Mark Steyn

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Mark Steyn

Mark Steyn (* 1959 in Toronto , Ontario ) is a Canadian journalist, columnist, and film and music critic. In recent years he has mainly written about politics from a conservative point of view. His 2006 book America Alone was a New York Times best seller.

Career

Steyn was born in Toronto. He attended King Edward's School in Birmingham , England , but retired at the age of 16 and returned to Canada to work as a disc jockey . He comes from a mixed Jewish - Catholic background paternal and Belgian or Flemish and Catholic mother. His ancestors lived in the city of Chernivtsi for several centuries . Baptized Catholic and confirmed Anglican , Steyn is currently attending a small, rural church of American Baptists .

He made his first foray into journalism when he was hired as a musical and theater critic for the then newly founded The Independent in London in 1986 (he wrote his first review on The Phantom of the Opera ). In 1992 he became a film critic for The Spectator (which was part of the Hollinger group at the time). After writing mostly about the arts for several years, Steyn expanded his resort to include political commentary and switched to the Daily Telegraph , a conservative newspaper that was also part of the Hollinger group. Steyn became a close partner of the former Canadian and Hollinger boss Conrad Black and then wrote for many of Black's newspapers.

Due to his lack of college education and his sidestepping from art criticism to political analysis, Steyn is an unusual political commentator. Possibly this move was hasty, as a result of a dispute between Steyn and Hollinger over his status in the mid-90s: Steyn's film reviews temporarily disappeared and when he returned he was the senior editor of Hollinger Inc. Publications, senior columnist for the British Telegraph Group and has been named editor for North America for The Spectator .

Since then he has written for a wide range of publications, many of which are owned by the Hollinger group, including the Jerusalem Post in Israel , the Chicago Sun-Times, and the "Happy Warrior" column for National Review in the United States , The Australian and formerly for the Irish Times in Ireland .

He wrote for the Canadian newspaper National Post in the late 1990s , but his job became uncertain after Canwest Global bought the newspaper , so Steyn stopped writing there in May 2003. In Canada he now writes weekly for Maclean’s and twice a month for Western Standard . He also writes theater reviews for the New Criterion , obituaries for the Atlantic Monthly, and appears weekly on the Hugh Hewitt Show , a conservative talk radio show.

Thanks to his relationship with the Hollinger Group, which publishes internationally, Steyn has also succeeded in attracting a readership that extends across the entire " Anglosphere ", the English-speaking world. At times he published regular publications in the USA, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand as well as in Israel, although these were not only sold in different newspapers at the same time. He is sometimes mistakenly referred to as a 'blogger'. But although Steyn's website assigns links to his columns and he occasionally publishes material exclusively on his website, he does not maintain a blog.

Since February 2006, Steyn has stopped writing for The Spectator and Daily Telegraph . In a letter on his homepage dated March 2, 2006, Steyn gives the reasons for his departure: “The Telegraph Group and I were unable to come to an agreement on a new contract, and what is worse, they seem big Having trouble making the final payment on my previous contract. A sad end to a long and largely happy collaboration. “Both publications are no longer owned by Hollinger.

Steyn has written several books, including Broadway Babies Say Goodnight (1997), The History of Theater Musical, and several collections of his columns. After a long delay, Steyn's first political book, America Alone: ​​The End of the World as We Know It , was published in October 2006 , which became a New York Times bestseller. A collection of his celebrity afterwords and profiles from the Atlantic was due to appear in December 2006 under the title Mark Steyn's Passing Parade .

Steyn lives alternately in Quebec, Canada, and Lyme , New Hampshire in the United States, which he justifies by saying that New Hampshire is one of the US states with the least amount of interference by the federal government. He is married to a former editor whom he met while working for the Independent and has three children.

Steyn and politics

Steyn has long spoken out against the policies of the Liberal Party , which dominated federal politics in Canada. He criticized multiculturalism , the public health system , high taxes , gun legislation, the position on Quebec's separatism and alleged anti-Americanism . Steyn described these political conditions as 'trudeaupist' (English trudeaupanian ), referring to the former liberal Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau .

He was an advocate of the illegal invasion of Iraq in 2003 to prevent an allegedly imminent attack by Iraq with weapons of mass destruction on the United States and continues to support the coalition's war effort. Steyn is hostile to the UN and advocates an exit by the United States from the UN or the complete abolition of the United Nations. He often refers to the corruption prevailing at the UN , in particular the oil-for-food program , as well as the allegations of sexual exploitation by UN soldiers during the peacekeeping operations in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the UN's inaction during the Rwandan campaign Genocide .

In May 2004, he complained in a column about biased reporting and low journalistic standards, which he attributed to a political agenda and double standards regarding the Iraq war:

“In the past few days, The Mirror , a roaring tabloid, published pictures of British soldiers urinating on Iraqi prisoners and the Boston Globe , a sleepy paper, published pictures of American soldiers sexually abusing Iraqi women.
In both cases, the pictures turned out to be forgeries. A cursory glance at the London snapshots and the origin of the Boston pictures should have made it obvious to both papers that the pictures were fake. Yet they were published. The reason is because they wanted the pictures to be real. Because that would have brought her a little closer to seeing George W. Bush's head roll. But if you want to see what the Islamists did to Nick Berg or Daniel Pearl , or the people in Fallujah , or even just the victims of September 11, 2001 , you have to do some research on the Internet yourself. The media is not interested in showing images that could justifiably anger the American people, only images that will shame and demoralize the population. "

In a July 2005 column in the National Review , he again reprimanded the liberal media. This time it was directed against Andrew Jaspan, editor of the Australian newspaper The Age , who took offense when kidnapping victim Douglas Wood, an Australian kidnapped and detained in Iraq, called his kidnappers "assholes" after he was freed:

“The editor of Age didn't care about the harsh, vicious condemnation. As Mr. Jaspan stated on the Australian ABC Network: 'I was, I must say, shocked by Douglas Wood's use of the word' asshole ', if I can put it in what I thought was very clumsy and thoughtless and what I thought Makes these people look bad and is why you are skeptical of your intentions. In fact, for the most part, as far as I know, he has been treated well. He says that he was provided with food every day and that he now turns around and uses such expressions is just insensitive.
And God forbid, we are insensitive to so-called insurgents. True, Mr. Wood was forced to overhear his kidnappers killing two of his colleagues a few feet away, but how rude and rowdy do you have to be to blame your hosts for this? The liberation is certainly something new: He does not suffer from Stockholm Syndrome, but everyone at home does. What is he doing anyway? They gave him enough to eat every day, and if they'd ever cut his head off, they would surely have used the nice, sharp scimitar and not the old, rusty part they used at Nick Berg. Why is he so insensitive? Is he a Bush supporter or something? "

The USA and Islam

Mark Steyn also comments on the contradictions between the United States and Europe and the antagonisms between the West and the Islamic world . He often criticizes tolerance for Islamic cultural intolerance in the name of multiculturalism.

Steyn wrote:

“As far as I can see, the virtues of multiculturalism are that the sterile white bread cultures of Australia, Canada and the UK have some great foreign restaurants and a Commonwealth Games opening ceremony that lasts until two in the morning . But in terms of the Muslim enclaves in Sydney, Oslo, Paris, Copenhagen and Manchester, multiculturalism means that the most evil characteristics of Islamic culture - the oppression of women - are combined with the most evil characteristics of Western culture - and self-adulation. The tattooed, pierced Pakistani skinhead gangs strutting the streets of New England are as much a product of multiculturalism as the turbulent Sikh mounties in the escort outside Rideau Hall. But the political class is turning its back on their pride-ridden affairs - women's rights, homosexual rights - even in the face of glaring attacks.
As you always have to point out when you deal with this subject: I am not a racist, just a culturalist. I believe that Western culture - rule of law, universal suffrage, etc. - is preferable to Arab culture: this is why millions of Muslims live in Scandinavia and four Scandinavians in Syria. I am in favor of immigration, but with assimilation. "

In other articles, he agrees with Winston Churchill's description of Islam as "the greatest retrograde force ... in the world". He also describes another of Churchill's remarks regarding Islam as "astute":

“How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live. "

“How terrible is the curse of Islam on its disciples! Aside from fanatical madness, which is as dangerous in a man as fear of water in a dog, we are dealing here with a fearful, fatalistic apathy. Careless behavior, sloppy farming and trading methods, and insecure property rights prevail where the Prophet's followers live. "

Criticism of Steyn

Critics claim that Steyn ignores counter arguments and events that contradict his predictions. This includes his repeated assertion that Osama bin Laden was "definitely" dead. His inaccurate predictions have been widely ridiculed. For example, Geoffrey Wheatcroft of the Guardian wrote :

“In addition to claiming that George Bush would win the presidential election in 2000 with a landslide election victory, Steyn has repeatedly predicted that Osama bin Laden 'is still dead'. Weeks after the invasion of Iraq, he assured his readers that there would be "no widespread aversion or opposition to the Western military presence." In December 2003 he wrote, 'Six more weeks of insurrection should apply, after which it will fizzle out'; and the following March he was convinced: 'I don't think it is possible for someone who takes an honest look at Iraq to see it as anything other than a success story.' "

He was accused of "Steynwalling" (English pun on "stonewalling", "delaying tactics") and was prone to insults when confronted with errors in his argumentation.

Works

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Steyn Online - website of Mark Steyn
  2. ↑ Caught in the cross-fire - Washington Times article
  3. ↑ A weird Stockholm syndrome - Article in the National Review
  4. ^ Battered Westerner Syndrome inflicted by myopic Muslim defenders - Article in the Jewish World Review
  5. ↑ Beyond the eloquence and scandal, the Blacks left a disastrous legacy - Article in the Guardian

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Steyn, Mark
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Canadian journalist, columnist, and film and music critic
DATE OF BIRTH 1959
PLACE OF BIRTH Toronto , Ontario