Fire the NYT!
Speaking of the increasingly unreadable Paul Krugman, is it just me, or is the whole stable of NYT columnists about two months past the drink-by date on the milk carton?
Tom Friedman has been writing the same column since 1997 ("Globalization: Wow!"), Nicholas Kristof is the guilty conscience I don't want to hear from at 8:15 AM, Bill Kristol's new column is generated entirely from a robot stored at the RNC, Bob Herbert is right but boring, and Maureen Dowd is now completely indistinguishable from one of the Heathers after losing a student council race.
David Brooks is the only columnist who is occasionally interesting, with his "I'm not a sociologist but I play one on TV" shtick. But that's like being #1 in a class full of kids held back a year.
Would there be any objection -- any at all? -- if we fired the lot of them and replaced them with a 7-day rotation consisting of Jon Chait, Barbara Ehrenreich, Michael Gerson, Daniel Gross, Bill Simmons, Charles Barkley, and Ted Nugent? With Keith Olberman or Flavor Flav thrown in as a wild card now or again?
Tom Friedman has been writing the same column since 1997 ("Globalization: Wow!"), Nicholas Kristof is the guilty conscience I don't want to hear from at 8:15 AM, Bill Kristol's new column is generated entirely from a robot stored at the RNC, Bob Herbert is right but boring, and Maureen Dowd is now completely indistinguishable from one of the Heathers after losing a student council race.
David Brooks is the only columnist who is occasionally interesting, with his "I'm not a sociologist but I play one on TV" shtick. But that's like being #1 in a class full of kids held back a year.
Would there be any objection -- any at all? -- if we fired the lot of them and replaced them with a 7-day rotation consisting of Jon Chait, Barbara Ehrenreich, Michael Gerson, Daniel Gross, Bill Simmons, Charles Barkley, and Ted Nugent? With Keith Olberman or Flavor Flav thrown in as a wild card now or again?
Labels: Rabid Conservatives, Rabid Liberals
posted by Earl Warren at 12:06 AM
3 Comments:
Did I miss the memo announcing N&B's conversion to Boalt's DailyKos?
To answer your question, EW: I'd object. I think that Krugman provides some great analysis of actual issues (and a viewpoint of someone who has avoided the Kool-Aid, though sometimes as risk of sounding a little shriller than I'd like), and Frank Rich is often good and occasionally great. On the other hand, I think pens, paper, and keyboards should file a restraining order against David Brooks. I think reasonable minds can differ on the columnists (though I'll admit that I can't see any merit in the others you name, though maybe for different reasons).
I say nay on the Bill Simmons suggestion--he's stuck in the mid-'80's. Charles Barkley, on the other hand, is a great idea.
Come on, EW! Gail Collins! How have you missed her? Her stuff has been really brilliant lately. She's what Krugman was to the first term of the W. administration and what Maureen Dowd was to Clinton impeachment.
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