NYT editor on the "intolerance" toward "serious, respected conservative intellectual" Bill Kristol

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Kristol Clear: It's Official --'NYT' Explains Hiring New 'Op-Ed' Wag

By E&P Staff

Published: December 29, 2007 6:20 PM ET

NEW YORK A day after the Huffington Post first reported it, The New York Times has announced that it has indeed hired conservative pundit, and Fox News analyst, Bill Kristol, as a new regular op-ed columnist. Liberal bloggers had been up in arms over the move. Kristol said, in an interview with Politico.com, it gave him some pleasure to see their "heads explode." Kristol was perhaps the most influential pundit of all in promoting the U.S. invasion of Iraq and has strongly defended the move ever since.

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....

“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?”

Unlike The Times’ other regulars, Kristol will write only once a week, with his first column set for Jan. 7, and he has just a one-year contract. The paper noted in its own announcement: "In a 2003 column on the turmoil within The Times that led to the downfall of the top two editors, he wrote that it was not 'a first-rate newspaper of record,' adding, 'The Times is irredeemable.'”

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003690036

[ixion]

1. intolerant?

the irony there is mind boggling, given the level of intolerance made popular by the neocons, of which Kristol is a charter club member. :grr: :argh:

[Poiuyt]

2. I guess the NYT feels it's better to be serious then credible

Bill Kristol is ALWAYS wrong

[rurallib]

3. "serious, respected conservative intellectual"

The comedy stylings of the NYT may yet be the funniest to watch this year.
The only words I can think of for Kristol are "consistently wrong and stupid.
Isn't "conservative intellectual" an oxymoron with the emphasis on moron?

[Botany]

4. The man helped spread lies & fear to help start an unneeded war ...

.... and we should tolerate that?

[NewYorkerfromMass]

5. Clearly the Times needed balance

They had to find someone who could be seen as badly as possible compared to Herbert and Krugman and Rich.

[asjr]

6. Goodbye Judith Miller--Hello

Bill Kristol! There must be some blackmail being used.

[zbdent]

7. Someone has to be there to explain why the NYTimes has hushed up

all kinds of stuff which would be horrible for Bush and Republicans ...

[unpossibles]

8. "this weird fear of opposing views"

oh please. We don't fear opposing views, we just don't like people lying to make them. And it's pretty ironic that the Right tries to claim we're the ones intolerant of opposing views considering how the NeoCons hold fake press conferences and pay for propaganda designed to look like news, and who complained about the news being too liberal because they used to be more balanced.

Yet more projection from the right.

Here's a message to the lurking trolls: I will respect your side's views more when you can be honest about them and when someone on your side manages to regain our trust. Respect is supposed to be earned.

[Enrique]

9. "giving voice" to Bill Kristol?

the guy has like a zillion jobs already. And he's always wrong.

[sinkingfeeling]

10. "..a serious, respected conservative intellectual ", who is he talking about? And we all know that

the Times's has more 'hawish' views on their op-ed page, but where are the 'dove' voices?