Purge: NYT Fires (Well, Fails to Renew the Contract of) Bill Kristol; Claim is That He Made Four Errors in Columns; Real Beef Appears to be Disloyalty

Seems like a good time for NRO to can Kathleen Parker.

Tough as this was for Kristol’s promoters, he might still have survived as a columnist had it not been for an attitude of casual and reflexive disloyalty he publicly displayed towards The Times itself. A good example came in an appearance with Jon Stewart on The Daily Show on October 30. Here’s the way Editor and Publisher described it:

“Appearing once again on The Daily Show, Bill Kristol, Jon Stewart's favorite whipping boy (‘Bill Kristol, aren't you ever right?’), on Thursday night defended the McCain-Palin ticket, at one point informing the show's host that he was getting his news from suspect sources. ‘You're reading The New York Times too much,’ he declared. ‘Bill, you WORK for The New York Times!’ Stewart pointed out.”

That, apparently, was the last straw for the Gray Lady.

As Newsbusters notes, barely a Paul Krugman column goes by without a large error -- and some of these are even noted by the Times' Ombudsman.

Although David Brooks seems to be center-left at this point, he began his stint at the Times as a conservative, or at least Rockefeller Republican who supported Reaganite/Kempian economics. But as soon as he joined, he could offer but nothing but praise for the Times -- greatest newspaper in the world, they really try to keep bias out of their stories, etc.

So that would seem to be an absolute rule at the Times: One can never, ever criticize the paper and expect to keep one's job.

I give Kristol props for never selling out like that. Sure, he took the Times gig, but he never seemed all that impressed with it or considered it all that precious. Unlike Brooks, who lives for it.

Thanks to CJ.

Related: Chris Matthews, Eli "Chiseled Pecs" Saslow named as chief media slobberers in Bernard Goldberg's new book.

posted by Ace at 02:46 PM

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