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Academic

: Essentially Contested America

Slate's Defense of Grand Caliph Bill Kristol

By Robert Justin Lipkin

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In a recent column, Slate's Jack Schaffer inexplicably defends the NY Times' appointment of Bill Kristol to its op-ed. page. Here's a sample: "Last week's appointment of Weekly Standard Editor William Kristol to a nyt:

once-a-week slot on the New York Times op-ed page induced grand mal seizures among the Huffington Post left and their political bedfellows. . . . A 'supercilious man,' wrote Nora Ephron, who called for Kristol's dismissal before he filed his first column. A 'confirmed propagandist,' added Erica Jong. An 'ideological bully and thug,' wrote Katha Pollitt. Jane Smiley upped the ante to 'a war-monger and a hate-monger' while Charles Kaiser wrote, with apparent endorsement, that many 'Times readers consider Kristol a third-rate neocon apparatchik.' . . . Times readers who expect the paper's columnists to mirror their views may not like the idea of an alleged war criminal like Kristol infesting its pages any more than they liked the idea of Nixon's pal Safire setting up a squat there. But they're the same people who'd boycott a restaurant just because it starts serving an entree they hate." If you can stomach it, click here for more of this tripe. Such a silly, duplicitous jermiad is designed to justify the Times' selection of one of truths' great manipulators and distorters. Few liberals would oppose the choice of Bill Buckley or George Will. Bill Kristol is a pit viper who uses its bite to further his own political agenda. For what that agenda might be click on ECA here. This virulent propagandist is anathema to tough, principled conservative journalism. His approach is paradigmatically partisan completely oblivious to any sense of impartiality. His obdurate commitment to the unprincipled dictum that the ends justify the means pervades virtually all his public pronouncements. Kristol has no commitment to journalistic accuracy or fairness, and will attempt to pillory anyone standing in the way of his way. Liberals attack Kristol not because he is conservative, but rather because he is unscrupulous. Schaffer appears not to be aware of this obvious fact. What this says about Schaffer is not complimentary.

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Full post as published by Essentially Contested America on January 07, 2008 (boomark / email).