Adam Weinstein

Engagement Editor

I'm Mother Jones' engagement editor and Tumblrizer, specializing in explanatory journalism and new-media reporting. As a Navy vet and ex-Iraq contractor, I'm also committed to articulating all things martial—good, bad, and weird—to new audiences.

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Adam Weinstein is Mother Jones' engagement editor, having previously served the magazine as its national security reporter and copy editor. Before that, he worked at the Wall Street Journal, the Village Voice, and the Tallahassee Democrat. He's written for the New York Times, New York magazine, GQ, and Newsweek. A Navy veteran, two-day Jeopardy champion and ex-political scientist, he also did a recession-fueled stint as a military contractor in Iraq. For more about Adam and his writing, click here.

Navy Lets Women on Subs: Gays Next?

—By Adam Weinstein

| Wed Feb. 24, 2010 2:55 PM PST

Anyone with an interest in gender equality or fair treatment of gays and lesbians, take note: The Navy announced this week that it will start assigning women to its submarine crews next month. (That is, unless congressional opponents decide to intervene.)

To the uninitiated, that might not sound like a big deal. But it's a true sea change. In fact, it could foretell a faster end to the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy—and even its arcane injunction on women serving in combat roles.

The United States military has always been preoccupied with its hidebound traditions. In that respect, the Navy is like other military branches, only more so, with 21st-century sailors speaking of the Joneses—Davy and John Paul—like immediate family. Within that culture, there's always been an even more heritage-obsessed fraternity: the submarine service. It was officially born in 1900 with its first undersea ship of war, the USS Holland. It was also the first branch to truly go nuclear, with the atomic-powered USS Nautilus in 1955. In all those years, the "silent service" has reveled in its exclusivity, operating as a fraternity for some of the Navy's smartest and ablest sailors.

Except that it's a fraternity no more.

If that were the whole story, what a happy story it would be. But opponents of the move have a possible trump card to play.

[Read more in the MoJo blog]

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Nuts: ACORN Cracks Under Pressure

—By Adam Weinstein

| Mon Feb. 22, 2010 6:12 PM PST

Conservatives can once again boast of their unqualified success as scapegoaters. Another of ACORN's largest state chapters fell off the organization's tree today, pulled down by the weight of debts, lackluster fundraising, and—of course—right-wing targeting. The left-leaning network of community organizations acknowledged that its New York syndicate has split off from the national headquarters and rebranded itself as New York Communities for Change. It's a possible death-knell for community organizers—and a clarion call for Astroturf reactionary groups.

"This is what Fox has produced," an unnamed source in the New York organization told Politico. "National Acorn and (CEO) Bertha Lewis are continuing doing their thing, but the New York flagship has been forced into this new organization."

The move comes just a month after ACORN's California offices jumped off a similar cliff. And ACORN's national spokesman found himself playing defense, insisting that the organization wasn't dissolving - at least, not "all across the country," not yet.

[Read more in the MoJo blog]

Sarah Palin’s Family Guy Faux Pas

—By Adam Weinstein

| Fri Feb. 19, 2010 6:15 PM PST

Fresh from the fray of "Retardgate," as some media outlets called it, Sarah Palin this week sought to expose another dark and insidious force aligned against her. By which she meant an episode of the TV cartoon Family Guy. On the episode in question, the awkward teen character Chris Griffin dates a girl who has Down syndrome—and at one point identifies her mother as "the former governor of Alaska."

Palin chose one of her preferred media forums—her Facebook page—to argue that the line of dialogue "mocked" her special-needs son, Trig. She called it "another kick in the gut," powerful language that's apparently calculated to remind us she's been hurt before, and the blows are felt most in that part of the body where intuitions—and babies—come from. In effect, she's saying the blows are an attack on common sense, disabled children and womankind.

But irony is a harsh master: the cartoon character in question was voiced by a woman with Down syndrome, professional actress Andrea Fay Friedman, and she thinks Palin is the one who lacks common sense—or at least "a sense of humor" or "sarcasm."

[Read more in the Riff blog]

Is the National Enquirer Suicidal?

—By Adam Weinstein

| Fri Feb. 19, 2010 2:53 PM PST

Traditional print jockeys now have to tussle with a supermarket tabloid for a Pulitzer Prize. This week, the administrators of daily journalism's biggest exercise in self-congratulation reversed themselves and agreed to consider the National Enquirer in two Pulitzer categories for its reporting of the John Edwards infidelity/paternity imbroglio. The news was hailed by nontraditional journalists at outlets like the Huffington Post and Gawker, who lobbied mercilessly on the Enquirer's behalf (and who have no shortage of schadenfreude when it comes to the suffering of print giants like the New York Times and Washington Post).

There's no question that the gossipy Enquirer—whose current issue leads with a washed-up pop diva's health problems ("WHITNEY DYING!") and a celebrity chef's romantic woes ("PAULA DEEN DIVORCE SHOCKER!")—ran with a story nobody else vetted when it exposed the dalliance between then-Sen. Edwards and staffer Rielle Hunter. And the paper deserves some recognition for being, in many ways, a tastemaker and trendsetter in the new media landscape. But the Enquirer's allies overlook the fact that its most questionable reporting practice was precisely what got it the "scoop" over other organizations—and what ultimately could lead the tabloid to get squeezed out of its own business.

[Read more in the Riff blog]

Troops Liking Gays More Than Usual

—By Adam Weinstein

| Thu Feb. 18, 2010 5:19 PM PST

When Admiral Mike Mullen, the Joint Chiefs chairman, blew everybody's mind this month by advocating an end to "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," it was easy to be skeptical. Perhaps you suspected, like John McCain and Ted Nugent, that Mullen wasn't speaking for the military's rank-and-file members. After all, the all-volunteer force isn't widely recognized as a progressive institution.

That may be changing, though. On Wednesday, Military Times released results of a services-wide poll that showed officers and enlisteds across all four branches are more accepting of gays in their ranks, and less comfortable than ever with DADT. That gels with today's anecdotal story that no subordinates are calling Mullen out on DADT in his occasional Q-and-A sessions with them.

[Read more in the MoJo blog]