rgottley

Hi Ezra and Matt,

Thanks for doing this. I’m a big fan of y’all’s work and really appreciated what y’all have done with Vox. I enjoyed Matt’s work at Slate, and y’all made a great hire in Todd Van Der Werff, so it’s been easy to follow those guys over to a new site. So first, thanks for what y’all do, and I look forward to what y’all will be doing with this site in the future.

Since I follow Vox pretty closely I could have number of questions, but I’ll stick to my biggest concern about the publication. Since you started last year, Vox has had an almost entirely unabashed liberal perspective. Matt’s economic writing usually supports Democratic policies and opposes Republicans; the “Obamacare implementation went great and people love it” is a classic of the genre. Vox is also a pretty reliable home of liberal thought on identity politics, and Ezra’s "'Yes Means Yes' is a terrible law, and I completely support it” sticks out here.

I do generally agree with Vox’s political perspective, and I’m as in favor of the old saw that “reality has a well-known liberal bias” as anyone. I also wouldn’t necessarily hold a publication to a requirement for false objectivity — a publication has to make value judgments somewhere. But I think there is some truth to the claims of conservative critics that Vox isn’t so much dedicated to analyzing the roots of public policy as advancing a partisan perspective. I feel this editorial direction could lead to a lot of confirmation of already-held beliefs, and as much as I appreciate my beliefs being confirmed, it could really limit Vox’s wider appeal.

So, how do you respond to criticisms of Vox’s political perspective?

Thanks for the considered, reasoned response. It's clear from this that political perspective is a high priority issue for you, and I'm glad you're taking it seriously. The distinction of Republicans making "messaging more than policy" is a good one, and one I hadn't really considered.

I do have another question for Matt, if you get around to it: how do you defend Kruge as one of the top 10 Star Trek villains? The Search for Spock is easily my least favorite of the movies, and Kruge does very little to improve it.

Thanks a lot for this response. I will try to follow your more substantive stuff more regularly.