Gersh Kuntzman

Gersh Kuntzman
Gersh Kuntzman near Guadalajara, Mexico in 2015.
Occupation(s)Journalist and writer
Websitehttp://gershkuntzman.homestead.com

Gersh Kuntzman is an American journalist.

Career

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Journalism

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Kuntzman previously worked for the New York Post, writing the column "MetroGnome," which ran during 1995–2004.[1] He had a weekly column for Newsweek online that ran during 2001–2005.[2]

In 2005, Kuntzman became editor of The Brooklyn Paper, a group of community newspapers covering Kings County, New York. During his tenure, he won awards for Editor of the Year and Columnist of the Year from the Suburban Newspapers of America.[3] His editorial writing also won awards from the Independent Free Papers of America. That organization also gave The Brooklyn Paper its Vic Jose Award in 2009.[4]

In 2012, Kuntzman became deputy managing editor for news at the New York Daily News,[2] where he later became a columnist until 2016.

In 2016, Kuntzman became the center of widespread attention when he wrote an article titled "Firing an AR-15 is horrifying, menacing, and very very loud." In the article, Kuntzman says that he traveled to a gun range in Philadelphia to shoot a "military-style weapon" so that he could better understand such weapons' appeals in the wake of the Orlando nightclub shooting. He said, "It felt to me like a bazooka—and sounded like a cannon." Kuntzman further described the experience by saying that "The recoil bruised my shoulder" and "The smell of sulfur and destruction made me sick." Some consider the most controversial part of the article was when Kuntzman claimed, "The explosions—like a bomb—gave me a temporary form of PTSD".[5] Kuntzman faced widespread ridicule for the article, particularly the claim that he suffered from PTSD, with some critics saying such a claim diminished the severity of PTSD suffered by veterans.[6] Kuntzman later wrote another article further criticizing gun owners.[7]

In April 2016, Kuntzman criticized U.S. government's drone assassination program and implied that the Obama administration may be guilty of war crimes.[8] He also wanted President Obama to apologize for the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.[8]

Following the assassination of Andrei Karlov, Russian ambassador to Turkey, on 19 December 2016, Kuntzman compared his murder by Mevlüt Mert Altıntaş to the assassination of Nazi German diplomat Ernst vom Rath by Jewish student Herschel Grynszpan, saying "justice has been served".[9] The Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman wrote on her Facebook page to Kuntzman: "you have said that the fight of the Jewish people against anti-Semitism in 1930s amounts to the terrorist ways of the Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra ... Are they really the same to you?"[10]

In 2017, he began work as breaking news editor of Newsweek; he was fired in February 2018.[11] He joined Streetsblog NYC as its editor-in-chief later that year in July.[12]

Activism

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Kuntzman was featured in a December 2022 New York Times article that focused on citizens "cleaning up" license plates which had been intentionally damaged or obscured for the purpose of avoiding tolls and speed cameras.[13] A subsequent article in The New Yorker[14] and a segment on This American Life[15] featured the same work.

Kuntzman described himself as a supporter of the Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.[16]

Footnotes

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  1. ^ "BIO OF GERSH KUNTZMAN" (PDF). gershkuntzman.blogspot.com. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
  2. ^ a b "Gersh Kuntzman Resume" (PDF). homestead.com. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
  3. ^ "The Brooklyn Paper is 'Newspaper of the Year'". 11 August 2007. Retrieved 31 March 2017.
  4. ^ "We win — again! More awards for your Brooklyn Paper!". Retrieved 31 March 2017.
  5. ^ Gersh Kuntzman. "Firing an AR-15 is horrifying, menacing, and very very loud". NY Daily News. Retrieved November 15, 2016.
  6. ^ Douglas Ernst. "Gersh Kuntzman, N.Y. Daily News writer: Firing AR-15 'gave me a temporary form of PTSD'". The Washington Times. Retrieved November 15, 2016.
  7. ^ Gersh Kuntzman. "To gun lovers, you can't even have an opinion on assault rifles - unless it's theirs. Here's the proof". NY Daily News. Retrieved November 15, 2016.
  8. ^ a b "President Obama should apologize when he visits atomic bomb site in Hiroshima — and while he's at it, he should swear off drone strikes". NY Daily News. April 14, 2016.
  9. ^ Gersh, Kuntzman. "Assassination of Russian Ambassador Andrei Karlov was not terrorism, but retribution for Vladimir Putin's war crimes". New York Daily News. Retrieved 20 December 2016.
  10. ^ "Kremlin demands US paper apologize for 'justifying' assassination". The Hill. December 21, 2016.
  11. ^ Kelly, Keith J. (27 February 2018). "Newsweek fires two more editors as turmoil escalates". nypost.com. NYP Holdings, Inc. Retrieved 19 May 2020.
  12. ^ "Gersh Kuntzman - Editor-in-Chief at OpenPlans". THE ORG. Retrieved 2023-01-19.
  13. ^ Kilgannon, Corey (2022-12-17). "They Dispense Street Justice, One Defaced License Plate at a Time". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-01-31.
  14. ^ "At Large with New York's One-Man Crime Spree". The New Yorker. 2023-01-16. Retrieved 2023-01-19.
  15. ^ "Minor Crimes Division Prologue". This American Life. 2024-04-05. Retrieved 2024-09-03.
  16. ^ "I voted for Hillary Clinton — and even I don't want her to be president at this point". NY Daily News. November 23, 2016.
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