I had two guilty pleasures when I was still a columnist at the Philadelphia Inquirer Daily News.
One was reading Christine Flowers’ weekly column. The other was looking at Will Bunch’s column.
Note I said “looking at,” not reading.
The “why” is simple.
Dogs eat vomit. I don’t.
I would look at Bunch’s column just to be sure it was something he had thrown up before. It always was. He hasn’t had a surprising thought in two decades. If a conservative idea ever crept up on him, he would beat it to death with his Birkenstocks. (Metaphor. I don’t know what shoes he wears as he paddled around the newsroom, when we had one, in stockinged feet. Yes, Shoeless Will Bunch.)
Anyway, the paper made him a “national columnist,” who rarely leaves his suburban home.
He describes himself in his online profile as a person “with some strong opinions about what’s happening in America around social injustice, income inequality and the government..”
I describe him as someone with some wrong opinions about what’s happening.
He was identified as a member of JournoList — an email group of approximately 400 “progressive” and socialist journalists, academics and “new media” activists.
JournoList members reportedly coordinated their messages in favor of Barack Obama and the Democrats, and against Sarah Palin and the Republican Party. JournoList was founded in 2007 and was closed down in early 2010. It was shut down because they got caught fixing the dice.
To me, “coordinating” messages with other journalists is not what journalists should do. Journalists should be competing with each other to present the freshest, most unique viewpoints, not creating a Deep State Fourth Estate. JournoList members acted cohesively to support the government rather than challenge it.
It was beyond wrong. It was Leftist group think, antithetical to solid journalism.
All this brings me to his latest dog barf, that asks the question, in the headline, “Is America hopelessly sexist? Harris vs. Trump will answer that question”
It won’t, but I will.
No, it isn’t, and no, it won’t.
Bunch is among the Chicken Little class of journalists, the chronic bed-wetters of the woke wing of the Democratic Party. They accuse Donald J. Trump of having a “dystopian” (one of their favorite words) view of America, while all they see is an American people chained by racism, sexism, homophobia, Islamophobia, transphobia, anti-Semitism, mass incarceration, income disparity, social injustice, hunger food insecurity, homelessness those experiencing lack of shelter, addiction, substance use disorder.
Does America have problems?
Of course, but if all you see are the problems, the problem may be with you.
Remember Jeff Foxworthy’s “You might be a redneck if…?”
Well, you might be woke if all you see are America’s problems, real or imagined.
Despite the headline, Bunch’s latest opus incongruously opens with five paragraphs about tunes played at conventions, with Bunch (who reportedly was an athlete at Hackley, the elite, private school in upstate New York, where he became best friends with Leftist ranter Keith Olbermann) zeroing in on “It’s a Man’s, Man’s, Man’s World.” Anyone not hopelessly biased knows that Trump’s #1 all-time favorite campaign song is Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the U.S.A.” You can listen to it here. (He also has a strange affection for “YMCA.”)
Let’s get back to the question of hopeless sexism in America.
That suggests to me that women just can’t get a break in America.
Despite them being a statistical majority.
126 members of Congress are women.
That is less than the proportionate share of the 535 seats, but it hasn’t been that long since waves of women began running for political office.
12 U.S. governors are women, 13 if you count Guam.
Women account for 22 lieutenant governors. Kamala Harris was elected to the U.S. Senate from our most populous state. Kirsten Gillibrand is the U.S. Senator from New York, another big blue state. Just blue states, you say? Nope. Katie Britt from Alabama, Cynthia Lummis from Wyoming, Marsha Blackburn from Tennessee, Cindy Hyde-Smith from Mississippi, Joni Ernst from Iowa. There are 25 women in the U.S. Senate.
Almost 75% of all teachers are women, 63% of veterinarians are women, 58% of all college undergraduates are women.
The list goes on.
Bunch probably is living his 2016 nightmare in which Trump beat Hillary Clinton, which she, and Bunch, blame on “sexism.”
Not her lousy campaign strategy, not her unlikeable personality, not her animating the opposition by calling them “deplorables” No, it was “sexism.”
Am I saying there is no sexism in America?
I am not.
There is also racism, ageism, and all the phobias, but it is not enough to stop you if you are smart, ambitious, and willing to outwork the other guy human.
Great column Stu. Now please tell me how you really feel about him. 😊
Interesting article that supports premise with facts. Will be anxious to see what kind of rant it elicits from Daniel.
On this topic, I expect support from Daniel. 😊
Another great one, Stu. I read Will’s column the same way. Always overwrought and boring at the same time.
Thank you Stu.
I canceled my subscription to the Inquirer 10 years ago because of Will Bunch. I didn’t want one cent of my hard earned money going into his paycheck. He’s an idiot.
Nice job Inquirer. Keep up the good work 👍🏼
You are welcome, John. I have never encouraged anyone to cancel, but I understand why you did. As sucky as it is, it is an important source of news, which I need for my column.
Will Bunch has chased more subscribers from the Inquirer than any columnist in the history of the paper. I can’t believe he hasn’t been fired.
He’s DEI, Daniel. Their hands are tied.
I have four favorite online columnists that I receive online: you, David French, Bret Stephens and Paul Krugman (primarily economics). I hate extremism on both sides, and I’ll just leave it at that.
Thank you.
I also cancelled my subscription to the Inquirer because of articles by Will Bunch. He is so far to the left he probably can’t make a right turn when he drives.
Frank Brodsky
Actually, Frank, an extension to what you said above is: “He is so far to the left that he doesn’t even have working right-hand turn signal in his car.”
The only reason I subscribe to the Inquirer is no alternative exists for local news. To say the editorial board or columnists sway their opinion pieces to the left is an understatement. Bunch and Johnson, find racism and prejudice in every issue they discuss. I would be shocked if a positive article about our country’s success or an individual’s financial success ever originated from these two. I wonder if Gerry Lenfest had an idea his paper would become a sounding board for DEI initiatives over common sense and respect for individual achievements.
Back in the Day, whose slogan, at the top of the Philadelphia Bulletin stated “In Philadelphia, nearly everybody reads The Bulletin.”. Always wondered why it went out of publication. This from a former Bulleting paperboy who “served” the bulletin as is it was a news worthy treat; yet, the Inquirer persists..
It’s tempting to say the Bulletin folded because of it’s wishy-washy, don’t-rock-the-boat editorial philosophy that created new levels of boring. But the real reason is that by the time it realized TV had rendered afternoon papers irrelevant and went to morning delivery, it was too late. That (the late-’70s/early-’80s) was the Inky’s golden era when they were scarfing up Pulitzer nominations like so many hot dogs at a July 4 competition. And the Delaware Valley had no reason for an afternoon paper OR another morning paper.
The Bulletin was an evening paper, killed by KYW all-news radio. There was nothing to read in the evening newspaper that hadn’t been hashed to death by KYW. I believe I have a unique perspective having worked first at the Bulletin then at KYW.
Proportional representation (e.g., how many women in Congress as a percentage of total seats) is silly. Consider the proportion of White men compared to Black men in the NBA. Ditto for women in the WNBA. I still like to believe that for the most part, merit still matters.
He’s way too uncritically and knee jerk “progressive” left for my taste. I still subscribe to the Inky, but I ignore him completely and always have. Kevin says overwrought and boring at the same time – that’s a brilliant description.
Like many others here, Will is among the reasons I no longer subscribe to the Inky. I imagine the Inky doesn’t care since I’m not a woke progressive, I’m not its target market.
To return “our” Inquirer to its previous level of balance, wisdom, maturity and sanity, the whole board of editors, E Hughes, Will Bunch, Solomon Jones and most of the recently hired inexperienced, immature, knee jerk reporters who report that everything is racist, need to be replaced. Bunch and Jones may be off in the left’s end zone, but more disappointing than their simplistic predictability is that both write such stupid and immature opinions and the Inquirer editors still print those opinions.
Or, just make the Inquirer exclusively a Sports Paper; they are pretty good at that.
I’d agree, but for your final sentence. The entire publication, including their “sports” department, is utter garbage. The jock-sniffers and locker room peeping-toms have a great knack for finding ways to include our national politics and even white guilt into their “sports” submissions. They are as vital to the city of Philadelphia as the bubonic plague, or perhaps Larry Krasner.
Marcus Hays is the Will Bunch of the sports department. They should overhaul all of their columnists especially racist like Solomon Jones .
I stopped reading Bunchie decades ago so I’ll have to take your word for how boring and predictable he is. But your criticisms of Bunch could be applied to the entire paper.
The Inky is not only insufferably boring and predictable, but it always reads like everybody who works there is an out-of-towner. I am told that many staffers, including editors, reside not only outside the city, but also outside the state.
It starts at the top with publisher & CEO Lisa Hughes, who still resides at her NYC town house.
Philadelphia deserves better.
Two items regarding today’s article…
(1) Myself and the other folks at work used to refer to Bunch’s stuff as “Will’s Bunch of BS”.
(2) Bunch is a communist in all but name. He is beyond plain old socialism.
If he wrote in Pittsburgh, they would call him a jagoff
I cancelled my 40+ year Inky subscription about five years ago. I would have cancelled earlier but had an interest in sports, so I ignored the lack of journalism. Then they stopped covering high school sports. Then the remaining sports reporters (giving them way more credit than they deserve) would regurgitate stories from ESPN and the NFL. This wasn’t reporting, it was plagiarism. Lazy, lazy, lazy. I can create my own fake news without spending a penny.
Stu…You took the words right out of my mouth. Your article is a perfect description of W.B. I don’t even want to say or type his name. W.B. loves to praise the Liberal Socialists and annoy everyone else. He is a star at turning readers into ex Inquirer subscribers. The paper is in trouble due to their woke articles that fill the pages everyday by him and most of the writing staff. I wish more people would get to see the article you wrote about W.B. Stu you have always been a good and fair writer who called them as you see them. I always appreciated that. You have many loyal followers.
Thank you
He’s such a “strapper”- he lives in the “burbs” but tells inner-city residents especially the poor what to be angry about. I love the photo with …just the hint…of a guitar showing lol! Y’know he’s such a deep guy he might just pull it out and play a song while on Zoom like Dylan-“a change is gonna come”. He’s hoping everyone will see it and be like “Wow!-and you can play the guitar too! WHAT can’t YOU do Will?”
Dystopian: a person who imagines or foresees a state or society where there is great suffering or injustice.
“a lot of things those dystopians feared did not come true”
If that doesn’t describe literally EVERYTHING that comes out of Trump’s mouth, I don’t know what does.