April 5-6, 2012: National Review Distances Itself from Racist Column by Veteran Contributor

Speculation mounts as to whether the National Review, a prominent conservative magazine, will fire veteran columnist John Derbyshire over an overtly racist screed he penned for an obscure blog yesterday (see April 5, 2012). Editor Rich Lowry calls Derbyshire’s column “appalling” but refuses to discuss any possibility of Derbyshire’s firing or other sanctions. Lowry asserts that “no one at National Review” shares Derbyshire’s views. National Review senior editor Ramesh Ponnuru posts on Twitter that he does not wish to be associated with Derbyshire any longer, and National Review editor Jonah Goldberg posts on Twitter that he finds Derbyshire’s column “fundamentally indefensible and offensive.” Faiz Shakir of the liberal news Web site Think Progress calls Derbyshire’s column “unbelievably racist.” Derbyshire has written for the National Review for 12 years, and in 2003 characterized himself as a “racist” (see November 11-18, 2003). [Think Progress, 4/6/2012] Derbyshire will indeed be fired from the National Review as a result of his column (see April 7, 2012).