January 17, 2005
Krauthammer needs no defense
But I think I'll provide it anyway.
Dov Bear is quite infatuated with James Walcott's critique of Charles Krauthammer's column. I don't see what's particularly compelling about Walcott.
Truth is I was rather put off by the title of the Krauthammer column, "Rather Biased." (Not whatever name Walcott assigned to it. "Rather Biased" was the title for the column in Krauthammer's home paper the Washington Post as well as his column at Townhall.) For one thing since there's already a website with that name. For another, I couldn't imagine what new ideas he'd bring to the column.
I'm happy that I did read the column for Krauthammer did bring a new perspective to the sorry affair. Krauthammer's central idea was that the idea that 60 Minutes Wednesday was simply careless held no water. If Mary Mapes had been working on the case for five years there was no justification for rushing the story to air without adequate documentatin of the charges. That lack of justification is indicative of the bias under which the 60 Minutes team operated. It was an angle to the story that I hadn't considered. Maybe I'm just slow.
Try as Walcott might, it's hard to tar Krauthammer with the same conservative label one might attach to George Will. Krauthammer started in politics as an appointee to the Carter administration and rose to become Walter Mondale's speechwriter. He came to his conservative views through re-thinking his assumptions. Then again nuance seems to have escaped Walcott.
Before I go and you think what an idiot I am for misspelling Walcott's name, I figured if he could a title wrong and be considered profound, I figure that an intentional misspelling may give me a positive mystique.