The Atlantic editor seems to suggest only white men can write long stories
The editor-in-chief of the Atlantic, the prestigious, semi-liberal US literary journal, has come under fire for appearing to suggest only white males can write 10,000-word cover stories.
Jeffrey Goldberg, who has edited the magazine since 2016, made the controversial comments in a Nieman Lab article on how the organization, which is owned by investor Laurene Powell Jobs, has shaken things up and placed more women in editorial positions.
Goldberg ran into trouble in a Q&A – alongside his own executive editor, Adrienne LaFrance – when he intimated that assigning cover stories to women and minorities on gender and race issues is problematic.
“It’s really, really hard to write a 10,000-word cover story. There are not a lot of journalists in America who can do it. The journalists in America who do it are almost exclusively white males,” he said.
Goldberg’s remarks drew immediate criticism on social media.
Writer Lisa Goldman on Twitter: “If Jeffrey Goldberg thinks there’s a lack of women who can write 10k word features, then he’s astonishingly ignorant about his peers & he should step aside for a woman to replace him. Immediately. I’m gobsmacked by this interview. Stunned. What an insult.”
Journalist Erik Hinton subsequently rejoined: “It’s really, really hard to suck as bad at your job as Jeffrey Goldberg and the journalists in America who do it are almost exclusively white males.”
Goldberg later offered clarification on Twitter, saying he was “trying to explain (and obviously failed to explain) that white males dominate cover-story writing because they’ve had all the opportunities”.
He followed that with an apology: “I’m sorry I didn’t make myself clear in this interview, and I’m sorry that I hurt anyone.”
The fracas comes on the heels of other embarrassing scandals and missteps at some of America’s prestige journals.
Last September, Ian Buruma, editor of the New York Review of Books, exited his position amid an uproar over the publication of an essay by a disgraced Canadian radio broadcaster who had been accused of sexually assaulting women.
In December 2016, Lorin Stein, editor of the Paris Review, resigned after an internal investigation into his behavior toward female employees and writers. Stein later apologized for his behavior.
In contrast, Goldberg’s job appears safe for now. Goldberg’s Nieman Lab interviewer, Laura Hazard Owen, backed him up (“sucks if a stray comment distracts”), as did LaFrance.
While journalists assigned to write cover stories in national magazines are disproportionately white men, LaFrance acknowledged, “we know there are numerous talented women out there who could write our most ambitious stories. Many in our newsroom already are. This is exactly what we’re working on.”