Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Is WP's Cohen the Dumbest Columnist?

By Robert Parry
June 19, 2007

Granted it would be quite a competition, but is Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen the dumbest columnist ever?

In his June 19 op-ed, Cohen joined the latest Inside-the-Beltway craze, the neoconservative media riot over the 30-month jail sentence facing former White House aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby.

Read on.
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3 comments:

EvilPoet said...

"One could write media criticisms for the next several years and not come close to capturing the essence of our Beltway media the way Cohen did in this single paragraph:

With the sentencing of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Fitzgerald has apparently finished his work, which was, not to put too fine a point on it, to make a mountain out of a molehill. At the urging of the liberal press (especially the New York Times), he was appointed to look into a run-of-the-mill leak and wound up prosecuting not the leaker -- Richard Armitage of the State Department -- but Libby, convicted in the end of lying. This is not an entirely trivial matter since government officials should not lie to grand juries, but neither should they be called to account for practicing the dark art of politics. As with sex or real estate, it is often best to keep the lights off.

That really is the central belief of our Beltway press, captured so brilliantly by Cohen in this perfect nutshell. When it comes to the behavior of our highest and most powerful government officials, our Beltway media preaches, "it is often best to keep the lights off." If that isn't the perfect motto for our bold, intrepid, hard-nosed political press, then nothing is.

That is the motto that should be inscribed at the top of Fred Hiatt's Editorial Page in pretty calligraphy. And let us acknowledge what a truly superb job they have been doing in keeping the lights off.

-Glenn Greenwald, Salon, June 19, 2007
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/

Tue Jun 19, 12:58:00 PM 2007
librespondent said...

If you read the comments of readers of Cohen's column (published on the WaPo website) you will find that they all disagreed with Cohen. Many suggested that he be fired from his job.

Wed Jun 20, 03:13:00 AM 2007
i dont think so said...

Why is he dumb? I think he is very smart. Look - all these people who predicted that Iraq will be a calamity, where are they? They do not even know how to be right, while he is much better off being constantly wrong! This is SMART.
I would say that rather than calling him dumb, we call ourselves the dumbest public the free world knew ever. It is we who want to be fed lies as long as we look smart, noble and strong in these lies.
The neocon cabal lied us into the war but have we done anything about it? So, lets not call Cohen dumb.
Lets look at the mirror....

Alex Chaihorsky
Reno, Nevada.

Wed Jun 20, 12:26:00 PM 2007

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