Noam Chomsky is not dead yet

Everyone dies eventually, and famous linguist Noam Chomsky will be no exception – but as of this writing, he is alive. And unfortunately, his wife tells people that reports of his death are “false,” according to The Associated Press.

Chomsky, 95, was hospitalized in Brazil where he is recovering from a stroke he suffered last year. AP It was reported earlier this month that he has difficulty speaking and “the right side of his body is affected.” He is being treated by various specialists. This is undisputed.

Two publications, Jacobin And The New Statesman, published what looked like obituaries. (The new statesman deleted his post; Jacobin changed its headline from “We Remember Noam Chomsky” to “Let’s Celebrate Noam Chomsky” and edited its promotional tweet, although – notably – “obituary” is one of the keywords in the article’s URL.) Both The new statesman And Jacobin seemed at first glance to be reliable sources. Chomsky has written for the former and often interviewed the latter. But neither of them seems to have asked anyone who might know whether Chomsky is still alive.

Some of the confusion surrounding Chomsky’s condition has been preserved on a Wikipedia talk page, where editors are attempting to confirm reports of his death. On social media, meanwhile, users have posted old videos and other tributes in honor of Chomsky’s supposed death. Some of the reports of Chomsky’s death have been retweeted thousands of times.

“To the extent that the working people accepted the line fed to them by the media, he (Chomsky) never thought that this was due to their docility or gullibility, but to the great effort required to find alternative channels of information,” wrote Vivek Chibber in Jacobin, which, amusingly, is an approving summary of Chomsky’s media criticism. Of course, the media is not above criticism, but it is unusual for a piece of media criticism to so thoroughly violate a very basic norm: making sure that the target of an obituary is actually dead before it is published.

Publications often prescribe obituaries for well-known personalities. (For example, one of the authors of the obituary for Henry Kissinger in The New York Times died before Kissinger himself.) Occasionally these obituaries are published inadvertently, as in the case of a Bloomberg Obituary for Steve Jobs in 2008. Usually these mistakes are retracted, like The new statesman article was.

When I asked him for comment, Chibber replied by email: “I only wrote the piece. I am not involved in its production or publication.”

Jacobin did not respond to a request for comment.