Ruth Barrett: How can we miss her if she won’t go away?

March 5, 2022 4:27 PM

Journalist Ruth Shalit Barrett sues The Atlantic. “Ruth Shalit Barrett, the freelance writer whose widely read 2020 story the Atlantic retracted after saying it had lost confidence in her credibility, is suing the magazine for $1 million in damages. She alleges that the retraction of the article and a lengthy editor’s note that disavowed her and mentioned incidents of plagiarism in her past “destroyed her reputation and career.””

Backstory

posted by Ideefixe (31 comments total)

That backstory is vintage nineties in its breathtaking sexism. "Frilly socks"? I mean really.
posted by laconic titan at 4:42 PM on March 5, 2022 [2 favorites]

Hmmm. I would suggest that the title here ("How can we miss her if she won't go away") runs far too close to sneering contempt for my comfort; I would prefer to see posts presented without editorial framing. Thankee.
posted by jokeefe at 5:11 PM on March 5, 2022 [9 favorites]

Looks like her last name is Barrett, not Bartlett.
posted by Flock of Cynthiabirds at 5:50 PM on March 5, 2022 [1 favorite]

Mod note: Fixed that spelling issue.
posted by cortex (staff) at 5:55 PM on March 5, 2022 [1 favorite]

You fixed it in the title, but the name is still misspelled in the link.
posted by Strutter Cane - United Planets Stilt Patrol at 5:57 PM on March 5, 2022

Mod note: Everything's coming up Milhouse today. Should be good now.
posted by cortex (staff) at 6:00 PM on March 5, 2022 [2 favorites]

I wonder if her "conservative" background is causing additional bias?

But, she was caught for impropriety - and after 20 (twenty!) years she was invited to write again. And she straight up confabulates. Again.

This isn't twigging any empathy from me.
posted by porpoise at 6:10 PM on March 5, 2022 [15 favorites]

The Atlantic article previously on MeFi.
posted by rewil at 6:45 PM on March 5, 2022 [2 favorites]

I just can't find it in me to care about the perceived grievance or this writer either.
posted by djseafood at 6:55 PM on March 5, 2022 [7 favorites]

I think the real story here is why The Atlantic stepped in it like this. Giving a writer a second chance? Ok, nice, but she's not such a great writer that it's a prize to have one of her pieces. Not doing extra legwork on fact checking a known plagiarist to whom you're giving a second chance? Idiocy. Little to gain, lots to lose here, and the underlying odour that's followed the Shalits around their whole lives is class privilege--connections, education, freedom from consequences, which seems like unspoken answer here as to why the Atlantic did it.
posted by fatbird at 7:18 PM on March 5, 2022 [32 favorites]

"infamous fiction writer Stephen Glass" is quite a turn of phrase, huh
posted by wesleyac at 7:21 PM on March 5, 2022 [4 favorites]

There is a website called Plagiarism Today? (Also, why is 'plagiarism' spelled like that?)
posted by latkes at 7:31 PM on March 5, 2022

So it doesn't turn up on searches when the prof goes looking for it.
posted by bonehead at 7:33 PM on March 5, 2022 [10 favorites]

I'm particularly fascinated by the "backstory" link. It's backbitey and gossipy and annoying; it's also a portrait of a vanished world. Where is that entire scene for young reporters now; where's the money, the possibility, the frivolity? Gone with Nineveh and Tyre. These journalists were not people who were prepared to understand that there would be rallies full of Americans wearing T-shirts suggesting they should be hanged.
posted by Countess Elena at 7:35 PM on March 5, 2022 [17 favorites]

yah, remember when media had those well-staffed fact checkers? You know, the peeps who kept the entire world straight? I think they fell by the wayside about the same time that desk-top publishing became a thing.

Anyway, that's when I started noticing a lot of typos.
posted by valkane at 8:17 PM on March 5, 2022 [11 favorites]

Maybe she could write a story about Anthony Weiner's comeback radio show ?
posted by NoThisIsPatrick at 8:18 PM on March 5, 2022 [1 favorite]

The backstory was written by none other than the late, great David Carr who we eulogized here in 2015.
posted by octothorpe at 4:23 AM on March 6, 2022 [4 favorites]

I wonder if her "conservative" background is causing additional bias?

This is a person who wrote a 13,000 word piece on, to quote this piece about its inaccuracies, "The gist of Shalit's argument is that, in the name of diversity, The Post has lowered its hiring standards and softened its coverage of the black community."

You don't have to put conservative in quotes.
posted by warriorqueen at 4:25 AM on March 6, 2022 [13 favorites]

Shalit was hired when the notorious racist Andrew Sullivan was running The New Republic.
posted by octothorpe at 4:45 AM on March 6, 2022 [9 favorites]

I thought I remembered a similar piece that went into Shalit's career background and yes, here it is. (It makes the good point that she's not, like, unique by any means.)
posted by warriorqueen at 4:53 AM on March 6, 2022 [1 favorite]

"bending over backwards to make sure every piece I write is clean as a whistle.”

I see how THAT worked out. I was a journalist for only 2 years, was younger than her in this Cloud article, and could still manage to not plagiarize. It's not that fucking hard to avoid.
posted by jenfullmoon at 6:24 AM on March 6, 2022 [10 favorites]

The Carr aritcle is full of delightful snark. "Linguistic kleptomania!"

“I can’t trust her on a personal level. I walked into a party and heard her just chatting away about her editor’s deepest personal secrets.”

Then there's her on herself: "My rise was probably quickened by the fact that I was a young woman who wore short skirts and lipstick." Barf. "Because she's young and hot," that's the argument here?

“Ruth is not worth being an enemy of anymore. She is dead as far as Washington journalism goes,” says one longtime acquaintance. (Yeah. Sure.)" LOL.

"I have been jerked around by a fading ingénue with no juice and few allies."
"When we talk, it’s Rodan battling Godzilla, two versions of journalistic cons who should probably both go flying off the cliff. She is a lot more crazy-making than crazy, if you ask me."
posted by jenfullmoon at 6:35 AM on March 6, 2022 [3 favorites]

For those as intrigued by such stories as I am, you can find Shalit's full court filing against the Atlantic here. It's particularly interesting read in conjunction with the Washington Post's criticism of the magazine for poor fact-checking of the sports piece and obscuring the writer's identity.

PS. I think the header on this post is deliciously appropriate.
posted by rpfields at 11:39 AM on March 6, 2022 [2 favorites]

latkes: "There is a website called Plagiarism Today? (Also, why is 'plagiarism' spelled like that?)"

Is there some other way to spell it?
posted by chavenet at 12:16 PM on March 6, 2022 [5 favorites]

No! I just noticed it is spelled like that!
posted by latkes at 2:02 PM on March 6, 2022 [5 favorites]

This story is so fascinating. I love stories about plagiarism, for some reason.

Woof, though, the writing in that first story: “After her graduation from Princeton University in 1992, she earned a reputation as a journalist that could write compelling and entertaining stories for readers.” For…readers, you say?
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 3:21 PM on March 6, 2022 [5 favorites]

"Masking errors." So lies then, right? Errors makes it sound unintentional.
posted by ActingTheGoat at 9:25 PM on March 6, 2022

Yeah, it seems really obvious to me that she just enjoys getting attention and making shit up, but not so much getting caught at it.
posted by jenfullmoon at 10:29 PM on March 6, 2022 [4 favorites]

From the 1995 piece that warriorqueen posted:

Her quick escalation from an intern in the playpen of Republican causes to the putatively unbiased journalism world underlines just how squishy the boundaries of objectivity have become.

Not unique indeed - this reminds me of Bari Weiss, elevated as the NYTs pet conservative opinion columnist extraordinarily young.
posted by JoeBlubaugh at 5:11 AM on March 7, 2022 [6 favorites]

yah, remember when media had those well-staffed fact checkers? You know, the peeps who kept the entire world straight? I think they fell by the wayside about the same time that desk-top publishing became a thing.

Anyway, that's when I started noticing a lot of typos.

Correction: In an earlier comment, this MeFi thread attributed the increase in typographical errors to the reduction in fact-checker staffing. In fact, it is copy editors who are primarily responsible for preventing typographical errors. Fact checkers are tasked with, as their title suggests, ensuring factual accuracy. We apologise for the fault in the comments. Those responsible have been sacked. Mynd you, møøse bites Kan be pretty nasti...
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 6:37 AM on March 7, 2022 [17 favorites]

I'm still stuck on the part where the 10-year-old isn't in the popular group so she tells Mom it's not working and she needs to switch schools. And we're all supposed to identify with that.
posted by queensissy at 1:25 PM on March 7, 2022 [5 favorites]