Expounding racist views is not really new for National Review contributors, but it has suddenly become a fireable offense, as the publication has dumped a second contributor following the axing of John Derbyshire on Saturday. In a brief Tuesday night post, National Review editor Rich Lowry thanked "those who brought it to our attention" that Robert Weissberg had "participated in an American Renaissance conference where he delivered a noxious talk about the future of white nationalism." This is not really news, as ThinkProgress points out, since Lowry could have learned it by reading four sentences into Weissberg's Wikipedia page. What is a more recent development is that left-wing blog Little Green Footballs started haranguing National Review about Weissberg on Monday night, followed by the Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights on Tuesday morning. (Update: It was actually IREHR that tipped off LGF to the connection in a story last week, via a tweet from one Silvio Breckman). By Tuesday night, Weissberg's firing had been made public. Clearly, National Review is in a listening mood when it comes to complaints about its writers' problematic views on race.

[Robert Weissberg photo via his website]

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Adam Martin