No one ever said Bill Kristol totally lacks a sense of humor. But he probably wasn't kidding today when he told Howie Kurtz, in referring to his new bosses at The New York Times: "They're believers in diversity and so am I. They could use a pro-Bush, pro-war, pro-life, pro-eavesdropping opinion now and then, don't you think?"
More from Kurtz: "Kristol says he plans to 'leave the Times alone' in his own writing but told Publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. and Editorial Page Editor Andrew Rosenthal that would not be the case for his magazine [The Weekly Standard], owned by Rupert Murdoch. 'I made clear I'm not censoring the Standard in any way, and they said they didn't expect me to,' he says." Asked about detractors who say he has been discredited by years of optimistic predictions about the Iraq war, Kristol says: "Critics come with the territory."
5 comments:
Interesting catch on Huckabee's position. Followed from E & P to here. Just finishing media studies grad degree; was glad to see you posted your upcoming book up high on your sidebar. It's on my list to buy. It was terrifically interesting studying the media during these last years.
His quote is the issue. Kristol isn't really a pundit, he's an advocate. He will never cede ground on any issue. I don't mind hearing counterpoint from my position, I just want it thought out and dealing with a factual base.
Kristol will do neither. Facts are only important if they support his position.
Give me a topic and I'll write his column before it comes out. A predictable spin doctor has no value to me.
Kristol is not a journalist. He is a whore. He is nothing but an advocate, and he is an advocate who is always wrong.
Several years ago, I called a call-in show that he was on, and repealed his pundit license. It's still repealed. He is still the most unreliable and consistently incorrect pundit writing today.
Critics may come with the territory but outright lies and falsehoods should be overwhelmingly condemned by anyone with a conscience. He is a chicken-hawk that cannot tell this critic an veteran about war and he sure can't tell us that officers are the best information source about what is really going on in the military.
How wrong can you be and still have credibility. Apparently the N.Y. Times, in their zeal for hearing "two sides of the argument" have forgotten that sometimes intestinal fortitude is important too. The newspaper is anything but "liberal" so why turn the tail and run at the suggestion by FOX.
Maybe the NYT will hire Alex Cockburn, given his serious critiques of the press, including the New York Times.
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