Liberals Freak Out at Star Tribune for Letting Conservative Writer Question 1619 Project

Anthony Gockowski

 

Popular conservative writer Katherine Kersten had Minnesota liberals in a conniption Sunday when she dared to question The New York Times’ “1619 Project.”

Kersten, a senior policy fellow at the Center of the American Experiment, called the 1619 Project “the latest chapter in the American left’s ongoing campaign to rewrite history.” Her article went live Saturday night and appeared on the front page of The Star Tribune’s opinion section Sunday morning.

“In August, the New York Times launched the ‘1619 Project’ with great fanfare. The self-proclaimed goal of the project — a series of more than 30 essays and artistic productions — is to ‘reframe’ history, convincing Americans that our nation’s ‘true founding’ occurred not in 1776, but 400 years ago, in 1619, when 20 or so slaves came ashore in the Jamestown colony,” Kersten begins her article.

She later writes that the project “gets the truth exactly backward” and approaches history as a “vehicle for advancing a political agenda.”

Kersten was called “disgusting,” a racist, a bigot, and a white supremacist for expressing her skepticism.

“You have got to be kidding me Star Tribune. I am fine with printing opinions I disagree with. I am not fine with giving a platform to such a well-documented racist as Katherine Kersten to analyze the history of race in America,” said Mike Spangenberg. “Unsurprisingly, this piece is terribly written, with scant factual evidence and logical fallacies a middle schooler would catch. It’s also, of course, a vocal apology for white supremacy.”

Those comments were retweeted by Mukhtar Ibrahim, a former writer for The Star Tribune and MPR News who now serves as the editor of Sahan Journal.

“Totally agree with you. Printing bigotry and racism doesn’t make one provocative or thought compelling. It makes you complicit,” replied Ryan Vernosh, a principal in the St. Paul Public Schools system and the 2010 Minnesota Teacher of the Year.

“Katherine Kersten is an out and out racist. I’m appalled that Strib Opinion would print this garbage,” said another reader.

“Why is the Star Tribune giving Katherine Kersten thousands of words to spread misleading white-supremacist-style myths about white slavery in an effort to debunk the 1619 Project?” wrote Will Stancil, a Minneapolis-based lawyer.

“Everytime [sic] I think Katherine Kersten has reached peak awfulness she goes and outdoes herself. No link but she wrote a piece on the cover of the Star Tribune editorial section that the paper should be embarrassed to have run. Woof,” said Trey Warren, who describes himself as a “teacher” in his Twitter bio.

“Haven’t opened my paper yet today and guess I don’t need to bother. Why can’t you find conservative voices who are intelligent and can write?? Never mind, there aren’t any,” wrote another reader.

“Omfg this was a Katherine Kersten piece? What a joke. F—k all the way off, StribOpinion,” another added.

https://twitter.com/jalbus/status/1203674640956166144

Christian King, a librarian and teacher from St. Paul, said he “genuinely” wants to cancel his “Star Tribune subscription because today’s opinion section is dominated by D.J. Tice and Katherine Kersten, spreaders of lies and hate and ‘conservative values.’”

https://twitter.com/nfnterealtes/status/1203682035178622976

“Can only imagine how enlightening this piece will be,” said D.J. Danielson, a staffer for the Minnesota House DFL Caucus.

“Oh my. Yeah, just because they can give her a platform doesn’t mean they should,” one of his followers replied. She later wrote that she’s “really angry” that The Star Tribune gave Kersten “so much space and the Sunday platform to be an absolute racist.”

https://twitter.com/anitalynns/status/1203705323011428352

“Ick,” wrote another follower who criticized The Star Tribune for providing Kersten with “a platform to spew her racist nonsense.”

Another Twitter user suggested that Kersten is a “known racist in the Twin Cities” who doesn’t “believe in facts or research.”

Nikole Hannah-Jones, a reporter for The New York Times Magazine, called The Star Tribune “trashy” for running Kersten’s piece, saying it was “really unconscionable.”

https://twitter.com/nhannahjones/status/1203754208836685826

Kersten’s full article can be read here.

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Anthony Gockowski is managing editor of Battleground State News, The Ohio Star, and The Minnesota Sun. Follow Anthony on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].

 

 

 

 

 

 

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2 Thoughts to “Liberals Freak Out at Star Tribune for Letting Conservative Writer Question 1619 Project”

  1. Donna Wiemann
    August 14, 2020 at 7:39 am

    And for good reason. And, it was not just the liberals “freaking out”.

    Reply
  2. Star Tribune-Owned City Pages Says Female Conservative 'Super Horny for Founding Fathers' - Battleground State News
    December 10, 2019 at 12:03 am

    […] As The Minnesota Sun reported, she was called “disgusting,” a “white supremacist,” a racist, and a bigot for writing the article. […]

    Reply

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