Kevin Drum
{{Short description|American journalist (1958–2025)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=December 2015}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Kevin Drum
| image =
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| caption =
| birth_date = {{birth date|1958|10|19}}
| birth_place = Long Beach, California, U.S.
| death_date = {{death date and age|2025|3|7|1958|10|19}}
| death_place =
| alma_mater = California State University, Long Beach
| occupation = Journalist
| spouse =
| children =
}}
Kevin Drum (October 19, 1958 – March 7, 2025) was an American journalist. Drum initially rose to prominence through the popularity of his independent blog Calpundit (2003–2004). He later was invited to launch another blog, Political Animal (2004–2008), for the Washington Monthly. He held a writing and blogging position at Mother Jones from 2008 to 2021, before returning to independence with his Jabberwocking blog.
Early life and education
Drum was born in Long Beach, California, on October 19, 1958, the son of Jean (Holliger) and Dale Drum, a professor of speech and film history at Cal State.https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/14/us/kevin-drum-dead.html He graduated from Pacifica High School in Garden Grove, California, and then attended Caltech for two years before transferring to California State University, Long Beach, where he received his bachelor's degree in journalism in 1981.{{Cite news|url=https://ocweekly.com/blogging-badass-kevin-drum-6429704/|title=Blogging Badass: Kevin Drum {{!}} OC Weekly|last=Coker|first=Matt|date=2014-03-12|work=OC Weekly|access-date=2018-10-26|language=en-US|df=mdy-all}} While at CSULB, he served as city editor of the university's student run newspaper, The Daily 49er.
Career
= Technology =
After graduating from college, Drum worked at RadioShack for several years, and became a store manager in Costa Mesa, California, in 1983.{{Cite news|url=https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2017/04/lunchtime-photo-1-3/|title=Lunchtime photo|last=Drum|first=Kevin|date=April 5, 2017|work=Mother Jones|access-date=October 26, 2018|language=en-US}} He subsequently got a technical-writing job with a local technology company, becoming a product manager at Emulex.{{Cite news|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uzsEAAAAMBAJ&q=%22Kevin+Drum%22+Emulex&pg=PT12|title=Coprocessor to Let Dumb Terminals Access Nets|last=Brownstein|first=Mark|date=January 2, 1989|work=InfoWorld|access-date=October 26, 2018}} In 1992, he began working at Kofax Image Products, an Irvine, California-based supplier of application software and image processing products.{{Cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2000-aug-22-fi-8275-story.html|title=Hee-Won Lim Will Manage Disneyland Pacific Hotel|date=2000-08-22|work=Los Angeles Times|access-date=2018-10-26|language=en-US|issn=0458-3035|df=mdy-all}} In 2000 he was promoted from the position of VP for Marketing,{{Cite news|url=http://www.kmworld.com/Articles/News/News/Kofax-acquires-technology-rights-from-RAF-12170.aspx|title=Kofax acquires technology rights from RAF|date=1999-08-26|work=KMWorld|access-date=2018-10-26|language=en|df=mdy-all}} becoming the general manager of the Ascent Software Business Unit within Kofax.{{Cite web|url=http://whattheythink.com/news/11622-lexmark-kofax-link-devices-electronic-document/|title=Lexmark & Kofax Link Devices to Electronic Document Management Systems - WhatTheyThink|date=May 10, 2001|website=whattheythink.com|publisher=Press release|access-date=2018-10-26}} In 2001, he moved to newly created position with Dicom New Ventures, the business development arm of the Dicom Group, Kofax's parent company.{{Cite news|url=http://www.banktech.com/executive-changes/d/d-id/1288444.html|title=Executive Changes|date=July 11, 2001|work=Bank Systems & Technology|access-date=October 26, 2018|language=en}} He quit in 2002 to become a marketing consultant; he gave that up in 2004 to concentrate full-time on writing.
= Blogging =
Drum's blogging started in 2001, part-time;{{Cite web |last=Glastris |first=Paul |date=2025-03-11 |title=Remembering Kevin Drum |url=https://washingtonmonthly.com/2025/03/11/remembering-kevin-drum/ |access-date=2025-03-12 |website=Washington Monthly |language=en-US}} in late 2002 he started his independent blog Calpundit.{{Cite web |last=Hiltzik |first=Michael |date=2025-03-11 |title=RIP Kevin Drum, nonpareil blogger on public policy, 1958-2025 |url=https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2025-03-11/rip-kevin-drum-pioneering-blogger-1958-2025 |access-date=2025-03-12 |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US}} On one Friday in March, he posted a photo of his cat Inkblot as an antidote to stressful politics,{{cite web |last1=Drum |first1=Kevin |title=ALL THE WORLD'S PROBLEMS |url=http://calpundit.com/archives/000597.html |website=Calpundit |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20031020123337/http://calpundit.com/archives/000597.html |archive-date=20 October 2003 |date=7 March 2003 |url-status=dead}} thus inventing Friday cat blogging, a practice that was soon adopted by many blogs.{{cite news |last1=Terdiman |first1=Daniel |title=On Fridays, Bloggers Sometimes Retract Their Claws |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/28/technology/circuits/on-fridays-bloggers-sometimes-retract-their-claws.html |access-date=23 September 2023 |work=New York Times |date=28 October 2004}} The Washington Monthly, which wanted a blog, hired Drum in 2004 to launch Political Animal. In 2008 he was hired to write and blog at Mother Jones. In 2021, he returned to independent blogging at his site Jabberwocking.
Drum tended toward wry skepticism about dramatic press stories, often deflating sensational headlines with statistics that showed historical continuity rather than any noteworthy change. A frequent theme was the leading role of Fox News in eroding public trust for American institutions.
==Iraq war==
Drum supported the 2003 Iraq War in its early stages. Just before the United States launched its attack, he changed his mind. He said, "Before the war started I switched to opposition on practical grounds (i.e., that George W. Bush's approach was incapable of accomplishing the goals it was meant to accomplish). Since then, I've pretty much come to the conclusion that, in fact, I should have opposed it all along on philosophical grounds: namely that it was a fundamentally flawed concept and had no chance of working even if it had been competently executed."[http://normblog.typepad.com/normblog/2005/08/the_normblog_pr_2.html Geras, Norman]. Interview with Kevin Drum, August 19, 2005.{{cite web|url=http://www.foreignaffairs.org/special/roundtable_drum |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060713155252/http://www.foreignaffairs.org/special/roundtable_drum |archive-date=July 13, 2006 |work=Foreign Affairs |title=Four Responses to "What to Do in Iraq: A Roundtable" |date=July 11, 2006}}
== Lead and crime ==
Drum published a series of blogs with evidence that suggests a link between crime and environmental lead, including the link between the decline in American crime rates and the phaseout of leaded gasoline.{{cite web|url=https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2013/01/lead-crime-link-gasoline|title=America's Real Criminal Element: Lead|author=Kevin Drum|date=January–February 2013|work=Mother Jones|access-date=2015-03-21}} The theory was popularized by public health researcher Jessica Reyes,{{Cite journal|last1=Reyes|first1=J. W.|year=2007|title=Environmental Policy as Social Policy? The Impact of Childhood Lead Exposure on Crime|journal=The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy|volume=7|doi=10.2202/1935-1682.1796|url=http://www.nber.org/papers/w13097.pdf}} as well as economist Rick Nevin.{{Cite journal|last1=Nevin|first1=R.|year=2000|title=How lead exposure relates to temporal changes in IQ, violent crime, and unwed pregnancy|journal=Environmental Research|volume=83|issue=1|pages=1–22|bibcode=2000ER.....83....1N|doi=10.1006/enrs.1999.4045|pmid=10845777|s2cid=18983793 |url=https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/35324/1/MPRA_paper_35324.pdf}} Drum's thesis was criticized by Jim Manzi in January 2013;{{cite web|url=https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/lead-and-crime-jim-manzi/|title=Lead and Crime|date=2013-01-10|work=National Review|access-date=2015-03-21}} Drum continued to document new evidence in support of the theory.{{Cite news|url=https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2018/02/an-updated-lead-crime-roundup-for-2018/|title=An updated lead-crime roundup for 2018|last=Drum|first=Kevin|date=February 1, 2018|work=Mother Jones|access-date=October 26, 2018|language=en-US}}
==Homelessness==
In a 2017 blog post for Mother Jones discussing then-recently published research on public perceptions of the homeless, Drum stated: "The researchers solved their conundrum by suggesting that most people are disgusted by the homeless. No kidding. About half the homeless suffer from a mental illness and a third abuse either alcohol or drugs. You'd be crazy not to have a reflexive disgust of a population like that."{{Cite web|last=Drum|first=Kevin|title=Are people disgusted by the homeless?|url=https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2017/07/are-people-disgusted-by-the-homeless/|access-date=2021-01-29|website=Mother Jones|language=en-US}} Stephen Piston, one of the authors of the research, objected, stating that Drum's article had "profoundly misinterpreted" their research. Pinson wrote: "We argue that media coverage of homeless people often portrays them as unclean or diseased, which activates disgust among the general public. But [Drum] cites our research as proof that homeless people are inherently disgusting — which perpetuates the very problem in journalism our research was trying to solve."{{Cite web|date=August 1, 2017|first=Glenn|last=Greenwald|title=Scholars Say Mother Jones Distorted Their Research for Anti-Homeless Article|url=https://theintercept.com/2017/08/01/scholars-say-mother-jones-distorted-their-research-for-anti-homeless-article/|access-date=2021-01-29|website=The Intercept|language=en}}
Personal life and death
In an interview with Norman Geras, Drum said that his intellectual heroes were Franklin D. Roosevelt, Isaac Newton, John Maynard Keynes, Edward R. Murrow and Charles Darwin. He also considered Benjamin Franklin his all-time favorite political hero.
Drum lived in Irvine, California. He married his wife Marian in 1993,{{Cite news|url=https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2018/10/californias-proposition-5-just-another-dumb-giveaway-to-the-elderly-rich/|title=California's Proposition 5: Just another dumb giveaway to the elderly rich|last=Drum|first=Kevin|date=October 16, 2018|work=Mother Jones|access-date=October 26, 2018|language=en-US}} and she was a familiar presence in his blog posts.
In 2014, Drum began treatment for multiple myeloma.{{cite web |last1=Drum |first1=Kevin |date=October 24, 2014 |title=Friday Cancer Blogging |url=https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2014/10/friday-cancer-blogging-24-october-2014 |access-date=February 4, 2015 |website=Mother Jones}} He gave regular health updates describing his successive cancer treatment regimens, presenting himself as a case study of medical progress, with sardonic commentary about the "Evil Dex". In October 18, 2016, he updated readers that it had been two years since his diagnosis and he was "still alive and kicking."{{cite web|last1=Drum|first1=Kevin|title=A Special Post For My Sister|url=https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2016/10/special-post-my-sister|website=Mother Jones|access-date=October 19, 2016}} In August 2018, he reported that his multiple myeloma remained well under control.{{Cite news|url=https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2017/08/health-update-25/|title=Health update|last=Drum|first=Kevin|date=August 28, 2018|work=Mother Jones|access-date=October 26, 2018|language=en-US}}
In February 2025, Drum reported that he had been hospitalized with pneumonia and a colon infection, and that his oncologist "agreed my immune system was shot".{{Cite web |last=Drum |first=Kevin |date=2025-02-13 |title=Health update |url=https://jabberwocking.com/health-update-90/ |access-date=2025-02-20 |website=jabberwocking.com |language=en-US}} He died on March 7, 2025 at age 66.{{Cite web |last=Drum |first=Kevin |date=2025-03-10 |title=Health update |url=https://jabberwocking.com/health-update-100/ |access-date=2025-03-10 |website=jabberwocking.com |language=en-US}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [https://jabberwocking.com/ Kevin Drum's blog] at Jabberwocking
- [http://webdelsol.com/The_Potomac/newpotomac-kdrum.htm Kevin Drum] interview at The Potomac Journal
- {{facebook|kdrum58}}
- {{twitter}}
{{Authority control}}
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Category:People with multiple myeloma
Category:California State University, Long Beach alumni
Category:People from Irvine, California
Category:People from Long Beach, California