Michael C. Moynihan | |
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Education | University of Massachusetts, Amherst B.A. in history |
Occupation | Journalist |
Other names | Michael Moynihan |
Title | Managing editor[1] Vice magazine Formerly: Senior editor Reason magazine |
Michael C. Moynihan is an American journalist and managing editor of Vice magazine. Before that he was a senior editor of the libertarian magazine Reason. Moynihan founded the English language magazine based in Stockholm, Sweden, the Stockholm Spectator. He was a resident fellow of the free-market think tank, Timbro. Moynihan lived in Sweden and wrote articles about politics in the country, contributing to Swedish language publications, including Expressen, Aftonbladet, Sveriges Television, Neo and Göteborgs-Tidningen.
He became associate editor at Reason in 2007, and was a contributor to the Los Angeles Times in 2008. In 2009, one of his articles for Reason was cited in The Georgetown Journal of Law & Public Policy of the Georgetown University Law Center. Moynihan appeared as a commentator several times on the television program Glenn Beck on the Fox News Channel in 2009. After censorship by Comedy Central of an episode of South Park in 2010 that featured a depiction of the Prophet of Islam, Muhammad, Moynihan announced his support for the protest movement, "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day".
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Moynihan graduated from the University of Massachusetts, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in history.[1]
Moynihan is the founder of the English language magazine based in Stockholm, Sweden, the Stockholm Spectator.[2] The Stockholm Spectator was modeled on the New York publication, The Village Voice.[2] Writers were mainly English-speaking ex-patriots living in Sweden, and the publication began with a circulation of 10,000 copies.[2] Moynihan had the idea for the magazine after spending time in Prague and Copenhagen, both cities that had English-language publications.[2] He started the Stockholm Spectator with his girlfriend.[2] "Despite the fact that so many Swedes speak and read in English there were almost no English-language newspapers in Sweden," said Moynihan to Sveriges Radio.[2] The publication first began online, at www.spectator.se.[2] It maintained a focus on criticism of the media, but also dealt with current topics in politics and music.[2] Moynihan served on the editorial board of the Swedish newspaper Neo in 2006 along with Peter Wolodarski and Theodore Paues. Swedish politician Carl Bildt sat on the board of the publication.[3]
During a controversy in 2006 where the website SD-Kuriren was criticized by the Swedish Minister of Foreign Affairs Laila Freivalds for publishing satires of the Prophet Muhammad of Islam, the website was taken down by its provider.[4] As editor of the Stockholm Spectator, Moynihan reacted to what he viewed as suppression of freedom of the press, and posted to the blog of the magazine one of the more offensive of the caricatures of Muhammad.[4] He was a resident fellow at the organization Timbro, a free-market think tank based in Stockholm.[1][5] He lived in Sweden and wrote articles about the politics of the country.[6] Moynihan has contributed articles to Swedish language publications, including Expressen, Aftonbladet, Sveriges Television, Neo, and Göteborgs-Tidningen.[1] Moynihan was the producer of a 2006 documentary for Modern Times Group of Sweden's TV8, on American conservative radio talk show host Barry Farber.[1] He performed research for Timbro in 2007 in which he wrote critically of Noam Chomsky's research methods, and argued that Chomsky did not deserve an honorary doctorate he received at Uppsala University.[7]
Moynihan was an associate editor for Reason prior to serving as its senior editor,[8] having joined the staff of the magazine in August 2007.[9] His December 24, 2007, article for Reason, "Flunking Free Speech: The Persistent Threat to Liberty on College Campuses" was cited by Robert H. Jackson Legal Fellow at the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, Azhar Majeed, in the legal journal The Georgetown Journal of Law & Public Policy in 2009.[10] Moynihan was a contributor to the Los Angeles Times in 2008.[11][12] After Barack Obama was elected President of the United States in November 2008, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution highlighted critical comments by Moynihan of the President-Elect's supporters, in a sample of political viewpoints following the election.[13] He conducted interviews for Reason.tv in 2009.[14] Moynihan appeared several times as a guest on the Glenn Beck television program on Fox News Channel; in March,[15] April,[16] and May 2009.[17] In 2010, he was a visiting fellow at Timbro.[1] Moynihan is the senior editor of both Reason magazine, as well as its website, Reason.com.[1][15] He resided in Washington, D.C. in 2010.[1]
Moynihan announced his participation in the protest movement "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day" which began in May 2010.[18] The movement grew in response to censorship by Comedy Central of an episode of South Park which depicted the Prophet Muhammad.[18] Moynihan stated he would post his own contributions in addition to submissions from other individuals to the website of Reason on the protest movement's scheduled date of May 20, 2010.[18] He encouraged his readers to send him their drawings.[19] Moynihan stated he planned to select some of his favorite depictions of Muhammad from the protest movement, and then add them to the Reason.com website.[19][20] Moynihan commented, "In the South Park episode that started all this, Buddha does lines of coke and there was an episode where Cartman started a Christian rock band that sang very homo-erotic songs. Yet there is one religious figure we can't make fun of. The point of the episode that started the controversy is that celebrities wanted Muhammad's power not to be ridiculed. How come non-Muslims aren't allowed to make jokes?"[20] Moynihan noted, "Any time you cave into terrorism, it emboldens extremists," and posited that the decision of Comedy Central to enact self-censorship of the South Park episode would have the impact of worsening the situation.[20]