GUEST COLUMN: Who the Fuck Did You THINK Ran NPR?
By Katherine Maher
As CEO of National Public Radio, I expect to be scrutinized. So, I wasn’t surprised this week when conservative activists started circulating various tweets and other things I’ve said over the years. They are really going after me — I’m Public Enemy Number One on conservative Twitter! I’m being portrayed as an uber-progressive resistance liberal who works in privileged white woman cringe the way that Michelangelo worked in marble. My critics have seized on past statements like “America is addicted to white supremacy” and “I’m so done with late-stage capitalism” to hold me up as an avatar for midwit coastal elite groupthink.
I have to say: I’m surprised by the uproar. I expect scrutiny, but I did not expect to become the subject of a multi-day media frenzy. And please keep in mind: I’m not accused of wrongdoing — I’m accused of being extremely progressive in an obnoxious way. And I feel compelled to ask: Who the fuck did you think was running NPR, you fucking morons? Wasn’t it definitely going to be someone with my behaviors and opinions? Are you truly shocked that I’m basically the “Ruthkanda forever” girl grown up and in charge of a major media outlet?
Really: Was there any chance that NPR was run by a working class guy from Arkansas who loves college football and pussy? A guy whose Twitter bio says that he’s “all about the three Bs — beer, bass fishing, and blowjobs”? I didn’t beat out a lumberjack and a pipe fitter for this job — I didn’t leave my interview and see a Jamaican nurse and a guy in a DeWalt Tools t-shirt sitting in the lobby waiting their turn. If this job hadn’t gone to me, it would have gone to one of the umpteen functionally-identical “me”s who inhabit places like NPR. If I wasn’t someone who obsessively polices language to signal that I’m familiar with the norms of elite culture, then I’d call you “a bunch of fucking retards” for not knowing that.
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