{"id":14081,"date":"2007-12-30T13:55:04","date_gmt":"2007-12-30T18:55:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/14081.html"},"modified":"2007-12-30T13:55:04","modified_gmt":"2007-12-30T18:55:04","slug":"nyt-confirms-kristol-to-join-op-ed-roster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/nyt-confirms-kristol-to-join-op-ed-roster\/","title":{"rendered":"NYT confirms, Kristol to join op-ed roster"},"content":{"rendered":"

In case there was any doubt, the early reports from the Huffington Post<\/i> were true<\/a>: Bill Kristol is, in fact, going to be a regular op-ed columnist for the New York Times<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Times’ editorial page editor Andy Rosenthal defended the move. Rosenthal told Politico.com shortly after the official announcement Saturday that he fails to understand “this weird fear of opposing views….We have views on our op-ed page that are as hawkish or more so than Bill….<\/p>\n

“The idea that The New York Times is giving voice to a guy who is a serious, respected conservative intellectual — and somehow that’s a bad thing,” Rosenthal added. “How intolerant is that?”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Rosenthal seems confused about the widespread criticism of the announcement, which is unfortunate — as an editor, one would like to think he at least understood why hiring Kristol is controversial.<\/p>\n

There is no “fear of opposing views” here. No one, to my knowledge, has suggested that the NYT<\/i> maintain an ideologically pure stable of op-ed columnists. If the Times<\/i> were to add yet another conservative to its roster, it would be disappointing, but hardly the stuff of outrage.<\/p>\n

Rather, the problem here is with Kristol specifically, because he is neither serious, nor respected, nor an intellectual, as evidenced by his recent assertion that criminal charges<\/a> against the NYT<\/i> may be necessary. John Cole spoke for many with this<\/a> uncharitable take: “[P]eople see Kristol for what he is, a complete imbecile who has (take your pick) either been completely wrong about everything or lying about everything, and thus unworthy of the column.”
\n
\nMatt Yglesias made a compelling case<\/a> earlier this year that Kristol’s punditry has been so irresponsible, that his commentary moves “from banal categories like ‘worst’ to more exalted realms of ‘dangerousness.'”<\/p>\n

Indeed, Brian Beutler added<\/a> at the time:<\/p>\n

I propose that we hereby refer to Bill Kristol as the most dangerous pundit in America. He has what seems like a mainline to the White House and yet, of all his colleagues, he is the most casually dishonest, the most outwardly war-hungry, and the most recklessly illogical.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I suppose my biggest beef with Kristol is just how consistent his errors have been. Generally, the law of averages suggests he would eventually<\/i> get a few assertions right, but Media Matters assembled a list<\/a> of recent Kristol observations — on matters ranging from foreign policy to campaign politics — all<\/i> of which are obviously, demonstrably wrong. In most professions, repeated failures are not rewarded with promotions.<\/p>\n

And therein lies the point of the NYT<\/i> controversy. If the paper wanted to hire a “serious, respected conservative intellectual,” they picked the wrong person for the job<\/i>. There’s simply no need to reward someone so foolish with one of the most prestigious jobs in American journalism.<\/p>\n

That Rosenthal’s silly, defensive response is so unpersuasive suggests the paper does not yet realize just how unwise the Kristol decision really is.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In case there was any doubt, the early reports from the Huffington Post were true: Bill Kristol is, in fact, going to be a regular op-ed columnist for the New York Times. Times’ editorial page editor Andy Rosenthal defended the move. Rosenthal told Politico.com shortly after the official announcement Saturday that he fails to understand […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14081\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}