Culture critic: Do Dems Have a White Male Problem?
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand answered with a blunt “yes” when asked on CNN if it was a problem that a new poll shows three white men — Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders and Beto O’Rourke — leading for the Democratic presidential nomination. In her view, suggests The Federalist’s David Marcus, the electorate “has not advanced to a full understanding of equality and diversity.” Yet the last time Democrats nominated a white man for president was 2004, and they just elected a record number of women to Congress. Still, “many Democrats feel pressure that if they talk the talk, they must walk the walk.” The “core identity” of today’s Democrats is that they are diverse and inclusive, so “maybe it really is a problem for them that only white men are scoring significantly in their presidential polls.”
Boycott watch: US Firms Need Relief From BDS Pressure
Stuart Eizenstat, who as a top adviser to President Jimmy Carter wrote the 1977 law prohibiting unsanctioned US company boycotts against American allies, says at The Hill that international government organizations, or IGOs, are using the same tactics once employed by the Arab League. As a result, American companies “are unfairly being placed in a vise” between US foreign policy and the BDS movement’s “aggressive politics.” That’s why Congress should pass the Israel Anti-Boycott Act, which is prompted by the UN’s move to compile a database of US companies doing business beyond Israel’s “green line,” including East Jerusalem. The bill protects US firms from being pressured by an IGO “to provide information for the purpose of prosecuting boycotts against Israel.” Congress should move swiftly before another blacklist “becomes a reality.”
From the right: New York Times’ Terror Liability
Wissam Nassar is a Pulitzer-nominated freelance photographer for a number of news outlets, including The New York Times. Last week, reports Commentary’s Vivian Bercovici, amid a “particularly bloody streak of Israeli and civilian murders” by Palestinian terrorists, he posted photos of the Hamas terrorists on Instagram, citing his “pride with the martyrs and honor in resistance.” The Times says that, as a freelancer, “his social media posts have no connection” to the paper. Yet as Bercovici notes, this “directly contravenes the Times’ ethical guidelines,” which state that freelance contributors “will be held to the same standards as staff members,” albeit only “when they are on Times assignments.” So much for publishing patriarch Adolph Ochs’ admonition that “our first duty is to make sure the integrity of the Times is not blemished.”
Media critic: Stop the Stupid Tucker Carlson Boycott
At least 17 advertisers have bailed on Tucker Carlson for saying on his Fox News Channel program that immigrants make America “poorer and dirtier.” But as much as Carlson’s show pains Politico’s Jack Shafer, “the calls by activists for an advertiser boycott pain me more.” Indeed, he’s “made queasy by crusades that charge corporate advertisers with the power to decide what ideas should be discussed and how they should be discussed.” Journalists should be “independent of the companies that buy the advertisements adjacent to their copy” and vice versa. Yet the boycotters “don’t see that independence.” Journalism, both good and bad, creates controversy — “but it’s always a mistake to stamp out controversy with a censor’s heel.”
Policy wonk: Low Turnover Fuels NYC Housing Crisis
An under-appreciated measure “explains a great deal” about New York’s housing market, contends Howard Husock at CityLab. It’s churn, or turnover: “the rate at which one household moves out and a new one moves in.” Because “when too many residents stay put for too long, problems arise.” Why does New York’s public housing system have “such a long waiting list”? (It takes “on average, 99 months before an applicant gets an apartment.”) Because there’s an estimated 25 percent “over-occupancy,” mainly “empty nesters with no incentive to downsize.” And it’s not just public housing: the same holds true for the city’s 1.1 million rent-regulated apartments. Exacerbating the problem: rent regulation, public housing with no time limit and low residential property taxes.
— Compiled by Eric Fettmann
