In his new book, Three or More Is a Riot: Notes on How We Got Here: 2012-2025, Columbia Journalism School Dean Jelani Cobb has high praise for late New York Times columnist David Carr. Cobb met Carr in 1996, when Carr was the editor of the Washington City Paper, and writes that Carr had a deep influence on him.
Carr was also a crack addict who, by his own admission, “was a fat thug who beat up women and sold bad coke.” In his appreciation for Carr, Cobb downplays his awful backstory. It’s worth remembering that Cobb, a New Yorker magazine writer, is the same man who expressed moral outrage because Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh defended themselves against dubious sexual assault allegations by Anita Hill and Christine Blasey Ford, respectively. Cobb compared the two Supreme Court justices to Jeffrey Epstein.
In short, Jelani Cobb celebrates men who maul and torture women while condemning innocent men who defend themselves. He’s kind of a perfect exemplar of modern American journalism. For $124,000 a year you can sit at his feet and absorb his wisdom.
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