Our brilliant and knowledgeable journalists
Katy Tur of MSNOW:
Katy Tur: What about this passage from Mike Johnson declaring that our rights do not derive from government? They come from you, our creator and heavenly father. Is this him putting God over the Declaration of Independence?
McKay Coppins: I actually think that that idea is not wholly uncommon. I mean, the idea that we have certain inalienable rights that come from god can be read in a fairly benign way, which is basically that we have innate human rights, that our constitution and our government, our democratic government are meant to codify. Right. That idea is not totally abnormal.
Good to know it’s not “totally abnormal” (Coppins is a staff writer at The Atlantic). Tur is 42 years old and Coppins is 39. Do they know anything about the text of the Declaration of Independence? Back in the ancient times of my own youthful education, we were required to memorize a couple of paragraphs, including the relevant passage “they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.”
It reminds me that it was often Obama;s habit to leave out the “Creator” part (from 2010):
At a Democratic fundraiser on Monday night, President Obama once again misquoted the Declaration of Independence’s most famous sentence and once again omitted its reference to our “Creator.” According to the text of his remarks published on the official White House website, he said: “[W]hat makes this place [America] special is not something physical. It has to do with this idea that was started by 13 colonies that decided to throw off the yoke of an empire, and said, ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that each of us are endowed with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.’”
The first time that something happens and is met with publicity and criticism, it could well be an accident or part of the learning curve — like the first time one bows down to foreign royalty when other U.S. presidents haven’t; or the first time one issues a public apology abroad for past (real or imagined) American sins in a way that other presidents haven’t. But the second time, the assumption must be that it’s probably deliberate — and that makes it all the more appalling. Other presidents didn’t deliberately misquote the Declaration, and they didn’t leave out (or rewrite) the words about our rights being endowed by our Creator.
NOTE Some of what is going on with Tur et al. is that she suffers from a lack of cultural literacy (see this).
NOTE II: I know I’ve already written a lot about the abominable Kristof article, but here’s a link to a good essay about it, by Judge Roy K. Altman.
Tur and Coppins are products of our totally corrupted educational system.
Katy Tur is a former mistress of Keith Olbermann, when he was 47 and she was 23, and he said he always had to rewrite stuff for her because she’s dumb. Take it with a grain of salt, perhaps.
As Huffington Post reported in 2008, quoting NY Post:
Be that as it may, she is not the only journalist of national prominence who is a former mistress or girlfriend of Keith Olbermann, there’s at least four others that I know of, and my interest in Keith Olbermann is practically zero.
My point is that besides ignorance, the huge problem we have with journalists is their network of undisclosed relationships: whether it’s by marriage, sex, blood, college roommates, whatever. This is how and why they all so quickly get on the same page.
Steve Hayward at Powerline:
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2026/05/podcast-michael-auslins-national-treasure.php
I wonder if it would be feasible for a group of Israeli prison guards to sue Kristof and the NYT?
That would be delicious.
Since he doesn’t need the money, I also wonder if Trump has ever considered in lieu of a monetary settlement with media Trolls, that they stand, say at the Washington Monument at high noon, barefoot, in sack cloth, and shout their apology at least three times. Sometimes imagination overpowers reality.
Excellent article by Judge Roy K. Altman. Thanks for the link Neo.
I wonder if the people who need to see that will read it.