1.
“Adorable Little Detonators,” September 11–24
For New York’s latest cover story, Allison P. Davis asked why children
seem to create an unbridgeable gulf in adult friendships. “That the article has been shared so widely by folks with and without kids suggests that many of us have strong feelings about this — feelings we haven’t necessarily shared with our friends,” HuffPost parenting reporter Marie Holmes wrote. Jessica Grose used the essay as a springboard for a New York Times column: “I read this piece on two levels, the cultural and the personal. As for the cultural, I think when people get into their 30s and 40s and aren’t married and don’t have kids, they’re often judged … That said, the specific details of the Cut essay seem mostly to revolve around failures of manners and communication. A childless friend coming by your apartment and not offering to help with dinner is just rude.” Slate’s Rebecca Onion called the story “tremendous” but advised Davis, “Just wait a few years! The piece focuses specifically on the fact that very young children can be destroyers of friendships, marooning parents and non-parents on opposite sides of a divide, and making chill get-togethers impossible for everyone involved … Small children will not always be small, and they will not always be so demanding.”
2.
“Protecting a Predator”
In a collaboration between ProPublica and New York, reporters Bianca Fortis and Laura Beil investigated how Columbia University ignored years of reports that an OB/GYN was sexually assaulting his patients. The New Yorker’s Paige Williams wrote, “Enraging, stunning. Exceptional reporting. My God, this story.” The New School’s Natalia Mehlman Petrzela said it was an “appalling story of how institutional power and prestige can make individual acts of abuse so much worse.” Former assemblymember Yuh-Line Niou wrote, “Columbia excused and enabled Robert Hadden.” The sports journalist Dvora Meyers tweeted, “Back when I first started reporting on Larry Nassar in 2017, I did a lot of research into doctors who sexually assault patients. The doctors often received institutional protection, even after many patients had come forward.” Morgan Philbin, a former Columbia assistant professor, wrote, “Just one more way that academic institutions perpetuate … violence. The fact that Columbia knew and ignored hundreds of cases of sexual assault from its own employee speaks volumes about who and what it values — spoiler: it’s not women’s health.” Several victims also responded to the report, including Evelyn Yang, who wrote, “Learning the extent of how much Columbia knew, and how much they purposely withheld — it makes me sick. I hope someone steps up and opens a proper investigation. All his patients should be notified. It’s long overdue.” Following the story’s publication, the university’s new president and the medical school’s CEO issued a statement to the public, writing, “Nothing can excuse that these patients were mistreated in a setting where they should have been cared for and safe. We are heartbroken for those who have suffered and continue to suffer from these terrible actions … We offer our deepest apologies to all his victims and their loved ones.” Marissa Hoechstetter, one of Hadden’s victims, responded that the statement was “pathetic” and pointed out that it came “not when we asked for support, not when Hadden was arrested, not when he was on trial the 1st or 2nd time, not even when he was sentenced to 20 yrs in prison — but when they finally got bad press.”
“Peak Badu”
The most recent magazine also included the Cut’s annual “Fall Fashion” issue with an Erykah Badu cover story. @taylordiorr said, “the cut gave us the erykah cover US vogue couldn’t.” Radio host Andy Langer called the profile a “true stunner”: “Two years after @CaseyGerald’s exquisite Leon Bridges … profile made me want to quit writing comes this perfectly constructed meditation” on Badu. For Longreads, Peter Rubin wrote, “If you’ve been fortunate enough to be there while Erykah Badu works her otherworldly magic, Casey Gerald’s profile will remind you why the singer remains so magnetic, even 13 years after her last conventional studio album. (And if you haven’t been so fortunate, the piece’s lede will transport you there.)” BmoreArt’s A. F. Oehmke said, “Gerald didn’t tell me what to think of Badu, but paints a full picture of the singer — the good, the bad, the confusing — so I can decide for myself (although I’m still a little confused).” @TigerSparks31 added, “I know even more, and understand her even less, than I did before.”
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