Glenn Greenwald: The NYT's latest Kristol embarrassment

[babylonsister]

Glenn Greenwald
Monday May 19, 2008 12:47 EDT
The NYT's latest Kristol embarrassment

(updated below)


In the short time since he was named an Op-Ed columnist at The New York Times, Bill Kristol has written a series of sloppy, error-plagued and incomparably hackish columns. He has already had to issue two factual corrections -- including one for the very first column he wrote -- and even his former comrades in war cheerleading, The New Republic Editors, said on Friday that Kristol's columns are "{b}landly written, intellectually lazy, and -- worst of all -- hopelessly predictable," and asked: "does Bill Kristol have to be this bad at it?"

But it just keeps getting worse. With today's column -- devoted yet again to hailing John McCain's greatness and Barack Obama's grave weaknesses -- Kristol makes yet another painfully slothful factual error. As this blogger at Room Eight notes, Kristol today wrote:

On Tuesday night, while the G.O.P. Congressional candidate was losing in a Mississippi district George Bush carried in 2004 by 25 points, Barack Obama was being trounced in the West Virginia Democratic primary -- by 41 points. I can't find a single recent instance of a candidate who ultimately became his party's nominee losing a primary by this kind of margin.

As is typical for Kristol, he just spits out factual claims without caring if they're remotely true, and apparently his NYT Editors -- if such a thing exists -- share his indifference. As Room Eight notes:

It took me all of 2 minutes to find what Kristol couldn't find --

Utah {Primary}] Updated 11:02 a.m. EST, Feb 14, 2008

Romney 255,218 -- 90%

McCain 15,264 -- 5%

Paul 8,295 -- 3%

Huckabee 4,054 -- 2%

The NYT should be very proud of itself. Of course, Kristol was hired at the NYT because his dad, Irv, was really good friends with former NYT Executive Editor Abe Rosenthal, whose son, Andy, currently runs the NYT Op-Ed page. Andy and Bill followed in their dad's footsteps by becoming good friends (and in every other sense), and Andy then hired his friend, Bill (son of his dad's friend), as the new NYT Op-Ed writer. So this is typically what one gets -- and deserves -- when driven by nepotistic impulse.

more...

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/05/19/kristol/

[yardwork]

1. Right-wingers have been writing sloppy, error-plagued, hackish columns for years.

It's interesting that people are starting to notice this. Why didn't they notice before?

[babylonsister]

2. In fairness to Greenwald, he's been pointing out the errors of a lot

of supposed journalists for quite awhile. Maybe now we're paying more attention?

[yardwork]

10. It seems that the mainstream media might be paying a little more attention.

Or it could be a mirage.

[Enrique]

3. Michael Medved repeated Kristol's thing on his radio show today

he also dismissed the Obama rally by talking about the "silent majority."

This election is going to be fun.

[Supersedeas]

13. yep, predictable kneejerk lazy filth -- Repigs always march in lock-step

[Truth2Tell]

4. By "this kind of margin" he must have meant

between 35% and 55%.

:shrug:

[samsingh]

5. kristol is a mental buffoon with a low iq - put a fork in him

[applegrove]

6. I was surprised they hired Kristal. But he isn't smart enough to do much damage so

maybe the silver lining is that the NYTimes gets to write more articles based on reality - while saying they are balanced with the far right. That is my hope for the NYTimes. Which I love.

[KoKo]

8. Kristol can do a lot of damage. Google "NeoCon" and Project for New American Century.

then you might understand why it's important to call out his Talking Point lies and exaggerations which he spews from the NYT.

[applegrove]

11. Of course we need to put down the stupidity he emits from the oped page

of the NYTimes. The point is it isn't that hard to do with Kristal.

[DCKit]

7. The wingers only want the pulpit.

They realize they're spouting pure BS, but, until someone with a bigger audience calls them on their BS, they'll keep shouting at the top of their lungs. The idea is to make a McCain win PLAUSIBLE by inserting the idea that he's a viable candidate - regardless of any semblance to the truth.

Tell a lie often and loudly enough and you can win - or steal - an American election. It's been done before.

[HamdenRice]

9. Kristol has been lying so long he doesn't really understand what accuracy is

Having observed Kristol cheerlead for the Bush administration for 7 years, it's clear that he sees his role to be a propogandist, not a journalist.

He has lied routinely and blithly. Now he is at the NY Times, he is probably surprised that there is something expected of his writing called "factual accuracy."

[gratuitous]

12. William Kristol is creating jobs!

Geez, you libruls are never satisfied. Kristol gets hired by the left-wing New York Times, and immediately two or three more full-time positions are needed just to compose corrections and clarifications for his weekly column. He's creating jobs, people! I suppose you'd rather just censor him, or give prime space on the Times Op-Ed pages to someone who will sit down and actually do research and stuff before writing a column. And what would happen to those full time correctors? They'd be out on the street, and the unemployment numbers would get worse, that's what would happen. Arrest my case!

[Wiley50]

14. Kristol's Blue Persuation? I think not

I doubt seriously if anyone (other than Limbots) voting in upcoming Democratic primaries

will have their vote influenced in the slightest by that evil slime

[SalmonChantedEvening]

15. Kristol only stops lying long enough to catch his breath.

And when he does, his lungs check for air twice. They don't trust him either.