Mark Steyn

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Mark Steyn
Born December 8, 1959 (1959-12-08) (age 48)
Toronto , Canada
Occupation Author and Commentator
Website
http://www.steynonline.com

Mark Steyn, born in Canada in 1959, is a self-described conservative polemicist whose opinions on politics, arts and culture are published in newspapers, magazines and online. He appears regularly on politically conservative radio shows such as those of Rush Limbaugh and Hugh Hewitt and has authored five books, including America Alone, a New York Times bestseller. Steyn, a Canadian citizen, now resides mainly in New Hampshire in the United States. He is married with three children.[1]

Contents

[edit] Career

According to Simon Mann in The Age, Steyn left school at 16 and spent early days in United Kingdom. After working as a disc-jockey, he began writing as an arts critic at London's newly established The Independent.[2] He became film critic for The Spectator in 1992. After writing predominantly about the arts, Steyn embraced political commentary and moved to The Daily Telegraph, a conservative London broadsheet.

Since then, Steyn has written for a wide range of publications, including the Jerusalem Post, The Orange County Register, the Chicago Sun-Times, the National Review, The New York Sun, The Australian, Macleans and formerly for the Irish Times, the National Post and The Atlantic Monthly. He also wrote columns for the Western Standard until that magazine ended its hardcopy edition in October 2007. Steyn writes theatre reviews for the New Criterion.

Steyn's website www.steynonline.com provides access to many of his columns and other published work and offers for sale books, t-shirts, mugs and other merchandise. Blog Central at macleans.ca published entries titled "Mark Steyn covers the Conrad Black trial from opening arguments to sentencing." He occasionally posts to National Review Online group blog, The Corner.

Steyn's books include Broadway Babies Say Goodnight: Musicals Then and Now (a history of the musical theatre) and America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It, a New York Times bestseller. He has also published collections of his columns and his celebrity obituaries and profiles from The Atlantic.

[edit] Writing Style

Steyn's writing draws supporters and detractors for content but his distinctive expression is at times admired. Steyn’s style has been described by Robert Fulford as “bring[ing] to public affairs the dark comedy developed in the Theatre of the Absurd”. Editor and admirer Fulford also wrote, "Steyn, a self-styled "right-wing bastard," violates everyone's sense of good taste." [3] According to Simon Mann, Steyn “gives succour to the maxim the pen is mightier than the sword, though he is not averse to employing the former to advocate use of the latter.”[2]

Steyn has been noted for using words to offend political correctness. In 2001, he wrote “it's one thing to let the Japs build your car and the Chinks supply your cuddly toys”.[4] In another article widely published in 2002, Steyn referred to people of India as wogs[5] and while guest hosting The Rush Limbaugh Show, he spoke about "gooks in Vietnam."[6]

Susan Catto in Time noted his interest in controversy, "Instead of shying away from the appearance of conflict, Steyn positively revels in it."[7] Canadian journalist Steve Burgess wrote in The Tyee "Steyn wields his rhetorical rapier with genuine skill" and that national disasters tended to cause Steyn "...to display his inner wingnut."[8] Lionel Shriver wrote, ". . . I love Mark Steyn", adding, ". . . however you may deplore his opinions, Steyn is funny." [9]

James Wolcott of Vanity Fair says that he asks himself, "how can one man be so wrong" when he reads "the latest dimestore prophesy from neocon jester Mark Steyn, whose occult powers of clairvoyance never fail to fail him."[10] Andrew Sullivan of The Atlantic wrote that Steyn was, "...long on colorful rhetoric but short on dry facts."[11] British journalist Johann Hari wrote in the New Statesman: "Steyn's prose has a jangling musicality; like Ann Coulter, he writes in a demonic demotic that makes you chuckle even as you retch."[12]

[edit] Positions

[edit] Environmentalism

Steyn frequently mocks environmentalists, particularly those he regards as "global warming alarmists". He argues that global warming is not authentically “global”, as it is not universally observed: “In the Antarctic, the small Palmer peninsula has got a little warmer but the main continent is colder. Up north, the western Arctic's a little warmer but the eastern Arctic's colder.”[13]

[edit] Criticism of media

In a May 2004 column Steyn stated that The Daily Mirror and the Boston Globe published false pictures of British and American soldiers abusing Iraqis because editors were encouraging anti-Bush sentiments. Steyn argues that media only wanted to show images to westerners "that will shame and demoralize them."[14] Boston Phoenix media critic Dan Kennedy said that Steyn's column was an effort to "rally the spirits of his fellow warmongers: by demonizing anyone who dared to criticize the war."[15]

In a July, 2005 column for National Review, Steyn amplified his dislike for the media. He criticized Andrew Jaspan, the editor of the Australian newspaper, The Age. Jaspan was offended by Douglas Wood, an Australian kidnapped and held hostage in Iraq, who after his rescue referred to his captors as "arseholes". Jaspan claimed that “the issue is really largely, speaking as I understand it, he was treated well there. He says he was fed every day, and as such to turn around and use that kind of language I think is just insensitive.” Steyn responded in his column by arguing that insensitivity toward captors is not the most important, and that it was Jaspan, not Wood, who suffered from Stockholm syndrome. He said further, “A blindfolded Mr. Wood had to listen to his captors murder two of his colleagues a few inches away, but how crude and boorish would one have to be to hold that against one’s hosts?”

In a January 2007 column in the Chicago Sun-Times, Steyn wrote that Barack Obama was a Muslim, “...raised in an Indonesian madrassah by radical imams.” He added, “The madrassah stuff was supposedly leaked to Insight Magazine… by Hillary Rodham Clinton’s team.”[16] Two days later, Lynn Sweet of the Sun-Times corrected Steyn regarding what she called the smear on Obama and the attack on Clinton. She wrote, “And there is no evidence whatsoever that Clinton's campaign had anything to do with spreading the damaging rumor that Obama hid a Muslim background.” Sweet noted the visit by CNN's John Vause to the state run elementary school that Obama attended from 1969 to 1971.[17]

Steyn has been a vocal critic of American journalism and the so-called j-school culture ostensibly entrenched in the journalism departments of many American universities, describing American newspapers as "the dullest in the world", and dismissing the idea of journalism as a profession to be studied. "When I started out in journalism, in Fleet Street, everybody I knew was only doing journalism because their lives had gone horribly wrong...and that's what happened to me. I needed some money in a hurry and thought I'd do journalism for a few weeks until something better came along, and it never did so now I'm stuck with it."

[edit] Conrad Black trial

Steyn wrote articles and maintained a blog[18] for Maclean's covering the 2007 Conrad Black fraud trial in Chicago. Questions were raised in the media over the objectivity of Steyn's coverage,[19] for example Andrew Clark of The Guardian referring to Steyn as one of Black’s "loyal supporters", quoted from Steyn’s Blog, “If it is bad news, I'm sorry I won't be there to support my old boss…”[20] Suanne Kelman wrote in the Literary Review of Canada[21] that the leader of Black's media cheering section at his Chicago trial was "above all Maclean’s Mark Steyn, in both the magazine and his logorrheic blog." Kelman stated that Steyn began coverage with the view that Black's trial was a "cruel farce". Mark Steyn has strongly denied unfair bias in his reporting.

[edit] Derogation of multiculturalism

Steyn has commented on divisions between the Western world and the Islamic World. He criticizes what he deems to be "Islamic cultural intolerance." Steyn says that multiculturalism only requires feeling good about other cultures and is "fundamentally a fraud, . . . subliminally accepted on that basis.[22] In Jewish World Review, Steyn argues "Multiculturalism means that the worst attributes of Muslim culture -- the subjugation of women -- combine with the worst attributes of Western culture -- licence and self-gratification." He explains, "I'm not a racist, only a culturist. I believe Western culture -- rule of law, universal suffrage, etc. -- is preferable to Arab culture ...." [23]

Christopher Hitchens believes that Steyn errs by “. . .considering European Muslim populations as one. Islam is as fissile as any other religion . . .and considerable friction exists among immigrant Muslim groups in many European countries. Moreover, many Muslims actually have come to Europe for the advertised purposes—seeking asylum and to build a better life.” [24]

Scott Horton, lawyer and Harper's writer, commented on Steyn's ethnic labels, including one that referred to Muslims as "sheep-shaggers." [25] According to Horton, "It would be quite an understatement to call this language “intolerant.” Indeed it can easily be paralleled with ethnic stigmatization that has occurred in the most vicious societies in modern times." [26]

[edit] Support of Iraq Invasion and Occupation

Steyn was an early proponent of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. In 2007 he reiterated his support while attacking Democrat John Murtha, stating that his plan for military action in Iraq was designed “to deny the president the possibility of victory while making sure Democrats don't have to share the blame for the defeat. … [Murtha] doesn't support them in the mission, but he'd like them to continue failing at it for a couple more years”.[27]

Salon.com columnist Glenn Greenwald called Steyn a "faux warrior" who is “one of the most extremist warmongers in our country”, adding that Steyn has been “as fundamentally wrong as one can be about virtually every issue he has touched.”[28]

Two weeks after military operations began, Steyn wrote, “The war is over. … it's the Anglo-Aussie-American side who are the geniuses. Rumsfeld's view …has been vindicated…”[29] In 2004, he wrote, “Last year I thought the Americans won an amazing military victory in Iraq”[30] and "I don't think it's possible for anyone who looks at Iraq honestly to see it as anything other than a success story."[31]

In 2005, defending his analyses of Iraq, Steyn stated, “I got a lot of things wrong these last three years, but … I got the big stuff right.”[32]

For the fifth year of the Iraq War, Steyn reported, "To the Slow-Bleed Democrats, it's the Republicans' war. To an increasing number of what my radio pal Hugh Hewitt calls the White-Flag Republicans, it's Bush's war. To everyone else on the planet, it's America's war. And it will be America's defeat."[33]

[edit] Canadian Islamic Congress human rights complaint

Main article: Human rights complaints against Maclean's Magazine

In 2007, a complaint was filed with the Ontario Human Rights Commission related to an article "The Future Belongs to Islam", [34] written by Mark Steyn, published in Maclean's magazine. The complainants alleged that the article and Maclean’s refusal to provide space for a rebuttal violated their human rights. Further complaints were filed with the Canadian Human Rights Commission and the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal.

The Ontario Human Rights Commission refused in April 2008 to proceed, saying it lacked jurisdiction to deal with magazine content. However, the Commission stated that it, “strongly condemns the Islamophobic portrayal of Muslims . . .. . . . Media has a responsibility to engage in fair and unbiased journalism.” [35] Critics of the Commission claimed that Maclean's and Steyn had been found guilty without a hearing. John Martin of The Province wrote, "There was no hearing, no evidence presented and no opportunity to offer a defence -- just a pronouncement of wrongdoing." [36]

From June 2 to June 6, 2008, the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal heard a similar complaint made to it; a ruling is pending.

The complaint before the Canadian Human Rights Commission has not been dealt with in final form as of June 2008. However, on April 2, 2008, the head of the Commission issued a public letter to the editor of MacLeans magazine. In it, Jennifer Lynch said, "Mr. Steyn would have us believe that words, however hateful, should be given free reign. History has shown us that hateful words sometimes lead to hurtful actions that undermine freedom and have led to unspeakable crimes. That is why Canada and most other democracies have enacted legislation to place reasonable limits on the expression of hatred."[37]

[edit] Award

Mark Steyn was awarded the 2006 Eric Breindel Award for Excellence in Opinion Journalism [2]. The annual award recognizes the work of a columnist, editorialist or writer whose work defends and expresses admiration of the United States and its democratic institutions. Steyn's article "Be Glad the Flag Is Worth Burning" [38] was nominated for the award. The following is an extract: "One of the big lessons of these last four years is that many, many beneficiaries of Western civilization loathe that civilization, and the media are generally inclined to blur the extent of that loathing"[3]. Roger Ailes of Fox News presented the prize, which included a $20,000 check from an endowment founded by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation.

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] References

  1. ^ SteynOnline, FAQs February 14, 2007
  2. ^ a b ‘’A critic proud to quote his critics’’ August 19, 2006. theage.com.au. Retrieved Feb 9, 2008.
  3. ^ Fulford, Robert "Mark Steyn, opinionmonger" National Post, November 19, 2005
  4. ^ Steyn, Mark "Why Canadians are taking vinegar showers" The Spectator, March 24 2001
  5. ^ Steyn, Mark Battered Westerner Syndrome inflicted by myopic Muslim defenders, Jewish World Review August 23 2003
  6. ^ The Rush Limbaugh Show August 24 2006, Premiere Radio Networks
  7. ^ Catto, Susan "Canada's Conrad Black Controversy" TIME June 27 2007
  8. ^ Steve Burgess: Mark Steyn's Latest Victims Mediacheck, thetyee.ca April 24 2007/
  9. ^ Shriver, Lionel [http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2006/mar/09/usa.comment "The abortion row in the US . . . ", The Guardian, March 9, 2006
  10. ^ Fade to Black, James Walcott's Blog, July 21, 2007, vanityfair.com, accessed 2008-05-26
  11. ^ Follman, Mark, Right Hook, September 29, 2004, salon.com
  12. ^ Hari, Johann, Apocalypse Now, The New Statesman March 12 2007
  13. ^ Opinion: Mark Steyn: Eco-chondriacs crank up the hysteria - OCRegister.com
  14. ^ Steyn, Now's not the time for Bush to go soft Jewish World Review, May 17 2004
  15. ^ Dan Kennedy, "Stein's Way" The Boston Phoenix June 24 2004
  16. ^ Steyn, Mark "Media are gonna Barack around the clock Sun-Times, January 21 2007
  17. ^ Sweet, Lynn, Barack Attack Unfounded Chicago Sun Times, January 23 2007
  18. ^ Maclean's Blog Central
  19. ^ Media on trial, J-Source.ca
  20. ^ Andrew Clark on America series, Guardian
  21. ^ [1] Literay Review of Canada Sep 2007
  22. ^ Steyn, Mark It's the demography stupid "The Wall Street Journal" January 4, 2006
  23. ^ Steyn, Mark "Battered western syndrome . . ."Jewish World Review, August 23, 2002
  24. ^ Hitchens, Christopher "Facing the Islamist Menace" City Journal, Winter, 2007
  25. ^ Steyn, Mark "Celebrate tolerance, or you're dead" Macleans magazine April 28, 2006
  26. ^ Horton, Scott "Jonah's Fascism" Harper's Magazine, February 17, 2008
  27. ^ Steyn, Mark "Why the Iraq war is turning into America's defeat", Chicago Sun-Times, February 18, 2007
  28. ^ Greenwald, Glenn "Profile of the Neoconservative Warrior" salon.com, Feb 5 2007"
  29. ^ Steyn, Mark, The War? That Was All Over Two Weeks Ago The Telegraph, April 5, 2003
  30. ^ Steyn, Mark How the West will win and continue to deny it, The Telegraph, Jan 4 2004
  31. ^ Steyn, Mark "Iraq has never had it so good" The Spectator, Mar 27 2004
  32. ^ Steyn, Mark "The right side of history" The Spectator, Mar 5 2005"
  33. ^ Steyn, Mark "Why the Iraq War is Turning into America's Defeat", Chicago Sun-Times, Feb 18, 2007
  34. ^ Steyn, Mark "The Future Belongs to Islam" Macleans, October 20, 2006
  35. ^ Ontario Human Rights Commission Statement
  36. ^ Martin, John < "I'll take Mexican 'justice'. . . " The Province, May 9 2008
  37. ^ CHRC letter to Macleans
  38. ^ Steyn, Mark "Be Glad the Flag is Worth Burning"OC Register, June 26, 2005

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