Time's very bad Kagan headline
Written by Eric Boehlert
Published
Was Supreme Court Nominee Kagan a Youthful Socialist?
The article by Time's David Von Drehle is about Elena Kagan's ancient, 1981 undergraduate thesis paper from her days at Princeton University, which, as most news consumers now know, was about socialism in America. Or, “was a detailed history of the rise and fall of New York's Socialist Party in the early 20th Century,” as Von Drehle puts it.
That's all well and good, but why the absurd headline suggesting that Kagan herself may have been a socialist? I mean really, if Kagan had written a detailed history of the Ku Klux Klan in America, would Time suggest that maybe Kagan was somehow a secret member? It's crazy.
But that's the GOP-friendly angle the Time headline pushes, as well as the lede [emphasis added]:
It's an impressive work for a young person -- and it is sparking questions about the extent to which the young Kagan had embraced left-wing views.
Oh really? Questions from whom? Which important, thoughtful commentators have suggested with a straight face that Kagan “embraced” socialism? Um, Erick Erickson at RedState. No joke. That's who Time points to as somebody who has raised the question of whether Kagan became a “youthful socialist” because she wrote an Ivy League paper on the topic. (Actually, right-winger Erickson claimed the paper “proved” Kagan was a communist.)
It's bad enough that Time legitimizes that kind of right-wing nonsense and publishes an absurd “youthful socialist?” headline. Worse is that after reading the entire paper, Von Drehle pretends he can't tell if Kagan became a socialist or not when she wrote a history paper on the topic:
Kagan's critics will focus on her conclusion, however -- which can be read as a personal statement in support of the socialist dream. “The story is a sad but also a chastening one for those who, more than half a century after socialism's decline, still wish to change America,” she wrote. “American radicals cannot afford to become their own worst enemies. In unity lies their only hope.”
People will make of that what they will.
Gee, thanks for the insight, Time.
UPDATED: Newsweek tackled the same senior thesis issue with regards to Kagan and handled it so much better than Time:
[T]here's simply not anything at all that's radical here.