Slate Writer Gets a Taste of Her Own Medicine

A couple of weeks ago, Slate’s D.C.-based Emily Yoffe posted a slideshow of people she thought should throw in the towel. Among them: Sumner Redstone, majority owner of CBS and Paramount Pictures, 60 Minutes’ Andy Rooney, NPR host Diane Rehm, and even such teen idols as Justin Bieber and Dick Clark (not a teen idol).

She asked for feedback. And boy, did she get it. Who knew Slate readers were such staunch Bieber defenders?

On Friday, she announced what readers had to say: “The results are in, and your No. 1 pick is … me! Many were moved to name me because they found my piece to be ‘mean-spirited,’ ‘outrageous and delusional,’ ‘useless drivel,’ ‘unfair,’ ‘hateful,’ ‘rude,’ and ‘ageist.’ One reader wanted to know, ‘Why don’t you just line these old folks up and shoot them?’”

Though Yoffe admits her column was “cheeky,” she didn’t back down. She also published other readers’ picks (ones that weren’t her). They include Pat Buchanan for his apparent anti-Semitism, John McCain, and “the Comics page,” because so many of its comics are written by ancient people and, in the case of Charles Schulz’s Peanuts, a dead person.

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