Nick Cohen

[[File:Eustonmanifestolaunch (Cohen cropped).jpg|thumb|right|165px|Nick Cohen at the Euston Manifesto launch]]
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'''Nick Cohen''' {{lived|1961}} is a [[United Kingdom|British]] newspaper columnist who, depending on your point of view, is an [[Islamophobic]] [[neocon]] [[chickenhawk]], a [[troll]], or a rare pragmatist among political commentators. He identifies as an [[atheist]] and opposes [[Islamofascism]], generally being pro-American and pro-Israel. He was once a [[left-wing]]er but, in the early 2000s moved to the centre, with his [[Christopher Hitchens|Hitchens]]-like support for the Iraq War.

A columnist for the London ''Observer'' for more than twenty years, his column was suspended in August 2022 after accusations of his behaivor towards female colleagues began to enter the public domain.<ref name=pg2022>Dominic Ponsford and Charlotte Tobitt [https://pressgazette.co.uk/news/nick-cohens-observer-column-on-pause-whilst-he-co-operates-with-investigation/ "Nick Cohen’s Observer column on pause whilst he co-operates with investigation"], ''Press Gazette'', August 2, 2022 (revised October 7, 2022)</ref> Cohen left the newspaper in early 2023 after an investigation by his employers, his reputation now seriously tarnished.<ref name=pg2023>Dominic Ponsfoird [https://pressgazette.co.uk/publishers/nationals/nick-cohen-allegations/ "Nick Cohen resigns from The Observer on 'health grounds'"], ''Press Gazette'', 30 January 2023</ref><ref name=JBNYT>Jane Bradley  [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/30/world/europe/financial-times-nick-cohen-guardian.html "A British Reporter Had a Big #MeToo Scoop. Her Editor Killed It"], ''The New York Times'', 30 May 2023</ref>

==Career==
He was born in 1961 in Stockport in north-west [[England]] and studied PPE at Oxford. He formerly wrote a regular column for ''[[The Observer]]'' (and earlier for the ''New Statesman'', until the Iraq War), and latterly for ''The Spectator'', a conservative publication. His journalism is collected in two books, ''Cruel Britannia: Reports on the Sinister and the Preposterous'' (1999) and ''Waiting for the Etonians: Reports from the Sickbed of Liberal England'' (2009). His original books include ''Pretty Straight Guys'' (2003), an attack on New Labour taking its title from a Tony Blair self-description<ref name=lezard>[http://www.theguardian.com/books/2004/jul/24/politics Pretty Straight Guys review], Nicholas Lezard, ''The Guardian'', 24 July 2004</ref>; ''What's Left?: How the Left lost Its Way'' (2007) an attack on the British left for failing to be tough enough on Islam; and ''You Can't Read This Book'' (2012) about censorship. He was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize for political writing for ''What's Left?''<ref>{{wpl|Nick Cohen}}</ref>

==The political left and the political right==
He was involved in the Euston Manifesto, a 2006 document calling on progressive intellectuals to support America in its war on Islam. He was critical of those who put any blame for the [[9/11]] attacks on the US's support for [[Middle Eastern]] tyrants or long history of coups and wars in the region. He opposes [[Israeli]] settlements in the West Bank but supports Israel's right to wage war on Palestinians.<ref name=jc />

Cohen wrote in February 2009 that once his "sole interest in Jewish concerns came from being a left-wing opponent of the far Right, and the blood-soaked antisemitic superstitions which turned Europe into a graveyard", but by the time he was writing "the old certainties have gone because there are two far-right movements: the white neo-Nazi parties that the Left still opposes; and the clerical fascists of radical Islam which, extraordinarily, the modern Left succours and indulges". He condemns the obvious white apologists of radical Islam like [[George Galloway]], but also asserts the "wider liberal society is almost as complicit. It does not applaud the Islamist far Right, but it will not condemn it either".<ref name=jc>[https://archive.is/uMuA "Hatred is turning me into a Jew"], ''The Jewish Chronicle'', February 12, 2009</ref>

==Middle East==
In the early 2000s, he was strongly in favour of the [[Iraq War|invasion of Iraq]]. He argued that those who opposed the war were supporters of [[fascism]], while ignoring the fact that many anti-war campaigners were actually concerned about the Iraqi people being exposed both to vast numbers of American bombs and years of subsequent [[civil war]]; even Cohen's dislike of fundamental Islam (or Islamism) does not convince him that handing Iraq to [[Shia]] [[extremist]]s might have been a bad idea. He is generally strong on moral principle to the extent of not actually caring about the consequences of any action that appears to be right. For the moral absolutist Cohen, it is impossible to do the wrong thing out of good intentions, just as no amount of suffering or abuse excuses any crime.

Even 10 years after the invasion he was still declaring that it was right.<ref>[http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/mar/03/10-years-right-invaded-iraq], Nick Cohen, ''The Guardian'', 3 March 2013</ref> He opposes [[Israeli]] settlements in the West Bank but supports Israel's right to wage war on Palestinians.<ref name=jc/>

==Bosnian genocide==
On the [[Bosnia]]n genocide, he attacked those on the left, who [[denialism|downplayed the seriousness]] of [[Serbia]]n war crimes such as ''Living Marxism'' (later ''LM magazine'') which accused ITN of faking [[concentration camp]] footage, lost a libel case, and ceased publication. He was heavily critical of [[Noam Chomsky]] and Seumas Milne, a ''Guardian colleague at the time.

==Atheism==
Cohen is an atheist in the [[Richard Dawkins]]/[[Christopher Hitchens]] mould. Which is to say, he believes atheists are morally superior and likes to shout about it. As Cohen points out, so-called "militant atheists" in the West have never planted terrorist bombs or attacked anyone. He seems to believe atheists in the UK are a beleaguered minority under constant attack from the left as well as right.<ref>[http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/sep/07/militant-atheism-religious-apologists-intellectuals], Nick Cohen, 7 Sep 2014</ref> This is probably overstating the case a little.

==Resignation from ''The Observer''==
Cohen's last regular ''Observer'' column was published on July 9, 2023.<ref> name=pg2022 </ref>{{Dead link}} In this article he stated the Boris Johnson government, then surviving in a janitorial or caretaker role, had "pushed standards of public life so low that, however despicably future prime ministers behave, they will be able to say that they never sank to the level of" Johnson.<ref>Nick Cohen [https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jul/09/with-him-to-very-end-tory-press-loved-boris-johnson-one-of-their-own "With him right until the very end, the Tory press who loved Johnson as one of their own"], ''The Observer'', July 9, 2022</ref>

It became public knowledge in early August 2022 that his ''Observer'' column had been suspended after accusations of his sexual abuse and accounts of his reputed harassment of female colleagues had begun to enter the public domain.<ref name=pg2022 /> Seven women gave accounts of Cohen's unprofessional conduct over many years to ''The New York Times'' around May 2023; one journalist reported her experiences to the (female) managing editor in 2018, but received a brush-off. Cohen's reputation as a harasser of women was known by ten former male and female colleagues in the newsroom, according to the ''Times''.<ref name=JBNYT /> 

In January 2023, it emerged Cohen had resigned from ''The Observer''. Officially this was stated to be on "health grounds", but it followed an investigation into Cohen's behavior towards women by Guardian News and Media (GNM) which lasted several months.<ref name=pg2023 /> The investigation by ''The New York Times'' published on May 30, 2023 followed the rejection by a London newspaper, the ''Financial Times'' of the work of one of its own journalists.<ref name=JBNYT /> A few weeks later, GNM editor-in-chief Katharine Viner and chief executive Anna Bateson finally wrote to several of the women involved apologizing for the manner the company had handled internal complaints.<ref>Jane Bradley [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/12/world/europe/guardian-nick-cohen-sexual-harassment.html "https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/12/world/europe/guardian-nick-cohen-sexual-harassment.html"], ''The New York Times'', June 12, 2023</ref>

==References==
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[[Category:Atheists]]
[[Category:British people]]
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Categories: Atheists, British people, Journalists, Living people