Two Newspapers Decline Buchanan's 'Radioactive' Breivik Column

A North Carolina newspaper that often runs Pat Buchanan's work declined to publish his July 25 column that sought to give credence to the views of Norway mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik.

“It was just radioactive I thought. I don't think it really moves the ball forward in this discussion,” said Jim Buchanan, editorial page editor of the Asheville Citizen-Times. “Pat kind of circled back around and tried to pin this on immigration. His reasoning seemed to be flawed in this column. Pat's blaming the victim here.”

In the column, Buchanan (no relation to the editor) stated:

As for a climactic conflict between a once-Christian West and an Islamic world that is growing in numbers and advancing inexorably into Europe for the third time in 14 centuries, on this one, Breivik may be right.

The editor said his paper runs about one out of three Buchanan columns, but did not run this one because of the content.

“This guy was an opponent of multiculturalism,” he added. “And Pat is seeming to say multiculturalism is the problem.”

Also declining to run the column is Opinions Editor J.J. Guidry of The Tampa Tribune, which often publishes Buchanan's work. Asked about this column, Guidry e-mailed the folllowing:

We did not run the column and do not plan to. Buchanan's view of multiculturalism is something we would publish, but despite Buchanan's efforts to take care, the discussion here, immediately after the murders, could be misinterpreted by some readers as a rationalization or even justification for the massacre. Some surely would find it offensive. I'd think it would be better addressed at another time.