Posted date: 2010-02-05

Posted By : Marc

I have been drowning in media recently. I had already noted that the books currently in my possession have probably already exceeded my lifespan. But then I realized that I should just as well cancel my New York Times subscription. It is true that the Old Gray Lady is one of the few non-right wing publications left in the country. Unfortunately, they squander what integrity they have by employing "opinion journalists" (an oxymoron if ever I heard one) like David Brooks, Maureen Dowd, and Ross Douthat.

The last is really the tipping point. Brooks and Dowd are each wrong about 70-80% of time* with their 8th-grade-level discourse. Amazingly, with Douthat (and William Kristol before him) the failure rate approaches 100%. Brooks and Dowd (sounds like a terrifyingly bad country duo) occasionally pull off a well-reasoned or even eloquent column. There is no danger of that with Douthat. Beyond his poor writing skills, his pattern of thought bleeds into every paragraph. The pattern, that is, of a naive and pampered child of privilege who truly believes in the fantasy worlds of right-wing nuts.

I would say that Douthat seems to have an above-average intelligence. I don't mean he is in the same league as Brooks and Dowd, either of whom might actually present a bit of a challenge in a debate. Rather, I mean that he is not literally stupid like Glenn Beck or Sean Hannity. His writing suffers most dramatically from his profound naivete. He cannot write an article without betraying a profoundly limited lack of awareness of the world around him. He seems to really believe in the existence of the same kind of Randian fantasyland as The Atlantic's phenomenally ill-informed Megan McArdle.

Of course, I have provided no support for my allegations. This is not hypocrisy. If I claimed to be a journalist or if I accepted a six-figure salary as a journalist, I would do so. The sad part is that the sequestered child in Mr. Douthat will not ever be required to maintain anything like journalistic standards. So I will cancel my subscription.


*Note: see how I slyly snuck in a completely made-up number? That is what opinion journalists do for a living: make up statistics in support of their conclusions. Some would consider this estimate generous to Bobo and MoDo, but each has been known to produce quality articles. I defy anyone to produce a single Douthat article that does not present a profoundly insupportable conclusion.