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Comments: Week of April 3, 2017


1. Olivia Nuzzi’s cover story on Kellyanne Conway (“Kellyanne Conway Is a Star,” March 20–April 2) elicited an outpouring of visceral responses, including a number by readers who said they’d ripped off the cover entirely. A psychiatrist told us that he’d removed it for the good of his patients — “Part of my job is to avoid unnecessarily increasing people’s stress and irritation” — while a woman in Pennsylvania found a better use for it — “Now I have something to pick up my dog’s poop.” Jezebel’s Hannah Gold took aim at the article itself: “Why can’t the media break up with Kellyanne Conway already?” Gold argued, “As Conway’s influence grows, so does the ­distracting coverage of what on earth she might actually be thinking and feeling, which is of far less consequence.” On MSNBC, Joe Scarborough noted that the “star” treatment Conway received caused “shock and horror from White House insiders, one of whom said, ‘She makes us all look like a joke.’ ” Many readers registered disgust that the magazine would feature someone they found so repellent: Bryan Abrams wrote, “I have subscribed for over 30 years and have never been so repulsed by an article as the one you did on Conway, where you try to humanize someone who is a bold-faced liar. Conway has had such a terrible effect on the spoken truth; why would you give her a platform for this?” Still, the piece had many defenders, including Paul Begala, a top adviser in Bill Clinton’s White House, who tweeted, “Love her or hate her, she matters.” NYU’s Jay Rosen tweeted that Nuzzi gave the best explanation of Conway’s White House job that he’s seen. And Nicole Yeatman wrote, “Olivia Nuzzi’s Conway piece was the best profile I’ve read in a while. Seems some people [are] pissed she expanded beyond EVIL LADY IS EVIL.”


2. New York’s last issue featured the stories of seven of the city’s homeless (“New York Spends $1.2 Billion a Year on Homelessness,” March 20–April 2), from an assistant teacher fighting for basic necessities to a home health aide who’s No. 25,000 on a housing waiting list. The feature, which is available in an expanded form online, struck a chord with readers. “Feeling pretty sickened by the extreme displays of wealth in NYC vs. what’s outlined here,” wrote Curbed’s Amy Plitt. NPR’s Anya Kamenetz asked, “What’s wrong with a society where working heads of families make up a significant swath of the homeless?” Commenter MC0325 wrote, “As a native New Yorker whose family are mostly public-sector employees, I’m too familiar with this. It’s [a] heartbreaker at the very least. But I will say one thing, there is no way this falls solely on de Blasio. Bloomberg’s policies made for this.”

3. Frank Rich thinks it’s time for Democrats to stop trying to feel everyone’s pain (“No Sympathy for the Hillbilly,” March 20–April 2). “Showing empathy to Trump voters is not only wrong,” wrote MTV News’ Jamil Smith, “it’s counterproductive for the left.” MSNBC’s Joy-Ann Reid added, “Not clear the Democrats will listen. History suggests they will spend the next three years pandering to the white working class ahead of the 2020 election. But we’ll see.” Justin Gest, author of The New Minority, challenged Rich’s analysis: “While the rest of America is through to the ‘upward turn’ in their seven stages of grief, Frank Rich seems to be stuck in ‘anger and bargaining.’ White working-class people constitute at least a third of the American electorate. To ­outwardly disregard such a constituency broadbrushes a normatively and demographically diverse group and will expand the Republican Party base into the Rust Belt.” And National Review’s Kevin D. Williamson, whom Rich cited, wanted to clarify his views: “Unlike my most prominent critics on the right, Rich seems at least to have read a few of my pieces on the subject of the white underclass. But it is not quite true that I advocate relocation ‘with no prospect of any government program to rescue them.’ I advocate, among other things, repackaging unemployment benefits as relocation benefits for jobless people who take work that requires them to ­relocate. Also, Rich’s claim that I am ‘only saying in public what other Republicans say in private’ implies that I am a Republican. I am not.”


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