Bret Stephens

Bret Louis Stephens (born November 21, 1973) is a Pulitzer Prize winning American conservative journalist, editor, and columnist. He began working as an opinion columnist for The New York Times in late April 2017 and as a senior contributor to NBC News in June 2017.[1][2]

For the former Australian rules football player, see Brett Stephens.

Bret Stephens
Born
Bret Louis Stephens

(1973-11-21) November 21, 1973
New York City, New York, U.S.
EducationUniversity of Chicago (BA)
London School of Economics (MSc)
OccupationPolitical commentator
Spouse(s)Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim

Stephens previously worked for The Wall Street Journal as a foreign-affairs columnist and later as the deputy editorial page editor, and was responsible for the editorial pages of its European and Asian editions. From 2002 to 2004, he was editor-in-chief of The Jerusalem Post. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 2013.

Stephens is known for his neoconservative foreign policy opinions and being part of the right-of-center opposition to Donald Trump, as well as for his contrarian views on climate change.

Biography

Bret Stephens was born in New York City,[3] the son of Xenia and Charles J. Stephens, a former vice president of General Products, a chemical company in Mexico.[4][5] Both his parents were secular Jews. His paternal grandfather, Louis Ehrlich, was born in Kishenev (today Chișinău, Moldova) in 1901. He fled with his family to New York after a pogrom. Ehrlich changed the family surname to Stephens (after poet James Stephens).[6] Louis Stephens moved to Mexico City, where he founded General Products and built his fortune.[7] Louis married Annette Margolis and had two sons, Charles and Luis. Charles married Xenia. They moved to Mexico City with their newborn son Bret to help run the chemical company inherited from their father.[7] Bret Stephens was raised in Mexico City. As a teenager, he attended boarding school at Middlesex School in Massachusetts.

Stephens earned an undergraduate degree in political philosophy from the University of Chicago and a master's degree in comparative politics[8] at the London School of Economics.

He is married to Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim, a music critic who writes for The New York Times. The couple has three children, and lives in New York City.[9][10] He was previously married to Pamela Paul, the editor of The New York Times Book Review.[5] Having spent most of his childhood in Mexico, he is fluent in Spanish.[11]

Journalism career

Stephens began his career at The Wall Street Journal as an op-ed editor in New York. He later worked as an editorial writer for The Wall Street Journal Europe, in Brussels.[12] Stephens edited the weekly "State of the Union" column on the European Union.[13] He has been a frequent contributor to Commentary magazine.

In 2002, Stephens moved to Israel to become the editor-in-chief of The Jerusalem Post.[14] He was 28 years old. Haaretz reported at the time that the appointment of Stephens, a non-Israeli, as editor triggered some unease among senior Jerusalem Post management and staff.[13] Stephens said that one of the reasons he left The Wall Street Journal for The Jerusalem Post was because he believed that Western media was getting the Israel story wrong.[14] "I do not think Israel is the aggressor here," Stephens said. "Insofar as getting the story right helps Israel, I guess you could say I'm trying to help Israel."[14] Stephens led The Jerusalem Post during the worst years of the Palestinian campaign of suicide bombings against Israel and pointed the paper in a more neoconservative direction.[14] In 2003, The Jerusalem Post named Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, an architect of the Iraq war, as its Man of the Year.[14] Stephens left The Jerusalem Post in 2004 and returned to The Wall Street Journal.[15] In 2006, he took over the Journal's "Global View" column after the retirement of George Melloan.

In April 2017, Stephens left the Journal and joined The New York Times as an opinion columnist.[2] The following June, he began appearances as an on-air contributor to NBC News and MSNBC.[16]

Awards and recognition

In 2005, Stephens was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.[12] He won the 2008 Eric Breindel Award for Excellence in Opinion Journalism.[17] In 2009, he was named deputy editorial page editor after the retirement of Melanie Kirkpatrick. In 2010, Stephens won the Bastiat Prize.[12]

Stephens won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary, for "his incisive columns on American foreign policy and domestic politics, often enlivened by a contrarian twist."[18][19] Stephens is a national judge of the Livingston Award.[20][21] In 2015, Stephens joined the Real-Time Academy of Short Form Arts & Sciences.[22] The Real-Time Academy judges contestants for the Shorty Awards, which honor the best individuals and organizations on social media.[23]

Stephens has chaired two Pulitzer juries.[21] In 2016, Stephens was the chair of the jury that awarded the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting to Alyssa Rubin of The New York Times.[24] In 2017, Stephens was the chair of the jury that awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing to Art Cullen of The Storm Lake Times.[25]

Published works

Stephens's book America in Retreat: The New Isolationism and the Coming Global Disorder was released in November 2014.[12] In it, Stephens presents his belief that the U.S. has been retreating from its role as the "world's policeman" in recent decades, which will lead to ever-greater world problems.

Controversy

In August 2019, Stephens sent a complaint to a George Washington University professor and the university's provost about a tweet in which the professor called Stephens a "bedbug."[26][27] The topic of Stephens's next column was the "rhetoric of infestation" used by authoritarian regimes such as Nazi Germany. The column was interpreted as criticism of the GWU professor and other critics of Stephens.[28][29][30]

In December 2019, Stephens' column "The Secrets of Jewish Genius",[31] in which he contended that Ashkenazi Jews have superior intelligence, led to accusations of eugenics and racism. The column originally said, "Ashkenazi Jews might have a marginal advantage over their gentile peers when it comes to thinking better. Where their advantage more often lies is in thinking different."[32][33] Following widespread criticism, The New York Times editors deleted the section of Stephens' op-ed in which he appeared to endorse the view that Ashkenazi Jews are genetically superior to other groups.[34] The editors said that Stephens erred in citing an academic study by an author with "racist views" whose 2005 paper advanced a genetic hypothesis for the basis of intelligence among Ashkenazi Jews.[34][35]

Views and opinions

Foreign policy

Foreign policy was one of the central subjects of the columns for which Stephens won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary.[19] His foreign policy opinions have been characterized as neoconservative, part of a right-wing political movement associated with president George W. Bush that advocated the use of military force abroad, particularly in the Middle East, as a way of promoting democracy there.[36][37] Stephens was a "prominent voice" among the media advocates for the start of the 2003 Iraq War,[36] for instance writing in a 2002 column that, unless checked, Iraq was likely to become the first nuclear power in the Arab world.[38] Although the weapons of mass destruction used as a casus belli were never shown to exist, Stephens continued to insist as late as 2013 that the Bush administration had "solid evidence" for going to war.[38] Stephens has also argued strongly against the Iran nuclear deal and its preliminary agreements, arguing that they were a worse bargain even than the 1938 Munich Agreement with Nazi Germany.[38]

Stephens is a supporter of Israel.[39] Stephens has caused controversy for his remarks referring to an Egyptian athlete's refusal to shake his Israeli Olympic opponent's hand as "the disease of the Arab mind".[40][41] Stephens argues that this incident is indicative of the problem of antisemitism in the Arab world.[42]

Domestic politics

During the campaign for the 2016 United States presidential election, Stephens became a leading figure of the Stop Trump movement, regularly writing articles for The Wall Street Journal opposing the candidacy of Donald Trump,[43] and becoming "one of Trump’s most outspoken conservative critics".[44] Stephens has compared Trump to Italian dictator Benito Mussolini.[15] After Trump was elected, Stephens continued to oppose him: In February 2017, Stephens gave the Daniel Pearl Memorial Lecture at the University of California, Los Angeles, and used the platform to denounce Trump's attacks on the media.[45] His opposition to Trump continued after he moved to the Times. For instance, in 2018 he argued that by the same logic Republicans used to justify impeaching Bill Clinton, they should push for Trump to be impeached.[46]

Global warming

Stephens is also known for his climate change contrarianism,[47] and his mainstream media appointments have given him a prominent voice on this subject.[48] He has been described as a climate change denier.[43][49][50][51] However, Stephens disavows this term, and calls himself "agnostic" on the issue.[52][53]

Stephens accepts that human-caused global warming has been occurring, but denies that the change constitutes a threat,[47] and mocks climate change activism as hysterical alarmism,[54] calling it a "mass hysteria phenomenon"[55] that distracts the public from issues he considers more important, such as terrorism.[56] He argues that global warming activism is based on theological beliefs, rather than science, as an outgrowth of western tendencies to expect punishment for sins.[47] He has also suggested that climate change activists would be more persuasive if they were less sure of their beliefs.[49][57]

Stephens' positions on this issue led to a protest in 2013 over his Pulitzer citation omitting his climate change columns,[54] and to a strong backlash against his 2017 posting to The New York Times.[43][52][57] In reaction, The New York Times praised the "intellectual honesty and fairness" of its new columnist.[53]

Published works
  • America in Retreat: The New Isolationism and the Coming Global Disorder (November 2014), ISBN 978-1591846628
  • Has Obama Made the World a More Dangerous Place?: The Munk Debate on U.S. Foreign Policy (August 2015), ISBN 978-1770899964
  • The Dying Art of Disagreement (December 2017), ISBN 9780648018902
gollark: You can get several hatchlings per thing probably.
gollark: Probably not BOTH for those two.
gollark: Maybe people don't have too many æons around.
gollark: And, given its age, PHP-based thingy, and constant bugginess, probably has messy code by now.
gollark: I mean, DC is hardly a paragon of stability.

References
  1. Stephens, Bret (April 28, 2017). "Climate of Complete Certainty". The New York Times.
  2. "Bret Stephens Joins NYT Opinion" (Press release). The New York Times Company. April 12, 2017. Retrieved September 3, 2019.
  3. Bob Minzesheimer (interviewer) (January 17, 2015). "After Words with Bret Stephens". After Words. C-SPAN. 12:10 minutes in. Retrieved September 3, 2019. First of all, I was born in New York and I'm wondering why Wikipedia keeps insisting that i was born in Mexico. But I was born to a father who had been born in Mexico and had a family business there...
  4. Balint, Judy Lash (January 23, 2003). "Getting To Know You". Israel Insider. Retrieved September 3, 2019.
  5. "Weddings; Pamela Paul, Bret Stephens". The New York Times. September 20, 1998.
  6. Stephens, Bret (June 26, 2009). "Being Bret Stephens -- Or Not". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved January 25, 2015.
  7. Klion, David (September 24, 2019). "The Conscience of Bret Stephens". The New Republic. ISSN 0028-6583. Retrieved September 30, 2019.
  8. "Wall Street Journal Editorial Page Appoints Key Editors for Its International Editions". Global News Wire. August 12, 2009.
  9. Stephens, Bret (June 26, 2009). "Being Bret Stephens – Or Not". The Wall Street Journal.
  10. da Fonseca-Wollheim, Corinna (March 20, 2012). "Prelude and Fugue". Tablet: A new read on Jewish life. Archived from the original on November 12, 2013.
  11. Stephens, Bret (September 15, 2017). "Bret Stephens: Out of the Echo Chamber". YouTube (Interview). Interviewed by Bill Maher. Los Angeles: Real Time with Bill Maher. Retrieved September 16, 2017.
  12. "Bret Stephens: Deputy editor, editorial page, The Wall Street Journal". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on May 8, 2017. Retrieved September 3, 2019.
  13. Hall, Charlotte (December 24, 2001). "Jerusalem Post Names New Editor". Haaretz. Retrieved October 2, 2019.
  14. "Everything You Need to Know About Bret Stephens, New York Times' Newest Columnist". Haaretz. April 20, 2017. Retrieved October 2, 2019.
  15. JTA; Haaretz (April 20, 2017). "Everything You Need to Know About Bret Stephens, New York Times' Newest Columnist". Haaretz. Retrieved October 2, 2019.
  16. Concha, Joe (June 28, 2017). "MSNBC signs conservative columnist Bret Stephens". The Hill. Retrieved July 13, 2018.
  17. "Bret Stephens - News, Articles, Biography, Photos - WSJ.com". May 8, 2017. Archived from the original on May 8, 2017. Retrieved October 2, 2019.
  18. "2013 Pulitzer Prizes". The Pulitzer Prizes. 2013.
  19. "The 2013 Pulitzer Prize Winners: Commentary". The Pulitzer Prizes. Retrieved November 17, 2013. With short biography and reprints of ten works (WSJ articles January 24 to December 11, 2012).
  20. "Judges – Wallace House". Retrieved October 3, 2019.
  21. Kalaf, Samar (March 1, 2019). "Bret Stephens Tried to Teach Me Because I Called Him Remarkably Dumb". Splinter. Retrieved October 3, 2019.
  22. "The Wall Street Journal columnist, Bret Stephens, joins the RT Academy!". Shorty Awards Blog. Retrieved October 9, 2019.
  23. "The Shorty Awards - Honoring the best of social media". shortyawards.com. Retrieved October 9, 2019.
  24. "Alissa J. Rubin of The New York Times". The Pulitzer Prize. 2016.
  25. "Art Cullen of The Storm Lake Times, Storm Lake, IA". The Pulitzer Prize. 2017.
  26. Elfrink, Tim; Krakow, Morgan (August 27, 2019). "A professor called Bret Stephens a 'bedbug.' The New York Times columnist complained to the professor's boss". The Washington Post. Retrieved August 27, 2019.
  27. Santucci, Jeanine; Bote, Joshua (August 27, 2019). "'Call me a bedbug to my face': New York Times columnist Bret Stephens responds to professor". USA Today. Retrieved August 27, 2019.
  28. Knowles, Hannah (August 31, 2019). "Bret Stephens 'bedbugs' spat: Times writer's latest column links phrase to Nazi rhetoric during Holocaust". The Washington Post. Retrieved September 25, 2019.
  29. Papenfuss, Mary (August 31, 2019). "Stunned Twitter Critics Swat Bret Stephens' Bedbug Link To Nazis In NYT Column". HuffPost. Retrieved September 25, 2019.
  30. Ho, Vivian (August 31, 2019). "Bret Stephens criticized for bedbug reference in second world war column". The Guardian. Retrieved September 25, 2019.
  31. Stephens, Bret (December 28, 2019). "The Secrets of Jewish Genius". The New York Times.
  32. Helmore, Edward (December 28, 2019). "New York Times columnist accused of eugenics over piece on Jewish intelligence". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved December 29, 2019.
  33. Dorman, Sam (December 28, 2019). "The New York Times' Bret Stephens faces racism accusations after penning 'Jewish genius' column". Fox News. Retrieved December 29, 2019.
  34. "NYT cuts dubious study from op-ed seemingly arguing Jewish genetic superiority". Times of Israel. December 30, 2019. Retrieved December 30, 2019.
  35. "The dilemma that is Times columnist Bret Stephens". Columbia Journalism Review. Retrieved July 29, 2020.
  36. Walt, Stephen M. (June 20, 2014). "Being a Neocon Means Never Having to Say You're Sorry". Foreign Policy.
  37. Chait, Jonathan (August 22, 2016). "The Neocons Have Gone From GOP Thought-Leaders to Outcasts". New York Magazine.
  38. From The Iraq War To Climate Change To Sexual Assault, NY Times' New Op-Ed Columnist, Bret Stephens, Is A Serial Misinformer, Media Matters for America, April 13, 2017
  39. "WSJ's Bret Stephens Weighs In On Israel, the Media & Trump". Detroit Jewish News. April 13, 2017. Retrieved September 3, 2019.
  40. Stephens, Bret (August 15, 2016). "The Meaning of an Olympic Snub". www.wsj.com.
  41. Bowden, John (April 26, 2017). "NYT columnist defends his 'disease of the Arab mind' comments". TheHill.
  42. Stein, Jeff (April 26, 2017). "The NYT's new columnist defends his views on Arabs, Black Lives Matter, campus rape". Vox.
  43. "New York Times hire of conservative scribe Bret Stephens seen as move to widen readership". Fox News. April 17, 2017. While Stephens has garnered moderate praise from the left for being anti-Trump, he has written on other topics that may anger most Times readers. His views on climate change have created the strongest backlash, so far, with liberal site ThinkProgress questioning the hire on Wednesday and calling the writer is a climate science denier.
  44. Reisman, Sam (May 29, 2016). "WSJ's Bret Stephens: Trump Must Lose So Badly That the GOP Voters 'Learn Their Lesson'". Mediaite. Stephens has been one of Trump’s most outspoken conservative critics
  45. Stephens, Bret (February 26, 2017), "Don't Dismiss President Trump's Attacks on the Media as Mere Stupidity", Time
  46. Bret Stephens (August 22, 2018). "Donald Trump's High Crimes and Misdemeanors". The New York Times.
  47. Johansen, Bruce E. (2009). The Encyclopedia of Global Warming Science and Technology. ABC-CLIO. p. 166. ISBN 9780313377020.
  48. Mann, Michael E. (2013), The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars: Dispatches from the Front Lines, Columbia University Press, p. 70, ISBN 9780231152556
  49. "Bret Stephens' First Column for the New York Times Is Classic Climate Change Denialism". Slate. Retrieved May 3, 2017. That Stephens doesn’t bother to cite which climate-change facts are uncertain may be because he knows exactly what he is doing, and he’s aware he wouldn’t win that argument. Or it may be because he himself has fallen prey to his own argument about epistemic uncertainty, and so he no longer thinks the evidence matters. Either way, his accusation—that it is not the facts you should question, but the entire system that creates facts at all—is terrifying.
  50. Rozsa, Matthew (May 4, 2017). "Climate scientists unite against New York Times columnist Bret Stephens: The Times' climate-denying columnist made an error in his first column". Slate. There was particular concern that Stephens would import his penchant for climate science denialism into the Times, a fear that was validated when Stephens devoted his very first column to that subject
  51. "Soft Climate Denial at The New York Times". Scientific American. May 5, 2017. The naming of a "climate agnostic" as a regular columnist risks turning the newspaper of record into a vehicle for the spread of ignorance
  52. Calderone, Michael; Baumann, Nick (April 15, 2017), "Hiring Another Anti-Trump Voice Expands Opinions Represented In Paper, New York Times Says: Bret Stephens won over progressive critics of the president, but his climate change views have sparked backlash.", Huffington Post
  53. "New York Times Defends Hiring of Climate Science Denier Bret Stephens, Claiming 'Intellectual Honesty'". DeSmogBlog. April 25, 2017. Retrieved September 3, 2019.
  54. Corneliussen, Steven T. (April 17, 2013). "Bret Stephens, harsh Wall Street Journal critic of climate scientists, wins Pulitzer Prize: The award recognizes only certain columns from 2012, none reflecting his climate-wars participation". Physics Today. American Institute of Physics. doi:10.1063/PT.4.2441..
  55. Roberts, David (May 1, 2017). "The New York Times should not have hired climate change bullshitter Bret Stephens". Vox. Retrieved July 29, 2020.
  56. Hale, Benjamin (2016), The Wild and the Wicked: On Nature and Human Nature, MIT Press, p. 6, ISBN 9780262035408
  57. Nuccitelli, Dana (April 29, 2017). "NY Times hired a hippie puncher to give climate obstructionists cover". The Guardian. In other words, the people obstructing climate policies are justified because climate “advocates” are too mean to them, and claim too much certainty about the future. This is of course nonsense.
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