William Safire is retiring as the token conservative in the New York Times Op-Ed stable of writers. His replacement is John Tierney, formerly a reporter for The Times Metro desk, the Sunday magazine and a columnist.
According to CJR Daily, Tierney is for air pollution, urban sprawl, more cars, and free enterprise and is opposed to accurately characterising his sources or recognizing other points of view.
You might be saying that this makes him a perfect candidate to replace Safire, and you may be right, but we think we are looking at a new phenom – a running criticism of a talking head even before he produces his first column.
We wonder how long it will take before this filters down to our local columnists.
Are there any web sites out there that specialize in criticizing your newspaper – factually, ideologically, or just looney? If so, send us their URLs. Message Webmaster.