Salon published its “War Room Hack Thirty” the day before Thanksgiving. The list features Salon’s “least favorite political commentators, newspaper columnists and constant cable news presences, ranked roughly (but only roughly) in order of awfulness and then described rudely.” According to Salon, “Criteria for inclusion included writing the same column every week for 30 years, warmongering, joyless repetition of conventional wisdom, and making bad puns.”
The Washington Post’s Richard Cohen topped the list that included David Brooks, Mark Halperin, Maureen Dowd, Peggy Noonan, Bill Kristol, David Broder, Tina Brown, and Howard Kurtz. The assessments were not kind. Of Cohen, Alex Pareene writes, “He’s not so much an old liberal who grew conservative as he is a simplistic old hack who believes his common prejudices to be politically incorrect truths and his Beltway conventional wisdom to be bracing political insight.”
In response, Greg Mitchell at The Nation asked readers to vote for their “30 Media Heroes.” Unsurprisingly, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow topped a list featuring Amy Goodman from Democracy Now!, Keith Olbermann, Glenn Greenwald, Naomi Klein, and man-of-the-hour Julian Assange.
Today, we’re asking readers to take a look at both lists and vent. Who was unfairly besmirched? Who dodged a well-deserved dart? Who has no place on that heroes list? And, for those in the holiday spirit, who does?
Let us know what you think below. Enough responses, and we might be able to post a list of our own.
The Editors are the staffers of the Columbia Journalism Review.