There are those who have suggested, by email or comment, that I read and post about some idiotic Kaplan column. Well, along with ditching Politico, I’m not longer linking to the Kaplan editorial page, unless it’s Ezra or Dionne or some kind of special circumstance, i.e. something surprisingly good (Broder did write the definitive Rahm column, IMHO) or, more likely, surprisingly bad (the key word here being surprisingly). But I will link to Jack Shafer’s excellent slam of the operation:
In a perfect world, a publication is edited for readers. In the imperfect world that we inhabit, too many publications are edited for the benefit of their staffs and their friends and associates. The Washington Post op-ed page, which hoards its space for its own, is one of the worst offenders.
An honest question along these lines: who is Richard Cohen supposed to appeal to? As awful as the others are, I can see that there might be an audience for most of it. Maybe not Michael Gerson either, but I can imagine some theocons liking his column (though I suspect most of them think he’s an asshole too). Does anyone like Richard Cohen’s columns?
Update. I don’t mean “do any of you like Richard Cohen’s columns?’, I mean “is it possible that there exists a creature who likes Richard Cohen’s columns”. Assuming the existence of an infinitely idiotic Fred Hiatt, can a Hiatt-hired columnist write a column so inane that Hiatt himself cannot read it?
General Egali Tarian Stuck
Jaysus, What are we gonna do with you?
beltane
David Broder might like Richard Cohen’s columns, although there is a good chance he never actually reads them. By the way, my mother recently told me that David Broder was a nice, well-intentioned old man and that it was mean to pick on him. Sigh.
somethingblue
Hey! Richard Cohen is a very engaging writer. This is well known in certain circles, which is why, even back in elementary school, he was sometimes asked by the teacher to “write something engaging.”
Xecklothxayyquou Gilchrist
Cohen? Everybody likes him because he makes them laugh.
Srslychixdigit.
snarkout
I hear high school math teachers love Richard Cohen.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
think… think… think….
Smarter Republicans must view Cohen as a useful idiot. I can imagine Tom Delay chuckling over RC’s 2000 column that Al Gore should concede because Republicans, specifically Delay, are meaner than Dems.
Nothing funny about his “therapeutic violence” column, which was evidence of some mental illness.
Toast
I think Karl Rove’s leather slave likes Cohen. That’s probably about it.
beltane
This could also apply to Ross Douthat aka Chunky Bobo. Besides Andrew Sullivan, does anyone read his column other than for the purpose of mocking him?
DougJ
@beltane:
I’ve seen Broder asked which columnists he likes in various discussions and he goes out of his way not to mention Richard Cohen.
Linkmeister
Actually, if the Post just dumped Fred Hiatt as the page’s editor that might solve some of the problems. Surely a new editorial page editor would want to bring in “new blood,” wouldn’t he or she?
Lev
Wait, wasn’t Richard Cohen quitting? Fucking tease.
Ron Beasley
Washington Post OP-ED page = washed up pundit welfare.
Tom Q
I’d analogize Richard Cohen to Dennis Miller: Miller was never truly that funny, but he was tolerable until the ideas he was advancing became rancid. Cohen never approached the writing ability of the finer DC pundits, but back in the day his run of the mill vague liberalism kept people from noticing. Now that he’s absorbed the Village Standards (push for Iraq, defend Libby, attack Colbert, etc.), we notice how unexceptional a writer he was to begin with.
Anne Laurie
Richard “Caligula’s Horse” Cohen is the starchy filler in the Kaplan Daily’s sausage — there’s nothing objectionable about his columns except that they’re taking up space that should be occupied by something meatier.
And I believe that Cohen’s place-holder qualities are exactly what’s endeared him to the WaPo lords of the Media Village. Publishing Cohen columns is their way of telling their readers that, yes, they could do better, but they don’t feel like it and we can’t make them. He is the insult added to the multifocal injuries of his fellow WaPo columnists.
kth
Read the whole article: towards the end, Shafer proposes Bush family fiend John Ellis and uber-racist Heather MacDonald as alternatives. Compared to the likes of them, Richard Cohen doesn’t look so bad (Shafer himself is totally overrated, his media analysis totally warped by his John Stossel-esque worldview).
DougJ
@beltane:
I cede to no one in my dislike of Chunky David Brooks, but he’s nowhere near as bad as Richard Cohen. Scarier, yes. If you asked me who of the two is more likely to barricade himself in his home, shoot at the police, and issue confused manifestos, before torching the place, killing all within, I would go with Douthat. But his columns are much better than Cohen’s.
Lev
@Tom Q: I don’t know…I seem to recall liking him on Saturday Night Live, though it might have been because he wasn’t writing his own material back then.
Litlebritdifrnt
Really stupid question but isn’t this a bit like Gordon and Marcus sitting in an Indian Restaurant at 1am waiting for the newspaper reviews of their new restaurant coming out? I mean how many people pay attention to this stuff? We are all wonks, obviously, and we have all been rivetted by twitter today seeing how a “no” turned to a “yes”, but in all seriousness how many of the vast majority of the population of the US even gives a shit? How many of the population of the US even KNOW that this stuff is going on? My guess is about 1% at best. The rest of them are just going to work, doing their jobs, and watching American Idol.
Calvin Jones and the 13th Apostle
I’m not longer linking to the Kaplan editorial page, unless it’s Ezra or Dionne or some kind of special circumstance
Eugene Robinson isn’t good enough?
Napoleon
@Calvin Jones and the 13th Apostle:
or Myerson.
But regardless the less of the WaPo the better.
WereBear
@Anne Laurie: I love that.
beltane
@DougJ: True. Douthat is mostly just silly whereas Cohen is toxic.
PeakVT
who is Richard Cohen supposed to appeal to?
Cohen serves the same purpose for the Test Prep Daily as Alan Colmes does for Faux. Audience appeal is irrelevant.
Brian J
I don’t know the last time I read a Richard Cohen column, so I can’t say. In fact, the last time I read a Post column regularly was when I did a research composition on newspaper columnists and picked George Will, not really knowing who he was.
I’m sure there are a lot of great columnists out there, but the Internet isn’t short on opinions, to say the least. And many of them are even expert. So is there really a need for a lot of newspaper columnists? I’m not sure how they make, but wouldn’t the money be better spent by contributing to the budget for investigations by one or two (at minimum) really good reporters? I don’t expect this to happen any time soon, but perhaps a major paper could turn its opinion section into something like The Huffington Post and divert the resources into something that most ordinary people can’t do, which is actual news gathering and reporting.
Lev
@Litlebritdifrnt: Fair point. I’ve gotten into fights with my conservative parents over whether the MSM is liberal or not, and even though they’re fairly well-informed (i.e. they get news from sources other than just Fox), they don’t know who the fuck Richard Cohen is, or anyone who writes for the Washington Post for that matter. I envy them. I guess you gotta be a blogger.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Actually, I remember Richard Reeves years ago saying that he thought Cohen was overdue for a Pulitzer. I like Reeves, and I wonder when I read his columns if he still thinks Cohen should get a Pulitzer.
El Cid
@DougJ:
Is there evidence that Hiatt reads any of the columns anyway?
Otherwise, QOTD.
Ash Can
Who?
kommrade reproductive vigor
Assume?
And no. SA2SQ.
jl
Richard Cohen is a spoof. He is long running David Letterman absurd comedy gag.
Everyone knows this.
Corner Stone
Grendel?
Mark S.
Here’s a Cohen column where he refutes the notion that Israel is an apartheid state:
See, you can’t really count what Israel is doing in the West Bank because it’s not part of Israel, even though it more or less controls it militarily, and it won’t be part of it in the future (stop pointing at those settlements!) –hey, why don’t we talk about how awful Saudi Arabia is to women?
The Main Gauche of Mild Reason
@Corner Stone:
I’m thinking more Grendel’s mother.
freelancer (itouch)
@beltane:
wasn’t it sully who posted shrill Larison in response to Mr. Witherspoon’s obviously silly tract about comity and naïveté? I think even he is having a frustrating time carrying water for idiots like Ross and Megan.
dmsilev
First off, I think we can take that initial assumption as having been proven. Secondly, Hiatt hired Kristol to write for Kaplan. I submit that this proves that Hiatt’s capacity for inanity (and insanity) is at least aleph-null.
-dms
gnomedad
OT, Michael Moore is fat.
beltane
@freelancer (itouch): It’s not that Sullivan agrees with him; it’s that he expends so much energy in refuting him. Most of us just laugh.
binzinerator
An affirmative answer to this could very well become the benchmark for determining the existence of the Wingularity.
It’s a bit like an inverted Turing Test.
freelancer (itouch)
@gnomedad:
Oh don’t get me started…
https://balloon-juice.com/2010/03/18/dennis-steps-up/#comment-1631831
https://balloon-juice.com/2010/03/18/dennis-steps-up/#comment-1631849
today’s been a long day.
Sly
People who have an emotional attachment to conventional wisdom like reading Richard Cohen. I’d say the same for Broder, Friedman, Ignatius, Joe Klein, etc. This isn’t to say that all of these writers are fully wed to the conventional wisdom on every subject at all times, or that even what they’re writing is either conventional or wisdom in any respect. A lot of it is just the common perception within the circle of NY/DC local elites, unconsciously framed as conventional wisdom.
Anyway, it’s that they ultimately prefer the safety of being associated with it, for a variety of reasons. As do their loyal readers.
Bloix
Elderly Jewish ladies like Richard Cohen. A heck of a lot of old people who haven’t had a new idea in a decade or two read the whole paper very carefully every day. They identify with him.
ajr22
OT Why does Hannity hate the troops? http://bit.ly/bBbsOI
Texas Dem
“I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.”
R. Johnston
Richard’s column is one that only a mother could like. Per Cohen’s infamous Bernie Madoff column, he graduated high school in 1958. I don’t find any information about his mom in a quick search, but if Cohen was born in 1940 or 41, she’s significantly more likely than not to be dead by now. Therefore we can conclude that the chances are indeed quite slim that anyone, anywhere, likes Richard’s column.
Mark S.
@ajr22:
At first I was pretty pissed off that link went to Debbie Schlussel’s site, but goddamn, that was the greatest thing I’ve ever read (better than 10 Hamlets!). I really fucking hate Hannity and would love it if this scandal brought that smug asshole down.
Sly
@ajr22:
When Oliver North tells you that you’re acting like a self-serving asshole….
Corner Stone
@The Main Gauche of Mild Reason:
You know, now that I think about it, I’m pretty sure my ex-mother-in-law doesn’t even know who Cohen is.
Glenn Burke
Richard Cohen provides fodder for Wonkette. What better qualification could he strive for?
OriGuy
You don’t have to read the WaPo to read Cohen. He’s syndicated all over. I know I’ve read him in the San Jose paper, before he went over the edge.
SRW1
You sort of answered your own question: Fred Hiatt. Or maybe Cohen has something on him.
Attaturk
Richard Cohen allows me to knock out at least a half-dozen posts a month between my blog and when I post at FDL with no need to think of a snappy title — it’s just “America’s Concern Troll” six times a month, though I don’t like him at all — I’ve learned to appreciate him, like a treatable, but permanent, malady — say “psoriasis”
Doctor Science
@ajr22:
Get your umbrellas, folks, the pigs are cleared for liftoff. Debbie Schlussel has done actual investigative journalism. Hot damn, wonders really *will* never cease.
I hope she mounts Hannity’s malodorous hide on her wall.
lou
I remember way back in the 80s bitching about Cohen’s column because it seemed at the time there were some good conservative columnists but only terrible liberal ones. Cohen was evidence #1. He’s only gotten worse.
At the Post, my two favorite columnists are Eugene Robinson and Colbert King. King is a read because he’s the only person in the entire newsroom who seems to do any local investigative reporting. Why it took a once-a-week columnist to uncover the incompetence of DC’s paramedics, I’ll never know. Why didn’t an actual reporter dig out the story?
But other than them, Dionne and the occasional piece by Zakaria, there are no good Post columnists. And their op-eds are the worst. Fred Hiatt should be fired tomorrow.
Howlin Wolfe
@beltane: “Chunky Bobo” is an NYT writer, isn’t he? Either way, I love the moniker! Inanity, pomposity, concern trolling, and cluelessness all rolled into one – Bobo or C-Bo, take your pick.
forked tongue
Sully is obviously a smart man and a talented blogger, but I always do a little double-take when he persists in linking to McArdle, Douthat, or Dreher even to take issue with them–who the fuck takes them that seriously??