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''The New Republic'''s owner, [[Marty Peretz]], appointed Lane as editor in 1997 after firing then-editor [[Michael Kelly (editor)|Michael Kelly]]. Kelly had published a series of articles that Peretz felt were too critical of President [[Bill Clinton]] and his Vice President, [[Al Gore]]. Gore had been a student of Peretz's at Harvard, and the two men remained close friends afterwards. Peretz was reported to be upset that Kelly often ignored his demands to write more pro-Gore articles and editorials in the magazine, especially as Gore was embarking on a presidential run of his own, with Clinton's second term about to end.<ref>{{cite news|last=Pogrebin|first=Robin|title=New Republic Editor Dismissed Over Criticism|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1997/09/06/arts/new-republic-editor-dismissed-over-criticism.html|access-date=2 July 2012|newspaper=The New York Times|date=6 September 1997}}</ref>
''The New Republic'''s owner, [[Marty Peretz]], appointed Lane as editor in 1997 after firing then-editor [[Michael Kelly (editor)|Michael Kelly]]. Kelly had published a series of articles that Peretz felt were too critical of President [[Bill Clinton]] and his Vice President, [[Al Gore]]. Gore had been a student of Peretz's at Harvard, and the two men remained close friends afterwards. Peretz was reported to be upset that Kelly often ignored his demands to write more pro-Gore articles and editorials in the magazine, especially as Gore was embarking on a presidential run of his own, with Clinton's second term about to end.<ref>{{cite news|last=Pogrebin|first=Robin|title=New Republic Editor Dismissed Over Criticism|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1997/09/06/arts/new-republic-editor-dismissed-over-criticism.html|access-date=2 July 2012|newspaper=The New York Times|date=6 September 1997}}</ref>


In 1998, one of the worst journalistic scandals in contemporary American history arose at ''The New Republic'' when fabricated reporting by a staff writer, [[Stephen Glass (reporter)|Stephen Glass]], was discovered. Lane fired Glass.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.forbes.com/1998/05/11/otw3.html | work=Forbes | title=Lies, damn lies and fiction | date=11 May 1998 | first=Adam L. | last=Penenberg}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://prospect.org/article/my-marty-peretz-problem-and-ours|title=The New Republic Was In Trouble Long Before Chris Hughes Bought It|work=The American Prospect}}</ref>
In 1998, one of the worst journalistic scandals in contemporary American history arose at ''The New Republic'' when fabricated reporting by a staff writer, [[Stephen Glass (reporter)|Stephen Glass]], was discovered. Lane fired Glass.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.forbes.com/1998/05/11/otw3.html | work=Forbes | title=Lies, damn lies and fiction | date=11 May 1998 | first=Adam L. | last=Penenberg}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://prospect.org/article/my-marty-peretz-problem-and-ours|title=The New Republic Was In Trouble Long Before Chris Hughes Bought It|work=The American Prospect}}</ref> Peretz, in turn then fired Lane, complaining that Lane should have discovered Glass's fraud earlier. Peretz replaced Lane with [[Peter Beinart]]. Lane reportedly learned of his firing from the media before he heard about it from Peretz.<ref>{{cite news|last=Elder|first=Sean|title=The new kid at the New Republic|url=http://www.salon.com/1999/12/01/media_13/|access-date=2 July 2012|newspaper=Salon|date=1 December 1999}}</ref>


The Glass fabrications constituted "the greatest scandal in the magazine's history and marked a decade of waning influence and mounting financial losses," ''[[The New York Times]]'' would later report.<ref name="not sorry">{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/30/magazine/30Peretz-t.html | work=The New York Times | first=Stephen | last=Rodrick | title=Martin Peretz Is Not Sorry. About Anything | date=2011-01-24}}</ref>
The Glass fabrications constituted "the greatest scandal in the magazine's history and marked a decade of waning influence and mounting financial losses," ''[[The New York Times]]'' would later report.<ref name="not sorry">{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/30/magazine/30Peretz-t.html | work=The New York Times | first=Stephen | last=Rodrick | title=Martin Peretz Is Not Sorry. About Anything | date=2011-01-24}}</ref> Explaining why it took so long to catch Glass's fraud, Peretz blamed both Kelly and Lane, who had supervised and edited Glass, for not catching the fraud earlier. Lane, Peretz claimed, ignored obvious warning signs of the fabrication, and then attempted to unfairly lay the blame to his predecessor, Kelly. Peretz angrily said that Lane's alleged inaction "sullied the good name of the ''New Republic''. Peretz subsequently fired Lane."<ref name="Stopping SG">{{cite news | url= http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/003/311bcigd.asp | title= Stopping Stephen Glass | first= Jonathan V. | last = Last | work= [[The Weekly Standard]] | date= 30 October 2003 | access-date= 2012-09-11 }}</ref> According to an account in the ''[[American Prospect]]'', "Lane got the news [of his firing] from a ''Washington Post'' reporter who called to inquire about his future plans."<ref name=Alterman>{{cite magazine
|url = http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=my_marty_peretz_problem_and_ours
|title = My Marty Peretz Problem -- And Ours
|author-link = Eric Alterman
|last = Alterman
|first = Eric
|date = 2007-06-18
|access-date = 2010-09-22
|magazine = [[The American Prospect]]
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20101222215328/http://prospect.org/cs/articles?article=my_marty_peretz_problem_and_ours
|archive-date = 22 December 2010
|url-status = dead
}}</ref>


After his departure from the ''New Republic'', Lane became an editorial writer for ''The Washington Post''. Later, Lane covered the Supreme Court for the ''Post'', before then rejoining the ''Post's'' editorial board in 2007. During his second stint on the newspaper's editorial board, Lane wrote primarily about fiscal and economic policy.<ref name="Charles Lane"/>
After his firing as editor of the ''New Republic'', Lane became an editorial writer for ''The Washington Post''. Later, Lane covered the Supreme Court for the ''Post'', before then rejoining the ''Post's'' editorial board in 2007. During his second stint on the newspaper's editorial board, Lane wrote primarily about fiscal and economic policy.<ref name="Charles Lane"/>


Lane has also taught journalism part-time at [[Georgetown University]] in Washington, DC and at [[Princeton University]].<ref name="Bio - Charles Lane"/>
Lane has also taught journalism part-time at [[Georgetown University]] in Washington, DC and at [[Princeton University]].<ref name="Bio - Charles Lane"/>
Line 32: Line 44:
In 2008 Lane published ''[[The Day Freedom Died: The Colfax Massacre, the Supreme Court, and the Betrayal of Reconstruction]]'', about the [[Colfax massacre|Colfax massacre of 1873]] in [[Louisiana]] of blacks by white militia, including the murder of surrendered prisoners.{{citation needed|date=May 2020}}
In 2008 Lane published ''[[The Day Freedom Died: The Colfax Massacre, the Supreme Court, and the Betrayal of Reconstruction]]'', about the [[Colfax massacre|Colfax massacre of 1873]] in [[Louisiana]] of blacks by white militia, including the murder of surrendered prisoners.{{citation needed|date=May 2020}}


== Controversies ==


In 2009, in an article appearing in the ''Post'' entitled "Medical Marijuana Is An Insult to Our Intelligence," Lane belittled a woman named Angel Raich, who was a plaintiff in a Supreme Court case claiming a right to [[medical marijuana]].<ref name="WP09">{{cite news| url=http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2009/10/medical_marijuana_is_an_insult.html | newspaper=The Washington Post | title=Medical marijuana is an insult to our intelligence|date=October 20, 2009|last=Lane|first=Charles}}</ref> Lane wrote of Raich that she "might consider a consultation for hypochondria, or perhaps marijuana dependency." Lane subsequently published both a clarification to the article which explained that Raich was "about to undergo an operation to reduce her [[Schwannoma]], which is a benign brain tumor" and that Raich told him that her "chronic weight loss due to an inability to keep food down -- was life-threatening."<ref name="WP09"/>

In 2010, Lane was again the subject of criticism for comments he made about overweight or obese people. In a blog post in the ''Post'', he attempted to discredit an Agriculture Department study which concluded that millions of Americans faced hunger or "food insecurity."<ref name="The Washington Post">{{cite news| url=http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2009/11/are_americans_really_food_inse.html | newspaper=The Washington Post | title=Are Americans really 'food insecure'?}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=2010-10-15|title=Charles Lane, The Washington Post's Unsung Champion Of The Rich And Powerful|url=https://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/339522/charles-lane-the-washington-posts-unsung-free-market-fanboy/|access-date=2020-10-14|website=Washington City Paper|language=en-US}}</ref> In the blog post, Lane wrote: "Adults are asked if they ever lost weight due to a lack of food money -- but not how much weight, or what they weighed before. In theory, a 300-pound man who lost a pound could count as 'food insecure.'" Lane wrote that "it is a tribute to the abundance of the United States, and to the safety net, public and private," that more Americans were not "food insecure." or didn't have enough to eat.<ref name="The Washington Post"/>

In 2011, Lane wrote that he hoped that Democratic Congresswoman [[Gabby Giffords]], who was unable to speak as a result of having been shot in the head a few weeks earlier, would speak out against union workers in Wisconsin if she "could speak normally".<ref>{{cite news | url=http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2011/02/tyranny_in_wisconsin_part_4.html | title=Tyranny in Wisconsin, Part 4 | newspaper=The Washington Post | access-date=2011-02-21 }}</ref> Lane's statement was criticized by some as exploitative and insensitive. Stephen Bennen commented in the ''[[Washington Monthly]]'': "Keep in mind, Charles Lane isn't some Fox News personality. I've seen him publish a variety of worthwhile commentaries in recent years. But reading this, I can't imagine what he was thinking."<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2011_02/028093.php | title=The Wrong Lane | publisher=Washington Monthly | access-date=2011-02-21 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=http://wonkette.com/438941/helpful-washington-post-op-ed-columnist-tells-us-what-gabrielle-giffords-would-think-about-wisconsin | title=Helpful WaPo Columnist Tells Us What Giffords Would Think About Wisconsin | date=22 February 2011 | publisher= Wonkette | access-date=2011-03-02 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url= http://www.vanityfair.com/online/wolcott/2011/02/yes-i-know-ive-been.html | title=Lost Weekend | date=21 February 2011 | publisher= Vanity Fair| access-date=2011-03-02}}</ref>


==Popular culture==
==Popular culture==

Revision as of 10:09, 23 April 2022

For other people named Charles Lane, see Charles Lane (disambiguation).

Charles Lane
Born1961 (age 62–63)
EducationHarvard University (AB)
Yale University (MLS)
OccupationJournalist
Children3

Charles "Chuck" Lane (born 1961) is an American journalist and editor who is an editorial writer for The Washington Post and a regular guest on the Fox News Channel. He was the editor of The New Republic from 1997 to 1999. During that tenure, Lane oversaw, in large part, the work of Stephen Glass, a staff reporter who fabricated significant portions or all of some 41 articles, in one of the largest fabrication scandals of contemporary American journalism. After leaving the New Republic, Lane went to work for the Post, where, from 2000 to 2007, he covered the Supreme Court of the United States[1][2] and issues related to the criminal justice system and judicial matters. He has since joined the newspaper's editorial page, where he currently works. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.[3]

Early life and education

Born to a Jewish family[4] in 1961, Lane attended Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School, where he was managing editor of the school newspaper, The Tattler. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in social studies from Harvard University in 1983.[5] As a Knight Fellow, he earned a Master of Legal Studies from Yale Law School in 1997.[6]

Career

Lane is a former foreign correspondent for Newsweek and served briefly as the magazine's Berlin bureau chief. For his coverage in Newsweek of the former Yugoslavia, Lane earned a Citation of Excellence from the Overseas Press Club."[7]

The New Republic's owner, Marty Peretz, appointed Lane as editor in 1997 after firing then-editor Michael Kelly. Kelly had published a series of articles that Peretz felt were too critical of President Bill Clinton and his Vice President, Al Gore. Gore had been a student of Peretz's at Harvard, and the two men remained close friends afterwards. Peretz was reported to be upset that Kelly often ignored his demands to write more pro-Gore articles and editorials in the magazine, especially as Gore was embarking on a presidential run of his own, with Clinton's second term about to end.[8]

In 1998, one of the worst journalistic scandals in contemporary American history arose at The New Republic when fabricated reporting by a staff writer, Stephen Glass, was discovered. Lane fired Glass.[9][10] Peretz, in turn then fired Lane, complaining that Lane should have discovered Glass's fraud earlier. Peretz replaced Lane with Peter Beinart. Lane reportedly learned of his firing from the media before he heard about it from Peretz.[11]

The Glass fabrications constituted "the greatest scandal in the magazine's history and marked a decade of waning influence and mounting financial losses," The New York Times would later report.[12] Explaining why it took so long to catch Glass's fraud, Peretz blamed both Kelly and Lane, who had supervised and edited Glass, for not catching the fraud earlier. Lane, Peretz claimed, ignored obvious warning signs of the fabrication, and then attempted to unfairly lay the blame to his predecessor, Kelly. Peretz angrily said that Lane's alleged inaction "sullied the good name of the New Republic. Peretz subsequently fired Lane."[13] According to an account in the American Prospect, "Lane got the news [of his firing] from a Washington Post reporter who called to inquire about his future plans."[14]

After his firing as editor of the New Republic, Lane became an editorial writer for The Washington Post. Later, Lane covered the Supreme Court for the Post, before then rejoining the Post's editorial board in 2007. During his second stint on the newspaper's editorial board, Lane wrote primarily about fiscal and economic policy.[3]

Lane has also taught journalism part-time at Georgetown University in Washington, DC and at Princeton University.[6]

In 2008 Lane published The Day Freedom Died: The Colfax Massacre, the Supreme Court, and the Betrayal of Reconstruction, about the Colfax massacre of 1873 in Louisiana of blacks by white militia, including the murder of surrendered prisoners.[citation needed]

Controversies

In 2009, in an article appearing in the Post entitled "Medical Marijuana Is An Insult to Our Intelligence," Lane belittled a woman named Angel Raich, who was a plaintiff in a Supreme Court case claiming a right to medical marijuana.[15] Lane wrote of Raich that she "might consider a consultation for hypochondria, or perhaps marijuana dependency." Lane subsequently published both a clarification to the article which explained that Raich was "about to undergo an operation to reduce her Schwannoma, which is a benign brain tumor" and that Raich told him that her "chronic weight loss due to an inability to keep food down -- was life-threatening."[15]

In 2010, Lane was again the subject of criticism for comments he made about overweight or obese people. In a blog post in the Post, he attempted to discredit an Agriculture Department study which concluded that millions of Americans faced hunger or "food insecurity."[16][17] In the blog post, Lane wrote: "Adults are asked if they ever lost weight due to a lack of food money -- but not how much weight, or what they weighed before. In theory, a 300-pound man who lost a pound could count as 'food insecure.'" Lane wrote that "it is a tribute to the abundance of the United States, and to the safety net, public and private," that more Americans were not "food insecure." or didn't have enough to eat.[16]

In 2011, Lane wrote that he hoped that Democratic Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, who was unable to speak as a result of having been shot in the head a few weeks earlier, would speak out against union workers in Wisconsin if she "could speak normally".[18] Lane's statement was criticized by some as exploitative and insensitive. Stephen Bennen commented in the Washington Monthly: "Keep in mind, Charles Lane isn't some Fox News personality. I've seen him publish a variety of worthwhile commentaries in recent years. But reading this, I can't imagine what he was thinking."[19][20][21]

The 1998 journalism scandal at The New Republic was the subject of the 2003 film Shattered Glass. Lane was portrayed by actor Peter Sarsgaard.[22] Lane himself appears on the commentary on the DVD, alongside writer and director Billy Ray. After the film was released, Lane was interviewed by Terry Gross in an episode of Fresh Air.[23][24]

In 2003, Glass published a biographical novel entitled The Fabulist about his career of journalistic fabrication. A character named "Robert Underwood" was a significant figure in the novel and interpreted as a fictionalized version of Lane. Reviewing the book for The Washington Post, writer and critic Chris Lehmann wrote that the Underwood character "is meant to induce in-the-know readers to think poorly of Charles Lane." Glass wrote of Lane/Underwood: "Underwood is a domineering, macho control freak. Glass's idea of meting out punishment to this fictional alter ego of his former boss is to impugn his masculinity; even as his office reeks with 'the hairy-chested smell of a man rising to the occasion.'"[25]

Personal life

Lane is married to a German immigrant from the former East Berlin. They have three children.[4]

Notes

  1. ^ Lane, Charles. "Full Court Press". The Washington Post. Retrieved 19 October 2007.
  2. ^ "Washington Post Is Now Chuck Lane's Show". wonkette.com. 16 February 2010.
  3. ^ a b "Charles Lane". The Washington Post. Retrieved 14 October 2020.
  4. ^ a b Charles, Charles (30 May 2017). "Why I shed tears this Memorial Day". The Washington Post.
  5. ^ "Charles Lane". Washington Post. Retrieved 4 March 2021.
  6. ^ a b "Bio - Charles Lane". charlesmarklane.com. Retrieved 9 October 2020.
  7. ^ "Crimes of War Project The Book – Contributors". The Crimes of War Project. Archived from the original on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 19 October 2007.
  8. ^ Pogrebin, Robin (6 September 1997). "New Republic Editor Dismissed Over Criticism". The New York Times. Retrieved 2 July 2012.
  9. ^ Penenberg, Adam L. (11 May 1998). "Lies, damn lies and fiction". Forbes.
  10. ^ "The New Republic Was In Trouble Long Before Chris Hughes Bought It". The American Prospect.
  11. ^ Elder, Sean (1 December 1999). "The new kid at the New Republic". Salon. Retrieved 2 July 2012.
  12. ^ Rodrick, Stephen (24 January 2011). "Martin Peretz Is Not Sorry. About Anything". The New York Times.
  13. ^ Last, Jonathan V. (30 October 2003). "Stopping Stephen Glass". The Weekly Standard. Retrieved 11 September 2012.
  14. ^ Alterman, Eric (18 June 2007). "My Marty Peretz Problem -- And Ours". The American Prospect. Archived from the original on 22 December 2010. Retrieved 22 September 2010.
  15. ^ a b Lane, Charles (20 October 2009). "Medical marijuana is an insult to our intelligence". The Washington Post.
  16. ^ a b "Are Americans really 'food insecure'?". The Washington Post.
  17. ^ "Charles Lane, The Washington Post's Unsung Champion Of The Rich And Powerful". Washington City Paper. 15 October 2010. Retrieved 14 October 2020.
  18. ^ "Tyranny in Wisconsin, Part 4". The Washington Post. Retrieved 21 February 2011.
  19. ^ "The Wrong Lane". Washington Monthly. Retrieved 21 February 2011.
  20. ^ "Helpful WaPo Columnist Tells Us What Giffords Would Think About Wisconsin". Wonkette. 22 February 2011. Retrieved 2 March 2011.
  21. ^ "Lost Weekend". Vanity Fair. 21 February 2011. Retrieved 2 March 2011.
  22. ^ "Shattered Glass (2003) - Cast - IMDb". IMDb.com. IMDb, Inc. Retrieved 4 September 2020.
  23. ^ "Former Editor of 'The New Republic' Charles Lane". NPR.org. Retrieved 4 March 2021.
  24. ^ Gonzalez, Ed (20 November 2003). "VIDEODVD Review: Shattered Glass". slantmagazine.com. Slant Magazine. Retrieved 4 September 2020.
  25. ^ Lehmann, Chris (13 May 2003). "Stephen Glass's Novel, More Than Half Empty". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 18 September 2012.
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