SALON SPINS PUNDITGATE

Interesting piece by Eric Boehlert in Salon today, arguing that I’m tougher on Paul Krugman than I am on the other Enron pundits because I have an ideological ax to grind. Well, of course, he’s right to some extent. I have long found Paul Krugman an insufferably pompous, shrill, Bush-bashing pseudo-populist and so it was particularly galling to see him neck-deep in corporate cash. But to say I let the others off is a little much. I exposed Bill Kristol’s money. Despite the fact that I work for the same paper and share many of his views, I also laid out in full Irwin Stelzer’s paper trail. Stelzer is also a close friend of Rupert Murdoch who owns the newspaper, the Sunday Times of London, that provides me with my largest source of income. I asked Peggy Noonan – facetiously – whether she had shredded her 1099s. The reason I was fair to Kudlow is because he was extremely forthcoming, honest and open about the whole thing – in extreme contrast to Krugman’s increasingly deranged spin. I helped pioneer the reporting of all this – and it has disproportionately affected the right. I confess to a little ideological schadenfreude with Krugman. But I don’t think it’s fair to say I gave everyone else a pass. How many other right-leaning pundits would finger four conservatives the way I did? I mean, I even beat Conason to the punch.