Pinko Magazine Hedonism + Activism

So my day-job-boss at The Nation magazine, Katrina vanden Heuvel, was invited to be the first guest on The Colbert Report tomorrow when they break the writers strike and go back on the air. As The Nation’s publicist I of course self-relieved from the excitement, high-fived myself in the mirror and immediately declared that she HAD to do it, 142-year history of support for organized labor be damned. Quickly sensing that I had the worst judgement ever, Katrina turned down the gig citing solidarity with the striking writers.

The Colbert Report must have been working their way down (or up?) the magazines masthead; they also asked contributor Naomi Klein (who said no) and reportedly others. Its interesting to me that The Colbert Report would reach out to The Nation, Katrina, Naomi and other figures on the left; while the show (and The Daily Show along with it) are blue-state darlings, the idea that they would bother trying to insulate themselves from liberal animus as strike-busters is actually somehow … charming. Not as charming as if they had, say, not broken the strike, but still it surprised me that they cared.

I’m proud of Katrina and Naomi, even though it means we’re stuck with the far furrier writer Andrew Sullivan, who until getting the thirst for Barack Obama was one of those awful “gay Republicans” I’ve read about in books and airport bathroom walls.

About The Author - Ben Wyskida is a writer, activist, conscientious hedonist and political communications strategist living in Brooklyn. - Visit Ben's site.