Devin Gordon of Newsweek responds to my question:
Dear Andrew, thanks for asking, and I am sorry we left the e-mail transcript so murky that the question was raised. Now here's the answer: she was absolutely, positively "mocking craven and inconsistent and obviously racist distinctions in the MSM." Indeed, we presumedperhaps mistakenlythat those taxonomical distinctions were so self-evidently craven, inconsistent, and racist that it never occurred to us someone might believe our managing editor, Kathy Jones, actually shares them herself. She is mortified that anyone would think otherwise. Her post was missing a single word that could've helped us avoid the confusion. If she had called it her "handy MEDIA guide," or "handy USERS guide," her intent almost certainly would've been clear. Suffice it to say, in retrospect, she dearly wishes she had.
I should also point out that Kathy's post in this e-mail chain immediately followed my opening salvo, in which I called out The Wall Street Journal for labeling Joseph Stack a "tax protester." Kathy was reacting to the table I set, which she interpreted to be a request for a conversation about how the media label these nutballs. However, when one reads her comment outside of that context, it begins to sound much more like a view she holds herself. I would urge anyone interested in this conversation to read the entire chain of e-mails, and I apologize for the lack of clarity at the outset. I also apologize to Kathybecause "craven," "inconsistent," and "racist" are three words no one would ever use to describe her.
David Graham's Newsweek Joe Stack story on February 18 uses the phrase "domestic terror attack." Looks like irony by Kathy Jones to me. And happy to set the record straight. I mean that unironically.