Bret Stephens

Early life and education

Stephens was born in New York City, the son of Xenia and Charles J. Stephens, a former vice president of General Products, a chemical company in Mexico. Both his parents were secular Jews. His mother was born in Italy at the start of World War II to Jewish parents who had fled Nazi Germany. His paternal grandfather, Louis Ehrlich, was born in 1901 in Kishinev (today Chișinău, Moldova). He fled with his family to New York after the Kishinev pogrom and changed the family surname to Stephens (after poet James Stephens).

Louis Stephens moved to Mexico City, where he founded General Products and built his fortune. He married Annette Margolis and had two sons, Charles and Luis. Charles married Xenia. They moved to Mexico City with their newborn son, Bret, to help run the chemical company, inherited from Louis. Bret was raised there and is fluent in Spanish. As a teenager, he attended boarding school at Middlesex School in Concord, Massachusetts. Stephens earned an undergraduate degree from the University of Chicago, and a degree in comparative politics from the London School of Economics.

Personal life

He is married to Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim, a New York Times music critic. They have three children, and live in New York City. He was previously married to Pamela Paul, the former editor of The New York Times Book Review.

Journalism career

Stephens began his career as an assistant editor at Commentary magazine in 1995–96. In 1998, he joined The Wall Street Journal as an op-ed editor. He later worked as an editorial writer for The Wall Street Journal Europe, in Brussels. Stephens edited the weekly "State of the Union" column on the European Union. In 2002, Stephens moved to Israel to become the editor-in-chief of The Jerusalem Post. He was 28 years old. Haaretz reported at the time that the appointment of Stephens, a non-Israeli, triggered some unease among senior Jerusalem Post management and staff.

Stephens left The Jerusalem Post in 2004 and returned to The Wall Street Journal. In 2006, he took over the Journals "Global View" column. In 2017, Stephens left the Journal, joined The New York Times as an opinion columnist, and began appearing as an on-air contributor to NBC News and MSNBC. In September 2017, he spoke at the Lowy Institute Media Award dinner in Australia on "the dying art of disagreement".-- In 2021, Stephens became editor-in-chief of SAPIR: A Journal of Jewish Conversations, published by Maimonides Fund.

Awards and recognition

In 2005, the World Economic Forum named Stephens a Young Global Leader. He won the 2008 Eric Breindel Award for Excellence in Opinion Journalism. In 2009, he was named deputy editorial page editor after Melanie Kirkpatrick's retirement. In 2010, Stephens won the Reason Foundation's Bastiat Prize.

Stephens won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary for "his incisive columns on American foreign policy and domestic politics, often enlivened by a contrarian twist." He is a national judge of the Livingston Award. In 2015, Stephens joined the Real-Time Academy of Short Form Arts & Sciences. The Real-Time Academy judges contestants for the Shorty Awards, which honor the best individuals and organizations on social media.

Stephens has chaired two Pulitzer juries. In 2016, he chaired the one that awarded the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting to Alyssa Rubin of The New York Times. In 2017, Stephens chaired the jury that awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing to Art Cullen of The Storm Lake Times. Stephens spoke at the University of Chicago's 2023 Class Day, during convocation weekend. His invitation provoked backlash from various student groups, including Students for Justice in Palestine, for his views about Israel.

Published works

Stephens's book America in Retreat: The New Isolationism and the Coming Global Disorder was released in November 2014. In it, he argues that the US has been retreating from its role as the "world's policeman" in recent decades, which will lead to ever-greater world problems.

Controversy

George Washington University

In August 2019, Stephens sent a complaint to a George Washington University (GWU) professor and the university's provost about a tweet in which the professor called Stephens a "bedbug". The topic of Stephens's next column was the "rhetoric of infestation" used by authoritarian regimes such as Nazi Germany. The column was interpreted as criticism of the GWU professor and other critics of Stephens. The controversy gained massive attention online, leading to then-president Donald Trump tweeting, "lightweight journalist Bret Stephens, a Conservative who does anything that his bosses at the paper tell him to do! He is now quitting Twitter after being called a 'bedbug.' Tough guy!"

Comments about antisemitism, race

In August 2016, The Wall Street Journal published a column by Stephens about an Egyptian judoka refusing to shake hands with his Israeli opponent after an Olympic match, in which Stephens called antisemitism "the disease of the Arab mind". Some readers criticized this as a racist generalization that all Arabs were antisemitic. After Stephens joined The New York Times, several reporters at the newspaper criticized Stephens's previous writings.

In a December 2019 column titled "The Secrets of Jewish Genius", in which he contended that Ashkenazi Jews have a history of alternative thinking which has led them to be successful. This article led to accusations of eugenics and racism. The column originally said that "Ashkenazi Jews might have a marginal advantage over their gentile peers when it comes to thinking better. Where their advantage more often lies is in thinking different." Following widespread criticism, The New York Times editors deleted the section of the column in which he appeared to claim that Ashkenazi Jews are genetically superior to other groups. The editors said that Stephens erred in citing an academic study by an author with "racist views" whose 2005 paper advanced a genetic hypothesis for the basis of intelligence among Ashkenazi Jews. The Times's deletion was criticized by Jonathan Haidt, Nadine Strossen, and Steven Pinker, who called it "surrender to an outrage mob".

In February 2021, Stephens wrote a column critical of the Times's dismissal of Donald McNeil for using a racial slur against African Americans in the context of a discussion with students of the slur's usage. Six students present on the occasion said that McNeil had used the word "in a way that they perceived as casual, unnecessary or even gratuitous", but one of them added that "McNeil's opinions didn't disparage African Americans". The Times spiked the column, but it was leaked to the New York Post, which published it. Stephens principally argued against the editor's initial position that the newspaper would "not tolerate racist language regardless of intent"; the editor subsequently backed down from that position.

Political views

Foreign policy

Foreign policy was one of the central subjects of the columns for which Stephens won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary. Critics have characterized his foreign policy opinions as neoconservative, part of a right-wing political movement associated with President George W. Bush that advocates the use of military force abroad, particularly in the Middle East, as a way of promoting democracy there. Stephens was a "prominent voice" among the media advocates for the start of the 2003 Iraq War, for instance writing in a 2002 column that, unless checked, Iraq was likely to become the first nuclear power in the Arab world. Although the weapons of mass destruction used as a casus belli were never shown to exist, Stephens continued to insist as late as 2013 that the Bush administration had "solid evidence" for going to war. He also argued strongly against the Iran nuclear deal and its preliminary agreements, claiming that they are a worse bargain even than the 1938 Munich Agreement with Nazi Germany.

Israel

Stephens is a supporter of Israel and considers himself a Zionist. He said that one of the reasons he left The Wall Street Journal for The Jerusalem Post was that he believed that Western media was getting Israel's story wrong. Stephens also said: "I do not think Israel is the aggressor here. Insofar as getting the story right helps Israel, I guess you could say I'm trying to help Israel." Stephens led The Jerusalem Post during the height of the Second Intifada and pointed the paper in a more neoconservative direction. He has said that he did not consider Israeli settlements in the West Bank to be illegal despite international law saying otherwise.

Stephens has supported Israel during the Gaza war and strongly opposed the Houthis, Hezbollah, and Hamas. He has criticized such groups for their violent actions towards Israel and has blamed Hamas for the ongoing conflict. In an opinion piece for The New York Times, Stephens called South Africa's genocide case against Israel a "moral obscenity" that supposedly misinterpreted quotes from Israeli officials. He pointed to the 1988 Hamas charter to claim that Hamas was a genocidal organization and accused Hamas of hiding behind civilians. Richard Falk called this piece "so extreme, in my view, as to make it unpublishable in a responsible media platform" and stated that calling "recourse to the preeminent judicial body with a conservative legal tradition 'a moral obscenity' is itself 'a moral obscenity. Stephens opposes the characterization of the war as genocide, stating that there is "no evidence of an Israeli plan to deliberately target and kill Gazan civilians."

Global warming

Stephens is also known for his climate change contrarianism. He has been described as a climate change denier, but disavows that term, calling himself agnostic on the issue. Stephens considers climate change a "20-year-old mass hysteria phenomenon" and rejects the notion that greenhouse-gas emissions are an environmental threat. According to him, "it isn't science" and belongs in the "realm of belief" as it is a "sick-souled religion". He also mocks climate change activism as hysterical alarmism, denying that any significant temperature change will occur in the next 100 years and arguing that it distracts from more important issues, such as terrorism. Stephens claims that global warming activism is based on theological beliefs, rather than science, as an outgrowth of Western tendencies to expect punishment for sins.

Stephens has suggested that activists would be more persuasive if they were less sure of their beliefs. Stephens's positions on this issue led to a protest in 2013 over his Pulitzer citation omitting his climate change columns, and to a strong backlash against his 2017 hiring by The New York Times. In reaction, The New York Times praised Stephens's "intellectual honesty and fairness". As of October 28, 2022, Stephens said that he had come to accept the reality of anthropogenic climate change after a trip to Greenland with climate scientist John Englander, although he believes that markets are more effective than government at addressing the problem.

Gun rights

Stephens disagrees with the mainstream conservative support for the Second Amendment and has called for its repeal, but he does not support a ban on gun ownership.

Donald Trump

During the 2016 United States presidential election campaign, Stephens became part of the Stop Trump movement, regularly writing articles for The Wall Street Journal opposing Donald Trump's candidacy, and becoming "one of Trump's most outspoken conservative critics". Stephens has compared Trump to Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. After Trump was elected, Stephens continued to oppose him: in February 2017, Stephens gave the Daniel Pearl Memorial Lecture at the University of California, Los Angeles, and used the platform to denounce Trump's attacks on the media. His opposition to Trump continued after he moved to the Times. For instance, in 2018 he argued that by the same logic Republicans used to justify the impeachment of Bill Clinton, they should impeach Trump.

After the 2024 United States presidential election, Stephens published an opinion article in The New York Times acknowledging his past criticisms and reservations about Trump but concluding, "So here's a thought for Trump's perennial critics, including those of us on the right: Let's enter the new year by wishing the new administration well, by giving some of Trump's cabinet picks the benefit of the doubt, by dropping the lurid historical comparisons to past dictators, by not sounding paranoid about the ever-looming end of democracy, by hoping for the best and knowing that we need to fight the wrongs that are real and not merely what we fear, that whatever happens, this too shall pass."

Published works

• America in Retreat: The New Isolationism and the Coming Global Disorder (November 2014),
• Has Obama Made the World a More Dangerous Place? The Munk Debate on U.S. Foreign Policy (August 2015),
• The Dying Art of Disagreement (December 2017),

References

References

1. Stephens, Bret. (October 20, 2020). "Conversations with friends: New York Times columnist Bret Stephens".
2. Klion, David. (September 24, 2019). "The Conscience of Bret Stephens".
3. Stephens, Bret. (September 15, 2017). "Bret Stephens: Out of the Echo Chamber". [[Real Time with Bill Maher]].
4. Commentary, January 1996 (Volume 101, Issue 1), Unindexed Front Matter.
5. "The Pulitzer Prizes".
6. Hall, Charlotte. (December 24, 2001). "Jerusalem Post Names New Editor". [[Haaretz]].
7. (April 20, 2017). "Everything You Need to Know About Bret Stephens, New York Times' Newest Columnist". [[Haaretz]].
8. (April 20, 2017). "Everything You Need to Know About Bret Stephens, New York Times' Newest Columnist". Haaretz.
9. Concha, Joe. (June 28, 2017). "MSNBC signs conservative columnist Bret Stephens". [[The Hill (newspaper).
10. Stephens, Bret. (September 24, 2017). "Opinion {{!}} The Dying Art of Disagreement". [[The New York Times]].
11. "About {{!}} Sapir Journal".
12. (May 8, 2017). "Bret Stephens - News, Articles, Biography, Photos - WSJ.com".
13. (2013). "2013 Pulitzer Prizes".
14. "Judges – Wallace House".
15. Kalaf, Samar. (March 1, 2019). "Bret Stephens Tried to Teach Me Because I Called Him Remarkably Dumb".
16. "The Wall Street Journal columnist, Bret Stephens, joins the RT Academy!".
17. "The Shorty Awards - Honoring the best of social media".
18. (2016). "Alissa J. Rubin of The New York Times".
19. (2017). "Art Cullen of The Storm Lake Times, Storm Lake, IA".
20. Zeglis, Austin. "The Provocative, Polarizing Prose of 2023 Class Day Speaker Bret Stephens".
21. (August 27, 2019). "A professor called Bret Stephens a 'bedbug.' The New York Times columnist complained to the professor's boss.". [[The Washington Post]].
22. (August 27, 2019). "'Call me a bedbug to my face': New York Times columnist Bret Stephens responds to professor". [[USA Today]].
23. Knowles, Hannah. (August 31, 2019). "Bret Stephens 'bedbugs' spat: Times writer's latest column links phrase to Nazi rhetoric during Holocaust". [[The Washington Post]].
24. Papenfuss, Mary. (August 31, 2019). "Stunned Twitter Critics Swat Bret Stephens' Bedbug Link To Nazis In NYT Column".
25. Ho, Vivian. (August 31, 2019). "Bret Stephens criticized for bedbug reference in second world war column". [[The Guardian]].
26. (August 28, 2019). "At Long Last, Trump Weighs In on Bret Stephens Bedbug Controversy".
27. Trump, Donald. (August 28, 2019). "'The infestation of bedbugs at the New York Times office' @OANN was perhaps brought in by lightweight journalist Bret Stephens, a Conservative who does anything that his bosses at the paper tell him to do! He is now quitting Twitter after being called a 'bedbug.' Tough guy!".
28. Stephens, Bret. (August 15, 2016). "The Meaning of an Olympic Snub". [[The Wall Street Journal]].
29. Bowden, John. (April 26, 2017). "NYT columnist defends his 'disease of the Arab mind' comments".
30. Stephens, Bret. (December 28, 2019). "The Secrets of Jewish Genius". [[The New York Times]].
31. Helmore, Edward. (December 28, 2019). "New York Times columnist accused of eugenics over piece on Jewish intelligence". [[The Guardian]].
32. Dorman, Sam. (December 28, 2019). "The New York Times' Bret Stephens faces racism accusations after penning 'Jewish genius' column".
33. (December 30, 2019). "NYT cuts dubious study from op-ed seemingly arguing Jewish genetic superiority". [[Times of Israel]].
34. Ingram, Matthew. (January 2, 2020). "The dilemma that is Times columnist Bret Stephens". [[Columbia University]].
35. (May 14, 2020). "The New York Times Surrendered to an Outrage Mob. Journalism Will Suffer For It.".
36. (February 9, 2021). "What happened with New York Times reporter Donald McNeil?". [[The Washington Post]].
37. Flood, Brian. (February 11, 2021). "New York Times refuses to run Bret Stephens column critical of paper's leadership". [[Fox News]].
38. (February 11, 2021). "NYT Editor Retracts Racial Slur Standard Used to Justify McNeil Ouster: 'Of Course Intent Matters'". [[The National Review]].
39. (February 11, 2021). "Read the column the New York Times didn't want you to see". [[New York Post]].
40. (April 13, 2017). "WSJ's Bret Stephens Weighs In On Israel, the Media & Trump".
41. Pazzanese, Christina. (2024-05-01). "Bret Stephens: Cease-fire will fail as long as Hamas exists".
42. "Bloggingheads.tv".
43. Stephens, Bret. (2024-10-08). "Opinion {{!}} We Should Want Israel to Win". The New York Times.
44. (16 January 2024). "The Genocide Charge Against Israel Is a Moral Obscenity".
45. (17 January 2024). "Why International Law Matters even if Israel Refuses to Comply with ICJ Priovisional Measures Ruling".
46. Stephens, Bret. (2025-07-22). "No, Israel Is Not Committing Genocide in Gaza".
47. Roberts, David. (May 1, 2017). "The New York Times should not have hired climate change bullshitter Bret Stephens".
48. Stephens, Bret. (October 28, 2022). "Yes, Greenland's ice is melting, but...". [[New York Times]].
49. Cooke, Charles C. W.. (October 5, 2017). "Bret Stephens Indeed Does Not Understand the Second Amendment".
50. Concha, Joe. (October 5, 2017). "NYT conservative Bret Stephens: 'Repeal the Second Amendment'".
51. -Stephens, Bret. (August 22, 2018). "Donald Trump's High Crimes and Misdemeanors". [[The New York Times]].
52. Stephens, Bret. (December 17, 2024). "Done With Never Trump". [[The New York Times]].
53. Corneliussen, Steven T.. (April 17, 2013). "Bret Stephens, harsh Wall Street Journal critic of climate scientists, wins Pulitzer Prize: The award recognizes only certain columns from 2012, none reflecting his climate-wars participation".
54. (April 12, 2017). "Bret Stephens Joins NYT Opinion". [[The New York Times]] Company.
55. Johansen, Bruce E.. (2009). "The Encyclopedia of Global Warming Science and Technology". ABC-CLIO.
56. Stephens, Bret. (June 26, 2009). "Being Bret Stephens -- Or Not". [[The Wall Street Journal]].
57. da Fonseca-Wollheim, Corinna. (March 20, 2012). "Prelude and Fugue".
58. Walt, Stephen M.. (June 20, 2014). "Being a Neocon Means Never Having to Say You're Sorry".
59. (April 17, 2017). "New York Times hire of conservative scribe Bret Stephens seen as move to widen readership". [[Fox News]].
60. Nuccitelli, Dana. (April 29, 2017). "NY Times hired a hippie puncher to give climate obstructionists cover". [[The Guardian]].
61. Mann, Michael E.. (2013). "The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars: Dispatches from the Front Lines". [[Columbia University Press]].
62. Reisman, Sam. (May 29, 2016). "WSJ's Bret Stephens: Trump Must Lose So Badly That the GOP Voters 'Learn Their Lesson'". [[Mediaite]].
63. Chait, Jonathan. (August 22, 2016). "The Neocons Have Gone From GOP Thought-Leaders to Outcasts".
64. (September 20, 1998). "Weddings; Pamela Paul, Bret Stephens". [[The New York Times]].
65. [https://www.pulitzer.org/citation/2013-Commentary "The 2013 Pulitzer Prize Winners: Commentary"]. The Pulitzer Prizes. Retrieved November 17, 2013. With short biography and reprints of ten works (''WSJ'' articles January 24 to December 11, 2012).
66. Hale, Benjamin. (2016). "The Wild and the Wicked: On Nature and Human Nature". [[MIT Press]].
67. Stephens, Bret. (June 26, 2009). "Being Bret Stephens – Or Not". [[The Wall Street Journal]].
68. (August 12, 2009). "Wall Street Journal Editorial Page Appoints Key Editors for Its International Editions".
69. Matthews, Susan. (April 30, 2017). "Bret Stephens' First Column for the New York Times Is Classic Climate Change Denialism". [[Slate (magazine).
70. Rozsa, Matthew. (May 4, 2017). "Climate scientists unite against New York Times columnist Bret Stephens: The Times' climate-denying columnist made an error in his first column". [[Salon.com]].
71. (April 13, 2017). "From The Iraq War To Climate Change To Sexual Assault, NY Times' New Op-Ed Columnist, Bret Stephens, Is A Serial Misinformer".
72. Stephens, Bret. (February 26, 2017). "Don't Dismiss President Trump's Attacks on the Media as Mere Stupidity".
73. (April 15, 2017). "Hiring Another Anti-Trump Voice Expands Opinions Represented In Paper, New York Times Says: Bret Stephens won over progressive critics of the president, but his climate change views have sparked backlash.".