Following a a number of criticisms from prominent commentators like James Fallows and Nick Kristof, TNR Publisher Marty Peretz has apologized for saying Muslims weren’t “worthy” of First Amendment rights. I suspect that the rules of journalistic “toilet training” will mandate that Peretz’ apology be accepted fairly uncritically, along with his contention that sentence “misrepresents” him. The thing is that not only does Peretz essentially double down on his contention that “Frankly, Muslim life is cheap, especially for Muslims,” which is to say that the sentence he is apologizing for does not “misrepresent” him at all. In fact it’s representative of his longstanding practice of referring to Muslims and Arabs as primitive and subhuman, and a large part of the reason why he’s so consciously ignored, like a drunk uncle spewing profanities at a wedding.
Matt Duss has spent a great deal of time documenting these statements, feel free to take a look for yourself. We’re basically in Mel Gibson territory here, where a heartfelt sounding apology clashes with a well established record of doing and saying the very things the person is apologizing for.
