Yesterday, Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen angered a bevy of people when he suggested that conservatives “gag” at the sight of interracial families.
But now the writer who has never shied away from sexist, homophobic and racist fare is arguing that America got it all wrong. Apparently, we misread him.
“I don’t understand it,” said the columnist, who lives in New York City. “What I was doing was expressing not my own views but those of extreme right-wing Republican tea party people. I don’t have a problem with interracial marriage or same-sex marriage. In fact, I exult in them. It’s a slander to suggest otherwise. This is just below the belt. It’s a purposeful misreading of what I wrote.”
He added, “I think it’s reprehensible to say that because you disagree with something that you should fire me. That’s what totalitarians do.”
And despite many people, including publications like the Huffington Post, calling for Cohen to be fired, his boss stands beside him in the uproar.
Cohen’s boss, Post editorial-page editor Fred Hiatt, defends his man in this latest flap this way: “Anyone reading Richard’s entire column will see he is just saying that some Americans still have a hard time dealing with interracial marriage.” But Hiatt takes some of the heat himself, saying, “I erred in not editing that one sentence more carefully to make sure it could not be misinterpreted.”
Oh, makes sense now. Definitely wasn’t Cohen’s fault [insert sarcasm].
To see all the other times it was probably not Cohen’s fault that he wrote controversial columns, click here.
SOURCE: Washington Post | PHOTO CREDIT: Screengrab
