Sunday, March 13, 2011

Sunday Question for Liberals

Who would you like to see as a replacement for Frank Rich in the New York Times?

18 comments:

  1. You.

    (Ok, somebody had to say that. But seriously, there are many political bloggers I read who'd make fine columnists--finer, indeed, than a lot of the current ones. I'm a little worried about their being neutered by being hired by NYT--I still cringe when I see all the "Mr."s in Nate Silver's pieces--but the papers themselves would greatly benefit.)

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  2. Digby'd be great, but honestly there are too many pundits as it is. Maybe a class on logic, posted weekly, would be a better idea. If we had less punditry it's possible thinking for ourselves would come back in style.

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  3. James Fallows, though he probably wouldn't want to do a weekly gig.

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  4. Digby or Dahalia Lithwick.

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  5. I second Scott's comments. Fallows=My Hero.

    Any thoughts on the ideal NYT op-ed board line up? All time greatest, you picks.

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  6. Matt Steinglass. He's like a high-OPS 26-year-old turning 27 in June

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  7. It would be a pretty radical move at his age, but I'd be for E. Klein. Though it might be better to keep someone with an arts connection...

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  8. I'd love to see Andrew Sullivan with the NYT, although his politics are obviously somewhat different from Rich's.

    Maybe Matthew Yglesias. His biggest problem as a blogger is his titanic struggle with the typo; NYT would resolve this. Ezra K. is a good idea. I agree with Kylopod that our humble host would also do a fine job.

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  9. I suppose I'd rather not see any of my favorite analysts- and they're almost all bloggers- sucked into the NYT. I look at Ross Douthat (on the other side, sure, but still) and see him having to reposition himself quite a bit to be the Times' Token Conservative. I suppose they NYT doesn't need a Token Lefty as much, but I still think Rich's role was to nail down the left end of the debate, and most of my favorite people aren't those kinds of bomb-throwers.

    Either way, a weekly column with a set amount of inches is pretty limiting nowadays. I'd rather see the long-form, continuing stuff that blogs provide.

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  10. Though I liked that he generally articulated a more leftish (for mainstream punditry) perspective, frankly I was never that crazy about Rich's columns. I read them fairly frequently, but never cared much for his style for reasons I can't quite pin down.

    Most useful about his columns, to me, were his links--he really did an excellent job linking to stories that I may not have seen, and fitting them into an overall framework which might have been interesting or, more often, was totally irrelevant from my perspective.

    For me Rich basically provided a decent news roundup with a partisan, leftish spin. That's useful but it's actually pretty easy to do, so in a sense my answer would be "any number of people," so long as they are intelligent, up on current events, and to the left of Barack Obama. I don't think Rich brought anything particularly unique to the table.

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  11. Someone liberal who focuses on issues non-economic (so as not to overlap with Krugman). That rules out Ezra Klein, I think. Dahlia Lithwick would be really good. Civil rights, anyone? Or a foreign policy writer who can tell Friedman to be quiet. I guess Yglesias would fit that role.

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  12. Jamelle Bouie. Eminently reasonable, whip-smart.

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  13. Marcy Wheeler (http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com)

    Ok, that's not going to happen.

    Rachel Maddow.

    Digby and Katha Pollitt have already been mentioned. Ta-Nehisi Coates would be a good fit.

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  14. -- Steve M. of nomoremisdterniceblog.

    -- Kevin Drum

    -- Steve Benen, to comment on GOP craziness.

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