How publications are responding to the attack on Charlie Hebdo: from solidarity to censorship. And, at the Times, a profile of Stéphane Charbonnier (aka Charb), the paper’s editorial director, one of twelve people killed in the attack.
The New Republic has announced the first new hires since the magazine’s disastrous editorial reboot this fall, which culminated with many prominent staff members leaving. Charged with righting the ship are two new senior editors, Jamil Smith and Elspeth Reeve; an associate editor, Bijan Stephen; and a poetry editor, Cathy Park Hong. TNR’s editor, Gabriel Snyder, promises more “exciting updates” in the coming days.
Meanwhile, over at Gawker, Alex Pareene is returning to the staff as a “special projects editor” after a hiatus at The Intercept. Gawker editor John Cook says that among Pareene’s key duties will be “to work with all the sites on developing and executing pranks, capers, hijinks, and long cons—not merely juvenile stunts (though some will no doubt be), but strategically articulated operations designed to puncture sanctimony and undermine authority.”
Dr. Ben Carson, a neurosurgeon and potential Republican presidential candidate, is being accused of plagiarizing sources such as Socialismsucks.net in his book America the Beautiful: Rediscovering What Made this Nation Great, which extols, among other things, the virtues of hard work and academic excellence. Carson’s publisher, Zondervan, is said to be reviewing the allegations, while his agent says Carson (and his wife and co-author, Candy Carson), didn’t mean it: “The Carsons, in writing this book, did everything that they thought they were supposed to do to provide the source material for their book.”