The real cancel culture

The Free Press’ Bari Weiss in Los Angeles on September 13, 2023 (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

In 2020, Bari Weiss quit her job as an editor and writer at the New York Times editorial page in a huff. In her public resignation letter, Weiss argued that she was forced out because the paper had become "illiberal" and her more conservative beliefs made her "the subject of constant bullying by colleagues." 

In January 2021, Weiss launched a newsletter, Common Sense, with her partner, Nellie Bowles. Weiss billed Common Sense as the antidote to "cancel culture," which she argued was the practice by progressives of seeking to punish and ostracize anyone who diverged from their ideological orthodoxy. "The fact that cancellation tales have become an everyday feature of American life should do nothing to diminish how shocking they are, and how damaging they are to a free society," Weiss wrote in October 2021. "Everyone… of conscience needs to start saying no to the mob."

Whether or not Weiss' core critique is true, it is lucrative. In 2022, Common Sense rebranded itself as The Free Press to reflect its growing ambitions. It now reportedly employs about 30 people and generates millions in revenue annually. The rebranded publication continues to rail against "cancel culture." Bowles recently published an excerpt from her new book in The Free Press in which she describes the "pleasure" she used to get from helping "cancel people" — before she saw the light and embraced intellectual freedom.

Ironically, as Weiss cashes in on her critique of "cancel culture," The Free Press has become a central part of a sophisticated right-wing ecosystem that seeks to tear down anything and anyone who diverges too far from their ideology. 

The latest effort began on April 9, 2024, when NPR editor Uri Berliner wrote in The Free Press that his employer had "lost America's trust." Using a formula that is typical for The Free Press, Berliner describes himself as fitting the liberal mold — admitting that he was "raised by a lesbian peace activist mother" and "eagerly voted against Trump twice." But Berliner says that NPR has gone too far. NPR, according to Berliner, has abandoned its "open-minded spirit" and is too focused on catering to the left. 

One of the core pieces of evidence Berliner cited was NPR's coverage of allegations that the "Trump campaign colluded with Russia." Berliner said NPR "hitched our wagon to Trump’s most visible antagonist, Representative Adam Schiff." He complained that Schiff was interviewed 25 times and, during those interviews, "alluded to purported evidence of collusion." But an NPR spokesperson told Washington Post media critic Erik Wemple that between January 2017 and December 2019, NPR conducted 900 interviews with congressional lawmakers, including stalwart conservatives like Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Paul Ryan (R-WI). In other words, Schiff did not dominate the coverage. Overall, Wemple describes Berliner's critique of NPR's Russia coverage as a "lazy… feelings-based critique of the sort that passes for media reporting these days."

Another central component of Berliner's critique is this statistic: "In D.C., where NPR is headquartered and many of us live, I found 87 registered Democrats working in editorial positions and zero Republicans. None." There are a few problems with this. First, Berliner doesn't disclose that there are 662 employees at NPR producing content. It's unclear how or why he selected a subset of just 87 people. Second, in DC, voters have the option of registering as independents. That's how Berliner and other NPR employees who live in DC, like host Steve Inskeep, have registered. Finally, many NPR employees live in places like Virginia, which does not have voter registration by party. 

Berliner also claims that NPR is too focused on racism and providing opportunities to "men of color" and "women of color." If NPR does not correct these perceived flaws, Berliner raises the prospect of "defunding." His essay concludes by inviting Katherine Maher, who became NPR's CEO in January 2024, to embrace his critique and change the direction of NPR. 

That is not what Maher decided to do. Instead, she released a statement on April 12 that called Berliner's public criticism, particularly on NPR's approach to diversity, "disrespectful, hurtful, and demeaning." Maher asserted that NPR could fulfill its "mission best when we look and sound like the country we serve." She also defended NPR's journalism, noting that it has been "consistently recognized and rewarded for its quality, depth, and nuance."

Enter Rufo

On April 16, NPR suspended Berliner, who was publicly trashing his employer and colleagues. The Free Press cast Berliner as a martyr, saying he was suspended for exposing "bias":

That is when the effort to punish NPR and Maher intensified. Chris Rufo, a right-wing operative, has been featured in The Free Press as a contributor and a podcast guest. Rufo began examining Maher's 29,400 tweets and highlighting examples that "exposed" her as liberal. (He later summarized his findings in a piece published by City Journal.) Rufo objects to tweets in which Maher discusses "structural privilege," "non-binary people," and "toxic masculinity." He also highlights that Maher's daily routine included "yoga, iced coffee, back-to-back meetings, and Zoom-based psychotherapy." In another tweet, Maher calls Trump — who rose to political prominence by falsely claiming that the nation's first Black president was illegitimate because he was born in Africa — a "deranged racist psychopath." For Rufo, Maher is but one example of a growing problem: a "rising cohort of affluent, left-wing, female managers."

For Rufo, expressing liberal views at any point in your life is a fireable offense. “If NPR wants to truly be National Public Radio, it can’t pander to the furthest-left elements in the United States,” Rufo told the New York Times. “To do so, NPR should part ways with Katherine Maher.”

NPR, however, stuck by Maher. The organization noted that the tweets in question were written while Maher "was not working in journalism… and was exercising her First Amendment right to express herself like any other American citizen." NPR further noted that Maher, as CEO, was not involved in the editorial process. 

The day after being suspended, Berliner quit NPR, citing the tweets highlighted by Rufo. "I cannot work in a newsroom where I am disparaged by a new CEO whose divisive views confirm the very problems at NPR I cite in my Free Press essay," Berliner said. Weiss amplified Berliner's claims:

That escalated quickly

NPR didn't follow the script. Rufo and The Free Press were both involved in the successful effort to oust various Ivy League presidents. Those efforts included allegations that they were captive to the far-left, insufficiently concerned about anti-semitism, and engaged in various "scandals" exposed by Rufo and others. When Claudine Gay resigned as Harvard's president based mostly on the allegations published in another right-wing outlet, The Free Beacon, Weiss said she was "green with envy." 

But instead of capitulating to The Free Press and Rufo's pressure campaign, NPR defended its CEO and its journalism and moved on. 

That's when Rufo escalated his attacks on Maher. In an April 24 article published in City Journal, Rufo suggested that Maher was a clandestine CIA operative. Rufo's "evidence" for this claim is Maher's work for the National Democratic Institute (NDI), a non-profit that observes elections and provides other support for democratic processes and institutions worldwide, and other NGOs. Rufo described Maher as "a regime-change agent, both foreign and domestic."

To "prove" his allegations, Rufo's report cites a random tweet alleging Maher is "probably a CIA operative" because she visited Tunisia. 

Rufo also suggests that NDI is really an arm of U.S. intelligence, citing "national security analyst J. Michael Waller." According to Waller, NDI is an "instrument of… the global revolution elements of the Obama team." Waller works for the Center for Security Policy, a far-right organization founded by Frank Gaffney. In 2009, Gaffney famously claimed that there is "mounting evidence that the president not only identifies with Muslims, but actually may still be one himself." 

Waller also has a checkered history with the facts. He played a key role in promoting the false claim that left-wing agitators, not Trump supporters, were responsible for the violence on January 6, 2021. Waller based this claim based on his own personal observations of the crowd. "A few young men wearing Trump or MAGA hats backwards and who did not fit in with the rest of the crowd in terms of their actions and demeanor, whom I presumed to be Antifa or other leftist agitators," Waller wrote. According to Waller, these "agents-provocateurs placed hundreds of unsuspecting supporters of the president in physical danger."

Later in the lengthy piece, Rufo admits there "is no way to discern whether Maher was an agent, asset, or otherwise connected with the CIA." But Rufo claims this is irrelevant because Maher "was undoubtedly advancing the agenda of the national security apparatus." 

Having acknowledged that his core claim about Maher's connections to U.S. intelligence is pure speculation, Rufo then turns his attention to unsubstantiated gossip about Maher's personal life. In her 30s, Rufo writes, Maher "had her sights on powerful men in the tech sector." But Maher "considered finding someone lesser as she approached 40." This, according to Rufo, somehow helps prove that Maher is "a vessel for power, with few original thoughts." 

The incoherence of the argument underscores the reality of the political moment. There is a relentless right-wing operation seeking to inflict pain on their ideological adversaries. Some, like Rufo, are the political equivalent of street brawlers, willing to say or do anything to achieve their objective. Others, like Weiss and The Free Press, give the movement a more journalistic and professional sheen. But no one involved is a supporter of free expression or an opponent of cancel culture. Rather, they are the cultural force aggressively pursuing cancellation.