McKay Coppins

My profile of Tim Pawlenty’s moderate minister

mckaycoppins — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 16:57:44 +0000

Could Tim Pawlenty’s pastor cost him the election?

Maybe not directly – but if the ex-Minnesota governor and Republican presidential hopeful is too nice to win the nomination, you can blame Rev. Leith Anderson. I spent the last week talking to plugged-in evangelicals about how the candidate’s moderate style and political record mirrors that of his longtime minister. Today, my story, which includes an interview with Anderson, was published on The Daily Beast. Check it out and, as always, feel free to leave your thoughts below:

Daily Beast: Pawlenty’s Pastor Problem:

Of course, the political perils of Pawlenty’s niceness have been well-documented. But through all the punditry and speculation, little attention has been paid to the man who has spent the past 20 years teaching the candidate how to be so nice: his longtime minister, the Rev. Leith Anderson.

NEWSWEEK cover story: “The Mormon Moment”

mckaycoppins — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 16:51:21 +0000

I’ve been working on this package since February and it’s finally on newsstand. Newsweek’s cover story – written by author Walter Kirn, myself, Andrew Romano, and David Graham – explores how the unique culture and theology of Mormonism produces so many successful people. In other words, we’re trying to explain WHY America is currently experiencing a “Mormon moment” (i.e. Romney, Huntsman, Reid, Beck, The BOM Musical, etc.)

As a practicing Latter-day Saint, I was able to contribute ideas and insights, as well as a good deal of the reporting and writing. But I’m happy to say that everyone who worked on the package, including our terrific editor Damon Linker, was very respectful of the LDS Church and its teachings. I know some Mormons believe there is a media bias against their faith – and maybe to some extent that’s true. But here at Newsweek/The Daily Beast, it’s been my experience that the journalists are sensitive, professional, and eager to explain Mormonism to our large global readership.

I appeared on MSNBC this morning, and will be doing a few radio hits today discussing the cover story. I’ll also be hosting a live chat on The Daily Beast on Wednesday at 1:00 pm EST, so please stop in if you have a minute.

My Daily Beast interview with Howard Dean

mckaycoppins — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 17:23:53 +0000

Howard Dean – former DNC Chairman, ex-Governor of Vermont, and all-around liberal icon – spent a few minutes with me on the phone over the weekend, and was kind enough to make a bit of news. He called on President Obama to end the war in Afghanistan, a conflict he has long supported, because he’s come to believe it’s not “winnable.”

From the article (which you can read here):

“I supported (ramping up troop presence) because I was concerned with what would happen to the women in the country” if the Taliban took control, Dean said. “But I recently read about Karzai saying some very sexist, terrible things, and it’s become obvious that there’s not a whole lot of difference between the two sides.”

He continued: “As much as I feel terrible about what’s happening to the women there, Karzai has shown he can’t be trusted any more than the Taliban to help them.”

My interview with Buddy Roemer, the GOP’s long-shot 2012 candidate

mckaycoppins — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 19:19:14 +0000

I have a short profile of Buddy Roemer up on The Daily Beast today. The former governor of Louisiana, who lost to infamous neo-Nazi David Duke in a primary bid for re-election, now says he’s looking at running for president in 2012.

A taste from the article:

As governor, he became something of a state joke when he entrusted his emotional well-being to a new-age guru who instructed him and his staff to ward off negative thoughts by snapping a rubber band on their wrists and saying, “Cancel. Cancel.”

Yes, he’s that kind of candidate. At least he’s bringing up a serious, mostly ignored issue. Read all about him here.

My NEWSWEEK profile of Jon Huntsman Jr.

mckaycoppins — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 20:29:54 +0000

My profile of Ambassador Jon Huntsman Jr. went live today at Newsweek.com, and will appear in Monday’s edition of the printed magazine. The strong evidence that Huntsman is weighing a 2012 presidential campaign against his current boss is already generating some Beltway buzz, with items appearing on the Huffington Post and in Mike Allen’s Playbook. You can read the piece here: http://www.newsweek.com/2011/01/04/the-manchurian-candidate.html

The most amusing part of the response so far has been Mike Allen identifying me in Playbook as “a young, Mormon reporter.” Technically true, though for the record, I’ll point out that I’d never met Huntsman or his family before our interview and, as far as I know, he’s not even aware I’m a Mormon.

Anyway, hope you enjoy the piece, and feel free to leave your thoughts here.

“Does anyone here know anything about Utah? What about that Mormon kid?”

mckaycoppins — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 22:46:41 +0000

OK, that’s not exactly how it went. In fact, I kind of muscled my way into reporting NEWSWEEK’s recent story on the Beehive State: “Promised Land: How Utah Became an Economic Zion.” (As you can tell, the headline writers didn’t skimp on religious verbiage.)

What actually happened: My editor, Tony Dokoupil, came across a Deseret News article a couple months back that discussed the state’s potential as “the next Silicon Valley” and he took interest. When he told me he was going to write a feature on the state’s entrepreneurial drive, I dutifully offered my services.

Of course, I don’t personally have much experience with Utah’s startup culture, but as a Mormon who went to college at BYU, I assumed I wasn’t far removed from some of the industry’s most influential players/observers. So I put up the LDS bat signal (with the help of my dad’s extensive LinkedIn directory) and spent a weekend fielding e-mails from major movers and shakers.

By Monday, I was able to hand over a list of data points and contacts so thoroughly overwhelming that my editor had to assume I made half of it up. (I didn’t!) The piece turned out well, I think, and even the information that didn’t make it into the article itself helped shape my editor’s thesis and perception of Utah. So thanks to all those who helped.

Here’s a key paragraph:

Defining itself against the liberal left coast is an act of jujitsu. Utah’s biggest potential liability—its conservative, religious populus—becomes an indisputable strength. Utah’s people are, indeed, an employer’s dream. They are healthy, hard workers (pouring in 48 hours a week on average), and exceedingly stable, with the highest birthrates in the nation. The large number of young Mormons who spend two years on a conversion mission also means a huge swath of the population earned its sales stripes in hostile terrain. This might not offer an easily replicable path for states looking to follow Utah’s economic lead. Then again, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is always looking to expand.

In which I receive a crazy anti-Muslim letter

mckaycoppins — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 02:39:15 +0000

Some readers got very upset by my suggestion in last week’s Mormon Times column that Muslims – not government officials or voters at large – should be the ones to decide whether to build a Mosque two and a half blocks from Ground Zero in New York. By far the best e-mail I got was the following. (I removed his name and e-mail address to protect his identity.)

What’s your favorite part?

Mr. Coppins.

After reading your article I wonder what side of the planet you reside on. You are either extremely naive, extremely lacking in knowledge, extremely young, or maybe all three, that you should wonder why New Yorkers, and other Americans, have contempt for Muslims. You just don’t get it! You don’t understand one iota of who or what these people are, or what they represent. The one unfortunate thing is that you can’t tell a good one from a bad one so they all have to bear the brunt of being disliked and mistrusted. You don’t have a clue as to whether there is a cell of them on your street and they are plotting something deadly against America, do you Mr. Coppins? You don’t know if that Muslim riding on the subway with you or selling you groceries has plans with others Islamics to blow up the subway at some point, do you Mr. Coppins? That is the reality of things today. I didn’t decide to just not trust them. They decided that for me when they committed murder in America, and sticking our heads in the sand, pretending that they are a bunch of “nice guys” won’t change the facts.

We are not talking about a ”few misguided” Islamics here. We are talking about a country of Islam that has no respect for people, a nation that worships the monster Mohammed, and has a lot of hatred for America and it’s people. Their whole ideology is to wipe out the free countries of the world, either by controlling them or annihilating them. Were our military not in the middle east, preserving our freedom, Americans would be outnumbered, overrun and controlled by Islam.

In case you missed it, they came into our country and declared war on the American people by killing thousands of us. Americans, Mr. Coppins, our people, your people, innocent men and women, Fire Fighters, and Policemen, who thought when they got up that morning they would have a normal day like any other.

This was the second attempt, Mr. Coppins and it was very successful, and probably will not be the last attempt.

As far as Sarah Palin is concerned she is only appealing to these people to be empathetic to the feelings of the families of those lost at Ground Zero. She is not out to incite anything, nor is what she says inflammatory. It’s obvious that you have not suffered a great deal with personal loss or you might speak differently about her remarks.

The families of these victims of war should not attend this site and have to put up with looking at a building created by the very monsters who killed their loved ones. Ground Zero is a memorial to those heroes and innocents who died there. You miss the whole point of these Muslims wanting that site in the first place. How better to show your contempt and hatred for a people (Americans) than to rub their noses in your (Islam) victory over them? And 9/11 was a victory for Islam. This is what it is all about Mr. Coppins, but you, and Mayor Bloomberg, and a few thousand others in New York miss the point entirely. New Yorkers aren’t “anxious, scared, or angry”. Nor are they bigots. They are being betrayed by those Americans who make the decisions to let the enemy camp in their backyard. It isn’t the building but the location that is hurting the people. Put it somewhere else and there won’t be much said about it.

I think you need an education concerning Islam before you print any kind of editorial about them. This is not a small religious sect, Mr. C. but a whole nation of war mongers. Read about them: their beliefs, the way they treat their women, raise their boys, (the girls don’t mean much to them except as maids, breeders, and chattels), what they think of Mohammed, and how they murder their own people for the slightest infractions. They don’t care a twig about you, your family, or your God given rights. There is also an Islamic President in the White House, a president who for 20 years attended a church that spouted hatred for the whites of America, which should concern you a great deal. It does me.

‘Google’ Islam, watch and listen to Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh, read “The Message” by Lance Richardson, and when you have done all of this, then you can tell me I don’t know what I am talking about. I hate war, but if and when it happens to us it must be dealt with on the same level as it comes to us. America is at war every day within it’s borders and it is only going to get uglier. This ”mosque” thing is a small part of the war with an anti-christ on the soil of the greatest nation in the world. America had better stand up and protect her land and her way of life or it may be taken from her. These few New Yorkers are doing just that….speaking out for their way of life and their rights against an enemy.

P.S. As a Latter-day Saint you should speak out in the defence of your people and country, not defend the those who would destroy you and America.

By the way, you can read the original column here.

Newsweek’s Choose Your Own Adventure: Oil Spill Edition!

mckaycoppins — Mon, 17 May 2010 18:50:08 +0000

My first real (albeit unusual) feature story at Newsweek.com is a Choose Your Own Adventure story based on a hypothetical oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, inspired by the BP spill. How would you handle things as an oil tycoon?

Check it out!

http://www.newsweek.com/id/238103

Newsweek.com: Is the NRA Really Defending Gun Rights for Suspected Terrorists?

mckaycoppins — Fri, 07 May 2010 20:52:32 +0000

The short answer is yes. An ominous headline on the National Rifle Association’s Web site reads, “Bloomberg and others call for denial of gun rights based on error-filled watch list.”

The mistake-riddled, rights-suppressing document in question is, of course, the FBI’s terror watch list.

CLICK HERE TO KEEP READING

Also, you can read my post yesterday providing an update on the movement of the oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico: OIL MAKES LANDFALL AS BP PREPS CONTAINMENT DOME