The Irish Times is in hot water after publishing an article about the 'alt-right movement'

Boiling water.

Fri, 06 Jan, 2017 - 12:45

Claire Anderson

The Irish Times has outraged some readers following the online publication of an article titled: "The alt-right movement: everything you need to know".

Others reacted more positively.

The article, written by Nick Pell who is an American writer living in Wicklow, aims to provide "everything you need to know" about the alt-right movement.

The alt-right movement is a term for people with far-right ideologies who reject mainstream conservatism. The glossary included in the article aims to explain "the chatter on Twitter hashtags" used by the alt-right.

The article is a treasure-trove of racism and misogyny according to Una Mullally in her response article, "Why 'The Irish Times' should not have published Nicholas Pell."

She says: "The tone and approach the media takes regarding this subject needs to be extremely well thought out. As we’ve seen in the response to Pell’s article that people are rightly sensitive and averse to anything that seeks to normalise, glorify or sympathise with fascists, which is hardly surprising."

The "simple glossary" of terms "used by the 'Alt-right movement'" and compiled by Pell prompted a violent Twitter backlash from some readers.

One person even started a petition asking that "the Irish Times take editorial responsibility and does not print articles that are uncritically racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic or fascist."

Some even described the publication as "Nazi".

The Irish Times podcastclaims that the publication of Pell's article "started a debate".

In another article titled, 'Why we published Nicholas Pell's article on the Alt-right', opinion editor John McManus states that Pell's article met the criteria of the Opinion and Analysis section, which is "to stimulate and advance arguments about matters of public interest." He also says that they "don't subscribe to the notion of denying a platform to people we don't agree with or that will provoke strong debate", using the abortion debate as an example.

Someone in the Irish Times is claiming all of the Twitter anger as a "win" right now. That's why this piece is only online.
— Paul Hosford (@PTHosford) January 5, 2017

The piece he wrote was intended to portray the alt-right in a positive light, and it was also plain inaccurate.
— Colm O'Gorman (@Colmogorman) January 5, 2017

Beware anything that’s “just trying to start a conversation.”
— Emily Nussbaum (@emilynussbaum) January 4, 2017

The doubling down of the "debate" is presented both within Pell's article and within the publication's mix of articles that stemmed from it.

I don't mean to shock anyone but the Irish Times has another article about the article today. And six letters to the editor.
— Peter O' Dwyer (@peterodwyer1) January 6, 2017

Meanwhile, Pell and Mullaly have been receiving both praise and backlash online.