Althouse: "Restitution, if only in the form of honest contrition and perhaps even a public apology, is in order."

August 19, 2026

"Restitution, if only in the form of honest contrition and perhaps even a public apology, is in order."

"Restitution, for instance, for Stan Wischnowski, the top editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer, who in 2020 had to resign from his job and issue a groveling apology for the sin of running an article by the paper’s architecture critic with the headline 'Buildings Matter, Too.' Restitution for Mike Pesca, the host of a popular podcast, 'The Gist,' who was suspended indefinitely from his job at Slate for making a case, in an interoffice back and forth, that it may sometimes be permissible for a non-Black person to quote a racial slur in narrow contexts. Restitution, yes, for James Bennet, a former editor of The Times’s Opinion section, who was forced from his job after the publication of a controversial guest essay by Tom Cotton, a Republican senator...."

Writes Bret Stephens, in "Yes, Woke 1.0 Was Crazy. Now Where’s the Accountability?" (NYT gift link).

73 comments:

James K said...: IANAL, but my impression is that employees at will who are fired or disciplined, unless there's a contract, don't have a leg to stand on unless they can claim a civil rights violation. And while these people were treated badly, restitution is a slippery slope that leads to things like reparations. I'd settle for public humiliation and firings of the perpetrators.; 8/19/26, 10:19 AM
BarrySanders20 said...: Accountability is a white construct that perpetuates white supremacy. The very premise of assuming an "account" is violence to non white bodies.; 8/19/26, 10:20 AM
BarrySanders20 said...: And assuming "ability" with the "account" is very hurtful to non able bodied peoples.; 8/19/26, 10:21 AM
Sebastian said...: Woke 1.0 was crazy, but asking for accountability is even crazier. Of course, the woke 1.0 meme just prepares battle space for super-crazy woke 2.0--including wealth taxes, trans-transformation, and so on. It will find new targets to vilify and stigmatize. It's prog MO.; 8/19/26, 10:22 AM
hombre said...: “Accountability?” Seriously? The negative assessment of “Woke 1” by its Democrat enablers is a campaign tactic, Bret. It is not intended to have any effect. You know that.; 8/19/26, 10:24 AM
rehajm said...: ...the left doesn't do accountability. Also: be suspicious of anything said by propaganda media in an election year...; 8/19/26, 10:25 AM
n.n said...: Critical Diversity Theory and affirmative action.; 8/19/26, 10:35 AM
rehajm said...: ...here in mid/late August propaganda media is transitioning from the 'we need to rebuild our credibility' part of the election cycle to the 'we need to cash in our gained credibility' part of the election cycle...; 8/19/26, 10:37 AM
RideSpaceMountain said...: "Woke 1.0 Canceled America. Woke 2.0 Will Destroy It." Confessions of a former cult member.; 8/19/26, 10:42 AM
RideSpaceMountain said...: "Cults must always control the women, separate them from their children. True for Charles Manson, Jim Jones, or Scientology. It’s so bad on the Left now that the only right women fight for now is the right to kill their own babies.

From White Fragility to protecting women in sports or locker rooms, not to mention children, the once and former feminists are MIA. Many of them are so desperate to be led and dominated by men that they are becoming Muslim reverts.

Back in the 1970s, women were also vulnerable and impressionable because the Counter Culture revolution was all about leaving traditional values, like family and religion, behind to “find yourself.” Women were suddenly free, yet all they seemed to want was to find someone to follow.

All of those white college girls of privilege were either sucked into cults, moving into vans, or shooting up banks."

Now they just get "top" surgery while working for NGOs to import their enslavers. Progress!; 8/19/26, 10:46 AM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: The one I never forgot was the story of a Chinese Language profesor.
ai : At the University of Southern California, business communication professor Greg Patton was replaced from teaching his course after using the common Mandarin filler word "nage" (那個, meaning "that" or "that one"). When spoken, the word sounds similar to an offensive English racial slur, which led to student complaints and a high-profile public debate."

That guy should get something.; 8/19/26, 10:50 AM
Eva Marie said...: The letters responding to the opinion piece at the NYT were depressing. As were the right/left responses to Rosie’s monologue in yesterday’s post. We really are seeing completely different movies.; 8/19/26, 10:53 AM
bagoh20 said...: Accountability is much less likely today than in the past. The offenses are probably discovered and broadcast much more often now, but any punishment beyond exposure seems rare, even for obvious crimes, and when there is punishment, it seems very two-tiered. For example, the people who went to jail for contempt of Congress is 100% Republicans with zero Democrats in the modern era, despite the offenses being equal or even worse on the Democrat side. Also, the Jan. 6th prosecutions compared to the far more destructive and numerous riots of 2020. It's impossible to argue that there is not a heavily biased legal system in the U.S., especially at the federal level, and especially when Democrat controlled areas try right leaning individuals. Most obvious is all the prosecutions of Trump, and even Nixon, despite the far more serious crimes that appear to have been executed by Democrat Presidents. Just Crossfire Hurricane and the associated spying on a candidates and sitting President far out paces any previous crimes. Despite that, so far, very little accountability for the hundreds of people involved, many clearly proven guilty by exposed facts. Many still exercise the powers they clearly abused. True fair accountability rarely exist on one side of the political spectrum.; 8/19/26, 10:53 AM
Eat More Ibogaine said...: So what's the current woke number? Is it more crazy or less crazy than Woke 1>; 8/19/26, 11:00 AM
RideSpaceMountain said...: @Lem Vibe Bandit, 那個(个) and 你個(个)is a common problem notorious epithet speaking.; 8/19/26, 11:07 AM
Jack Klompus Astronaut Pen said...: i just always tune into the comments on this blog to watch that RC Ocean dude play "Six Degrees of Separation from the Jews" based on whatever the subject is.; 8/19/26, 11:16 AM
bagoh20 said...: Woke 1.0 got Trump elected twice. Woke 2.0 will destroy the Democratic party. MAGA is here to stay. It's been around for 250 years. It used to be called patriotism or love of country. The Communists will die off. They are like mayflies: perennial, impossible to ignore, but soon gone.; 8/19/26, 11:23 AM
Rabel said...: It's like when Dorothy Kilgallen took off the blindfold and learned the line.; 8/19/26, 11:23 AM
n.n said...: Woke F-luid was another catastrophic failure. Woke off. Wake up.; 8/19/26, 11:32 AM
Fred Drinkwater said...: Hombre: " The negative assessment of “Woke 1” by its Democrat enablers is a campaign tactic,"
BINGO; 8/19/26, 11:33 AM
Amadeus 48 said...: There is no accountability. There will be no accountability. The Left gets to do whatever crazy thing they want to the applause of the trained seals in the press box.; 8/19/26, 11:36 AM
Yancey Ward said...: I got no sympathy for some of these cancelled people who issued the groveling apologies with their resignation letters. Show me someone who told his detractors to fuck right off- that is the person for whom I want to reserve my sympathy and support.; 8/19/26, 11:40 AM
Peachy+2 said...: Here's some reasons why the corrupt left never pay.; 8/19/26, 11:40 AM
Lawnerd said...: I don’t see how calling woke 1 crazy by AOC helps her political career. If she spouted crazy shit in the past why wouldn’t you believe that she would be prone to spout different crazy shit in the future. This goes for any politician who got caught up in the woke 1 frenzy - they are not reliable and we can’t trust their stated positions if they can change on a whim.; 8/19/26, 11:41 AM
Yancey Ward said...: There is a meme going around where Robespierre looks into a bag of severed heads and says, "The reign of terror was carrraaaazzzy."; 8/19/26, 11:42 AM
Jupiter said...: So Black Lives actually **don't** Matter?; 8/19/26, 11:53 AM
Peachy+2 said...: Here - behold the corrupt democratic party; 8/19/26, 12:11 PM
Quaestor said...: Instead of Woke 2.0, justice demands Woke D.O.A.; 8/19/26, 12:13 PM
Freder Frederson said...: For example, the people who went to jail for contempt of Congress is 100% Republicans with zero Democrats in the modern era

This is a perfect example of bullshit. Although technically true, it is deceptive and irrelevant. Exactly two people have gone to jail after being found in contempt of Congress, and yes, they were Republicans (although Navarro used to be a Democrat).; 8/19/26, 12:32 PM
john mosby said...: How is it deceptive or irrelevant? It shows how democrats and the courts upped the ante and demolished a norm. CC, JSM; 8/19/26, 12:41 PM
Smilin' Jack said...: The Chinese commies, who have a lot more experience with this sort of thing, call it rehabilitation. Which means, “Sorry you lost your family in that Cultural Revolution thing. Our bad. But remember, we’re still watching you.”; 8/19/26, 12:44 PM
Krumhorn said...: We’re tired of seeing our words and photos twisted to fit a narrative that does not reflect our reality. We’re tired of being told to show both sides of issues there are no two sides of.

Aside from ending the sentence end in a preposition, there can be no accountability so long as there is only one side of an issue. A bug-eyed leftie has no accountability so long as he can self-justifyingly yell "It's just this war and that lying son of a bitch, Johnson!"

- Krumhorn; 8/19/26, 12:46 PM
boatbuilder said...: It's a start, Bret. But where were you when all of this was happening?
A man with his finger in the wind. You don't have to be a weatherman...; 8/19/26, 12:55 PM
Richard Dolan said...: Accountability at the societal level has already happened, big time, most clearly in Trump 2.0 but also in the repudiation of DEI indoctrination in the business community (academia is a trailing indicator on this one), the open borders stuff, the banning of 'good' racial discrimination a/k/a affirmative action , 'defund the police,' climate change hysteria and so much else. The current electoral cycle features demands for accountability across the board, spinning off in opposite directions -- DSA vs. MAGA, with both sides notching wins and losses.

What Stevens is talking about is reparations for individual victims of woke craziness. If someone thinks he's entitled to be made whole for some wrong, he'll have to prove it -- reparations, in the sense of compensation for a wrong done to an individual, aren't handed out to make everyone else feel good. Not in America, anyway.; 8/19/26, 1:03 PM
boatbuilder said...: Maybe Bret ought to focus on something consequential and current.

Like "Oxferd C0mma."; 8/19/26, 1:04 PM
tommyesq said...: That seems like a listing of the least deserving of any kind of apology - they were all idiots pushing the left agenda until they committed heresy. What about the Tea Party? What about folks forced to get the Covid jab or lose their jobs?; 8/19/26, 1:18 PM
rehajm said...: "This is a perfect example of bullshit. Although technically true, it is deceptive and irrelevant."

...the BEST impersonation of the WaPo Fact Checker column I've ever witnessed....; 8/19/26, 1:26 PM
The Middle Coast said...: The Pesca episode centered around the McNeil episode. Much of the reporting around McNeil says that he ‘used’ the n-word. From the reporting, he did not use that word, but repeated it — said it — in the context of a conversation about someone saying the word. Now, to me at least, saying a word is not the same as using the word.; 8/19/26, 1:28 PM
Just an old country lawyer said...: Freder calls himself out.; 8/19/26, 1:49 PM
Marty said...: What BarrySanders20 said. (And don't you just love Freder being Freder?); 8/19/26, 1:54 PM
RCOCEAN II said...: Burt Stephens feels sorry for all the elite types who were cancelled. But if Tucker was cancelled tommorrow and lost his access to twitter/youtube etc. Burt stephens would applaud. I don't find his new found dislike of "Cancel culture" sincere or interesting.; 8/19/26, 2:11 PM
RCOCEAN II said...: To the Left "accountability" when applied to them is mindless revenge by the Right. When they apply to the Right, its "Justice".

They're still crying that Trump wasn't held "accountable" for being elected POTUS in 2016.; 8/19/26, 2:13 PM
Howard said...: "Was that wrong? Should I not have done that? I tell you, I gotta plead ignorance on this thing...".; 8/19/26, 2:15 PM
Peachypeachy said...: The democrat party platform is: HARMel stayed kills and abuses dogs.

Leftist cultists don’t care.; 8/19/26, 2:18 PM
Wilbur said...: Maybe I missed it.

Apart from the Dorothy Kilgallen mention in the comments, I don't see why there is a Bennett Cerf tag. It's your first tag of Mr. Cerf since 2009.; 8/19/26, 2:30 PM
grimson said...: "Woke" doesn't apply to James Bennet's forced resignation for publishing an op-ed by Tom Cotton.

Stephens is mistaken in trying to broaden woke from referring to
"an Orwellian linguistic fad or a tedious set of corporate training sessions in cultural sensitivity or wacky policy ideas about addressing racial and socioeconomic inequities"
to
"a system of enforced ideological conformity, policed by social bullying and institutional coercion (or cravenness)."

So maybe the far left should be asked to specify what exactly they mean by "woke 1.0" and how it differs from what they now support.

BTW, James Bennet's account in The Economist of his forced resignation from the NY Times can be read for free. While lengthy, it is well worth the time, documenting how the Times went from liberal to progressive as a result of the unions and hiring young reporters from the internet instead of those working their way up in print media.
https://www.economist.com/1843/2023/12/14/when-the-new-york-times-lost-its-way; 8/19/26, 2:30 PM
Iman said...: Bennett Cerf… what… no Dorothy Kilgallen?; 8/19/26, 2:31 PM
boatbuilder said...: "This is a perfect example of bullshit. Although technically true, it is deceptive and irrelevant."

Freder going with the IEE playbook. The Emperor is wearing the latest in high fashion, you ignorant rubes!; 8/19/26, 3:09 PM
boatbuilder said...: Lawnerd: "I don’t see how calling woke 1 crazy by AOC helps her political career. If she spouted crazy shit in the past why wouldn’t you believe that she would be prone to spout different crazy shit in the future. This goes for any politician who got caught up in the woke 1 frenzy - they are not reliable and we can’t trust their stated positions if they can change on a whim."

You are correct, and a reasoning person would be forced to agree. But for the Dems it is just a means to "move on" and pretend it never happened. Like Kamala telling Colbert "It was just a debate!"; 8/19/26, 3:15 PM
Dr Weevil said...: The Middle Coast (1:28pm):
Absolutely. A good example of the difference between using a word and saying a word is one I've used in the classroom. (I wish I could remember what brought it up!) An elderly nun who witnessed a murder, under oath on the stand, may be required to SAY words she would never dream of USING herself. When asked "What exactly did Mr Smith say to Mr Jones before Mr Jones stabbed him?", it would hardly be sufficient to say "He called him a bad, bad word". It would be entirely consistent with her vows as a nun and her oath in court to say "He called him . . . (pause, blush) . . . a 'motherfucking asshole' ", using a tone of voice that shows she's picking up the last two words with metaphorical tongs, like a red-hot potato. (Not that I give the specific hypothetical words in a classroom, of course.); 8/19/26, 3:18 PM
boatbuilder said...: grimson: "James Bennet served as the editorial page editor for The New York Times from May 2016 until June 2020. Before taking that leadership role, he worked as a news correspondent and bureau reporter for the paper for 15 years (from 1991 to 2006)."

If Bennett doesn't think that the NYT "lost it's way" long before 2016, he is still living in a bubble.; 8/19/26, 3:22 PM
Dr Weevil said...: Some evidence for the receding of Woke 1.0:

I wish I were one of those obsessive diarists who write down every trivial detail of their lives, so I could give you the dates, but: For a couple years (2? 3?) after reopening after Covid, the local Shakespeare theater did land acknowledgements, and turned one of the two Men's rooms into an "all-gender" restroom. At some point they just stopped doing either, and no one complained. I think there was some kind of "Black lives matter" statement too, for a while. One memorable season - I think it was the first one after reopening, they had a cast that included only one white male, and he was blatantly, flamingly gay or bi, and that included one totally androgenous "they" person. They weren't all that good as actors, and they went back to the normal racially and gender-orientationally varied casts that included a few straight white men the very next season.

One reason I think it was the first after reopening is that there were only six of them, and Covid hit them hard financially. Before Covid, they had a resident troupe of 12 and a touring troupe of 11 covering the eastern two-thirds of the country. Even now, there's still no touring troupe, but the resident troupe is up to 10, which is enough, but amusingly awkward at times. As You Like It, which just closed, has a quadruple wedding at the end, and two of the men - Oliver and Silvius - were played by the same actor. It was hilarious having him run back and forth on the stage turning his vest inside out - it had a fancy nobleman side and a garish peasant side.); 8/19/26, 3:32 PM
Dr Weevil said...: P.S. You can see pictures of As You Like It here: link. I'm in one of them, though only those who know me in real life (=YoungHegelian) will be able to pick me out.; 8/19/26, 3:38 PM
grimson said...: boatbuilder: I would say Bennet is a liberal, not a progressive. But while Bennet is probably still a liberal, the Times is now progressive, and its transformation began in earnest in 2020, when CRT, DEI, and woke took off with the George Floyd protests. Remember, it was Bennet who ran the op-ed, and the Times that forced him to resign.

As Bennet describes in his 2023 account, "The reality is that the Times is becoming the publication through which America’s progressive elite talks to itself about an America that does not really exist."; 8/19/26, 3:49 PM
grimson said...: boatbuilder: On further thought, and getting back to my first comment, Bennet's thoughtcrime was not woke-related, but instead, was part of NYT's antipathy towards all things Trump, plus its *news* division's insistence on not providing him any supportive coverage, even in editorials.

As Bennet further commented, the Times went "from an inclination to favour one side of the national debate to an impulse to shut debate down altogether."; 8/19/26, 4:01 PM
gadfly said...: Restitution is a two-way street. John Long, a retired pig farmer, told The Sunday Times that he was at home on his Colorado farm when he learned that Trump had commuted the sentence of Marian Morgan, who had been serving nearly 34 years in federal prison.

“We had justice and now it’s kind of like … ‘we’re going to let these criminals go out and do it again,’” Long told the newspaper.

Trump commuted Morgan’s sentence to time served on May 28, 2025, according to the Justice Department. The clemency order also liminated any further fines, restitution, probation or other conditions.

Morgan had been resentenced in 2013 to 33 years and nine months in federal prison and ordered to pay $19,958,995 in restitution after being convicted of conspiracy, wire fraud, interstate and foreign transportation of stolen funds, money laundering and filing false tax returns.; 8/19/26, 4:42 PM
Achilles said...: Bret Stephens is one of the thousands of people in the political class that united to ban Trump from social media in 2020/2021.

Everyone that participated and supported banning Trump from all news and social media should be killed or exiled and shipped to China where they belong.; 8/19/26, 5:49 PM
Marcus Bressler said...: Why would we care about what Bret Stephens thinks or writes? He's still a wolf, but trying on sheep's clothing just a bit.; 8/19/26, 5:57 PM
bagoh20 said...: "This is a perfect example of bullshit. Although technically true, it is deceptive and irrelevant."

You can't get around that Democrats do not get held accountable and Republicans do. I also included numerous other examples of the bias of the system, which of course you had to ignore to not face the fact you are part of the dark side - voluntarily.; 8/19/26, 6:28 PM
Mason G said...: "You can't get around that Democrats do not get held accountable and Republicans do."

The left doesn't want to get around it. The left thinks that's the way it should be.; 8/19/26, 6:33 PM
bagoh20 said...: "Trump had commuted the sentence of Marian Morgan..."

Biden people did thousands of these. At least we know who did Trump's pardons. We had unknown, unelected people pardoning whoever they wanted or whoever paid them, exercising a power exclusively held by only 47 people in history. That's unforgivable.; 8/19/26, 6:34 PM
Mason G said...: "That's unforgivable."

The left thinks that's the way it should be.; 8/19/26, 7:18 PM
ForestwithouttreeS said...: I totally agree. This craziness led to Trump.

What about restitution for the rock on the UW campus. Maybe A pet rock?; 8/19/26, 7:26 PM
Aggie said...: We all remember Scott Adam's comments that in America, we are two audiences watching the same movie, but we're each seeing different movies. Many commenters have noted this here, myself included, when we come across this odd phenomenon.

I'm coming around to the idea that this is a feature, not a bug, of American culture. And that this feature is due mostly to the daily twisting of language, distorting words this way and that, to force culture to accept newly-imposed meanings.

Changing the meaning of words and the purpose of language is a time-honored tactic of communist revolution. Maybe if you can get people to hear the same word, and yet interpret it in completely different ways depending on the individual's indoctrination success, maybe you can provoke very different reactions, intellectually and therefore, emotionally.

'Seeing two movies' is a feature, not a bug. It's the desired outcome.; 8/19/26, 7:55 PM
Rocco said...: Jack Klompus Astronaut Pen said...
“I just always tune into the comments on this blog to watch that RC Ocean dude play "Six Degrees of Separation from the Jews" based on whatever the subject is.”

https://x.com/EFischberger/status/2090026717775606121; 8/19/26, 8:04 PM
Mason G said...: "Changing the meaning of words and the purpose of language is a time-honored tactic of communist revolution."

"What is a woman?"; 8/19/26, 8:05 PM
bagoh20 said...: My whole life I never wondered "What is a woman?".
"Where is woman?" popped into my mind daily, and often I ask 'Why is a woman?" But WHAT I was asking about has always been the easy part.; 8/19/26, 8:40 PM
Mason G said...: "My whole life I never wondered "What is a woman?"."

I doubt that most on the left ever really wondered, either. They know. It's just that they are deathly afraid to say so out loud. And not because of how conservatives would react.; 8/19/26, 8:52 PM
Smilin' Jack said...: All men know what a woman is when we see one. The question many of us have tried and fail to answer is, “What do women want?”; 8/19/26, 9:45 PM
Dude1394 said...: Well said. But for some reason democrat communists never have to provide restitution unless they are taken to court. Because they never have to worry about lying for political gain. Never!; 8/19/26, 11:40 PM
n.n said...: Woke like #MeToo, Trans spectrum, DEIsm, etc, were selfie goals.; 8/20/26, 7:25 AM
Olson Johnson is right! said...: Like others I puzzle my brain about the Bennet Cerf tag.; 8/20/26, 8:47 AM
Lazarus said...: The people at the Times who got Bennet axed want Stephens axed as well. Is the column just self-serving claptrap or is there anything more to it than that?

Does "Woke 1.0" mean that other releases of Woke are coming? Any guarantee that they will be better than Woke 1.0? More likely, they'll be worse.; 8/20/26, 8:53 AM