Talk:Kevin D. Williamson

Untitled
Hello:

This turned up on my Google alerts today; I'm a little surprised that somebody created a Wikipedia page about me, but I thought I'd send over the relevant stuff:

Kevin D. Williamson (b. 1972) is deputy managing editor of National Review and the author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Socialism, recently published by Regnery, and an upcoming book on the future crisis in American public finance, After Leviathan. He is the theater critic for The New Criterion and an adjunct professor at The King’s College. A native of Lubbock, Texas, Williamson studied literature and linguistics at the University of Texas at Austin before joining the Bombay-based Indian Express newspaper chain in 1996. He has served as editor-in-chief of three newspapers and started a new daily, The Evening Bulletin, in Philadelphia in 2004. After serving as director of the journalism and communications program at the Institute for Humane Studies at George Mason University, he joined National Review in 2008. He covers the national debt and the budget deficit, financial regulation, and economic policy. His work has appeared in Commentary, the New York Post, the New York Daily News, The Daily, and other publications. He is a regular television and radio guest, having appeared on the Glenn Beck Show, the Kudlow Report, the Lou Dobbs Tonight, the CBS Evening News, Red Eye, and others. Williamson resides in the South Bronx.
 * I have tagged the page with autobio because it substantially repeats the above autobiography word for word.  Ogress  smash!  05:56, 3 June 2014 (UTC)

Opinion
It should be noted that many journalists feel that Kevin is not very honest. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 97.122.200.237 (talk) 23:23, 17 March 2016 (UTC)


 * Which journalists? On what issues? In the absence of any supporting cites whatever, and by an anonymous IP editor, this comment is the rhetorical equivalent of a drive-by shooting. If anything, Williamson's problem is that he is brutally honest. --Kent G. Budge (talk) 02:57, 10 April 2018 (UTC)

Controversial Views
I’m not opposed to pointing out his view point on abortion however we either need to create a section on his views in general which shows many of his positions or the relation to his proposed position at the Atlantic. The timing and way it was written does not appear neutral. VergilDen (talk) 09:32, 28 March 2018 (UTC)

It isn't neutral. In an article from 2013, Williamson expressed strong reservations about the death penalty. One tweet from a writer who has written hundreds of columns does not represent his "viewpoint on abortion." The controversy may well be newsworthy and worth including in the article, but it should be presented as a controversy rather than as an actual expression of Williamson's views. 38.142.141.218 (talk) 17:18, 28 March 2018 (UTC)

We really need to fix this. I am hesitant to do it myself, because I believe the relevant section of this article is so profoundly dishonest about William's actual views that I get a little hot just reading it; meaning I'm likely to err in the other direction. Kent G. Budge (talk) 14:29, 20 April 2018 (UTC)

Proposed page move(s)
There are three Kevin Willamsons who are all writers. Therefore I think the current naming is confusing.

Requested move 5 April 2018

 * The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section. 

The result of the move request was: consensus not to move the pages at this time, per the discussion below. Dekimasu よ! 00:57, 11 April 2018 (UTC)

Kevin D. Williamson → ? – With 3 writers of 2 nationalities, it presents numerous opportunities for confusion. 2001:569:7859:2300:B964:246E:6D98:DE7C (talk) 20:06, 5 April 2018 (UTC)

Sorry I'm not sure that I did this right.

I'm proposing that 3 pages be re-named:

Kevin D. Williamson --> Kevin D. Williamson (American author); Kevin Williamson (writer) --> Kevin Williamson (Scottish author); Kevin Williamson (screenwriter) --> Kevin Williamson (American screenwriter)


 * Oppose, per WP:SMALLDETAILS. The "D." is adequate disambiguation. Add The opening should be revised. Whatever Williamson does now, he'll always be known first and foremost as the guy who doesn't write for The Atlantic. Nine Zulu queens (talk) 07:21, 7 April 2018 (UTC)
 * Oppose first per WP:NATURAL. None of the other three people have the middle initial D, so it's virtually impossible that anyone landing on this article will be expecting someone other than this subject. Neutral on second, since the hatnote should be enough. Oppose third per WP:PRECISE because there is no other screenwriter. Station1 (talk) 21:11, 7 April 2018 (UTC)
 * Oppose', for reasons already stated. Any confusion will be cleared up at the dab pages, which includes both KDW and the other three KWs.   Unschool 01:52, 9 April 2018 (UTC)
 * Oppose, agree with Nine Zulu queens that the middle initial makes the name unique enough. — Loadmaster (talk) 17:43, 9 April 2018 (UTC)


 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

Adding material describing one essay
Hi, writing because you've probably seen I just reverted this addition. In general, a single article by a given person does not rise to the level of meriting discussion in their encyclopedia biography unless it has received secondary source commentary. Additionally, even if this did, it's really not clear this would be significant to recounting Williamson's biography--as you know, there's an on-going debate as to whether it is significant even to Jeong's biography. If you're interested in developing this entry, the section on his books could really use some expansion, as could, probably, descriptions of early parts of his career, in the extent that such info is possible to find. The entry def could use improvement; we just need to be sure additions are encyclopedic material, rather than WP:INDISCRIMINATE collection of factoids (e.g. he commented on one thing one time). Innisfree987 (talk) 18:12, 3 August 2018 (UTC)

Fired for...??
Here it says he was fired for his anti-abortion comments. Elsewhere I’ve read it was due to an alleged racial slur he used in a column. So, which was it. Or was it both...??? WisDom-UK (talk) 16:36, 25 September 2020 (UTC)
 * Is there a source that says anything about a slur? I'm skeptical that is revisionist given the Atlantic came under fire for bowing to the crowd on this. Squatch347 (talk) 17:42, 24 November 2021 (UTC)

Education and degree
In Harper's magazine, April 2023 (Letters) Kevin D. Williamson wrote:

"Besides Patrick Deneen's reliably imbecilic misrepresentation of my work at National review, I especially enjoyed his advice that we must open our hearts and concern ourselves with the prospects of those without Ivy League educations. As someone who didn't graduate from college, I always look to former Princeton professors for such insights." 2604:CA00:148:85AF:0:0:6A:4015 (talk) 18:48, 25 March 2023 (UTC)