No Shit, Sherlock

NYT Public Editor: Hiring Kristol "A Mistake"

When we broke the news that Bill Kristol would be joining the editorial pages of the New York TImes as a regular contributor, we called it "a move bound to create controversy." After a mistake-laden first effort, now the New York Times public editor Clark Hoyt has delivered his verdict: " Sulzberger and Rosenthal made a mistake." Hoyt's reasoning:

On Fox News Sunday on June 25, 2006, Kristol said, "I think the attorney general has an absolute obligation to consider prosecution" of The New York Times for publishing an article that revealed a classified government program to sift the international banking transactions of thousands of Americans in a search for terrorists.

Publication of the article was controversial -- my predecessor as public editor first supported it and then changed his mind -- but Kristol's leap to prosecution smacked of intimidation and disregard for both the First Amendment and the role of a free press in monitoring a government that has a long history of throwing the cloak of national security and classification over its activities. This is not a person I would have rewarded with a regular spot in front of arguably the most elite audience in the nation.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/01/14/nyt-public-editor-hiring_n_81326.html
Read Hoyt's entire argument here.

"Kristol was hired on a one-year contract for what amounts to a mutual tryout. He will continue as editor of The Weekly Standard and on Fox, but Rosenthal said Kristol would not advise candidates or take any other active part in the presidential campaign. If Kristol is another Safire, he has the chance to prove it. If not, he and the newspaper will move on, and the search will resume.
"

I submit that by getting this Op-Ed slot at the paper, at this time, he is taking an active part in presidential politics, and his one-year "try-out" doesn't matter because of the damage he will do leading up to the elections with his new pulpit.

Who TF were they kidding?

The point you make that he's already taking an active part with this new pulpit should be included with every correspondence to the Times about him. What liars they all are and it's sickening that they think people are too stupid to realize that.

Pity more Americans still haven't developed a fondness for critical thinking. It would change so much.

That's why he's there, make no mistake. PNAC rolls on, spreading carnage and chaos across the ME.

"Kristol refused to talk with me about this issue (his call for prosecution of the Times), or an earlier statement that The Times was “irredeemable,” or the reaction to his appointment — an odd stance for someone who presumably will want others to talk to him for his column.

"Rosenthal said Kristol’s comment about prosecution bothered him. It was, Rosenthal said, “a heavy accusation that put him in a category other than a journalist.” But he said that Op-Ed columnists are not necessarily traditional journalists, and he did not think that “holding one opinion” should be the basis for selecting or rejecting a columnist."

See, it's just "one opinion" (actually two - the Times should be criminally prosecuted to reporting facts, and it is irredeemable), and as far as Rosenthal is concerned, Kristol is such a hot commodity and unique voice, it's totally worth it to pay him to occupy some of the most valuable real estate in newspaper publishing. And gee whiz, it's only for a year:

"Kristol was hired on a one-year contract for what amounts to a mutual tryout. He will continue as editor of The Weekly Standard and on Fox, but Rosenthal said Kristol would not advise candidates or take any other active part in the presidential campaign."

Okay, it's an election year. And there's no indication whatsoever in Hoyt's column what will happen if Kristol (like George Will before him) advises candidates or takes an active part in the presidential campaign. Basically, Hoyt's column reduces down to "Yeah, hiring Kristol is a mistake. But there's one thing you haven't considered: Fuck you."