OUT OF THE MAINSTREAM

An interestingly Freudian couple of sentences in David Greenberg‘s assessment of Paul Gigot, the new Journal opinion poo-bah in Slate. Greenberg writes: “Some conservative columnists earn mainstream respect by dint of intellect, style, or originality (William F. Buckley, George Will, William Safire) while others earn it by their overtime working of sources (Fred Barnes, Robert Novak, William Safire).” Now, the question is: could this sentence ever be written about liberal columnists? What does a liberal columnist have to do to “earn mainstream respect?” The answer is nothing. Liberal columnists already have respect from the mainstream of journalism – because they’re liberals. The notion that William Safire or George Will have to earn such respect but that Bob Herbert and Anna Quindlen don’t is, of course, ludicrous. But there you are. At least David has helped clarify the state of affairs in our journalistic mainstream. Conservatives are only admitted if they seem, to the ruling liberal mind, not to be “haters,” or if they dissent in some way from conservative orthodoxy. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t buy the mother lode of conservative orthodoxy myself. But I see no reason why it shouldn’t have an unquestioned place in “mainstream” journalism, where unquestioned liberal platitudes were ensconced by divine right decades ago.