for this long. Apparently the Voice don't realize how much being foolish enough to part with him is going to cost it in terms of readership, and thus ad revenue, and in terms of whatever respect it had from actual intellectuals; in this economy, its having done this, for "utilitarian/cost" reasons or any other, is the stupidest possible thing it could have done, ever. Why is one not surprised, considering the "liberal" habits of being closed-minded and unable to reason and of shooting oneself in the foot? Unfortunately, the energy of this "new left" kind of "liberalism" populated by lemmings full of hate is like that of a drowning man who pulls others down with him, which explains its resonance with and promotion of the death culture.
The New York Times tried, and managed, to ride on the style of its typeface, its "good grey" nickname and self-perpetuating myth of venerability, and its crossword puzzle, etc. for a long time and ended up unable to afford to be its own size and with no more paper in it than allows space for its own point of view. For years now, I've been going to one newsstand or another every day in a city that isn't New York and seen people buying The New York Post and The New York Daily News at newsstands outside New York every day, and at least a dozen times as often as I've seen them even glancing at, let alone buying, the Times, which is more prominently placed on the same stands, where The Voice sits untouched until it gets sent back. Things have gotten to the point that when something does get mentioned by the Times, it's not a good sign; Mr. Hentoff is well out of the Voice and ought to be saying, "Whew!"
I wonder what would happen if a new newspaper sprung up that actually did the job that a newspaper is supposed to do.
It's so lovely to live in a country where the goven't doesn't censor communication-the big shots in charge of that communication are doing a fine job of that themselves.
I've read about a few people getting sacked from their jobs because of their support for life and marriage.
What made them decide to lay him off _now_? I mean, he's been in there saying stuff they must hate for a lotta, lotta years. Was it just, "Oh, the economy is really bad. Good opportunity to get rid of that dratted Hentoff"?
When I don't get a return call re freelance work these days, I don't know whether it's because of the economy, because I'm not considered the right candidate for the assignment, because a long-running campaign, culminating in a court hearing replete with perjurious claims that ended up as false and misleading information in the local media, was waged to push me aside as health care proxy so that the plug could be pulled on my mother, whose actual wishes to continue to live I was fighting to protect, or because people who, similarly, don't know the truth think it's just horrible that anyone wouldn't "honor" the "living will" of a person who did not understand the full ramifications of the document and may not even have been aware of its existence, did not know any more than anyone can under exactly what circumstances might arise in future, and named her their health care proxy because they wanted her to fight for her life. It's beyond their comprehension, apparently, that an elderly woman with property could be duped into signing a "living will," that anyone might not change their mind even if they did know they'd signed one, that it isn't "a good thing" to have "a living will," that someone, especially a geriatric, wouldn't want to die, etc., etc. Some are supportive; some, I can tell, think it's just awful that I fought for someone's life; God forbid anyone would do such a thing, after all.
Lydia: That's a darned good question.
Maybe they want to make a fresh start for what they see as a friendly administration by getting rid of dissenting voices?
Very sorry to hear of that news. Nat Hentoff is a GREAT man, person of integrity and courage Privileged to have had him as a guest on my radio show on many occasions. The Voice will be the poorer for it.
This is like Shanahan getting the pink slip from the Broncos: you expect someone will snatch him up right away, if he still wants the work...
Bmmg: That's exactly what it's like.
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home