Last year we learned that Maureen Dowd lets her assistants write her columns. Yesterday we learned that she lets her friends write them. Either that, or she is a plagiarist, take your pick.
Alisson Kilkenny of the Huffington Post suggests that all this is a kind of subconscious plea for help on Dowd’s part; a plea to be relieved of a job for which she is unfit. Kilkenny suggests that Josh Marshall, who Dowd (or her friend) plagiarized, should replace Dowd on the Times’ op-ed page.
I can understand Kilkenny’s argument, and I sympathize to a certain extent. But really, this is definitely not a good idea. Not everyone can survive the experience of writing for the NY Times with his or her brain intact. Sure, there are the outliers like Paul Krugman, Frank Rich and Bob Herbert (Hebert?), but consider Dowd herself, who was at one time a competent reporter until her editors decided that she had opinions that should at all costs be shared with the rest of us. It’s been many years since that transition took place, and some of us are still trying to figure out exactly what those opinions are. We know that she is ever so clever with the put down, that her inability to find a husband has something to do with the defects of all men everywhere, and that she did not act inappropriately at Barneys that time, but as to whether she has any principles or believes in anything, well the jury is still out.
But it’s not just MoDo. Look at Bill Kristol. Well, don’t look at him. Just think about him. No, that’s even worse. He wrote for the Times for a year (or was it longer? It certainly seemed longer). His first column was factually challenged. as was nearly every column thereafter. Wait, Kristol doesn’t prove my point at all. He had no brain to keep intact, since his fact free meanderings were totally consistent with his performance prior to his stint at the Times.
Well, then, consider David Brooks. He still writes for the Times, right? He’s the guy who presumes to channel and eulogize the mindset of the “real” America, while preferring to live securely within the beltway. It’s not his fault if he gets his red state/blue state facts all wrong. There’s only so many times you can hit the bulls-eye when you insist on shooting blindfolded. Surely he must have done something to establish his status as a perceptive cultural observer in order to earn the column in which he belies that reputation on a regular basis. I’m sure he must have, but like him, I’m too lazy to fact check.
So, maybe I haven’t proven my point. Maybe it’s just garbage in, garbage out. But no matter, I invoke my own privilege as a two bit pundit to bravely assert and let the facts catch up if they can. And I continue to insist that we should let Maureen stay where she is, cry for help be damned.
As for Josh, he’s fine where he is. Besides, given Dowd’s tendencies to phone it in, his work will probably be finding its way onto the op-ed page with regularity, if not with attribution.
Post a Comment