It’s beginning to feel like The Daily on The New York Times’s opinion pages. First, Sunday columnist Frank Rich left for New York magazine. Then op-ed columnist Bob Herbert resigned after nearly twenty years on journalism’s most sought-after double-page spread—his last column was published in Saturday’s paper.
It’s fair to assume there are a number of changes in store for the Times’s band of thought-leaders—Andrew Rosenthiel Rosenthal, the editor of the paper’s opinion pages, is taking over the Week in Review section and will rename it and rebrand it with more opinion and commentary. We expect that with two recent departures and a new section to fill with thoughts and views, Rosenthal will be looking for new hires.
So we’re asking you: Whom should he call? We hear Kathleen Parker has a bit of extra time on her hands these days, though the Post probably wouldn’t allow that. And it would be fun to see an antagonist like Glenn Greenwald in the paper once a week. But whom do you want to read in the Times now that Rich and Herbert are gone?
Bob Somerby
#1 Posted by Ron R., CJR on Tue 29 Mar 2011 at 01:58 PM
Trying more than the previous commenter to stay realistic, though as left-wing as possible, I'll say Greenwald (who dearly loves his gig at Salon in which he exercises total editorial control, so I don't think he would budge in any case).
Chris Hayes seems to straddle the narrow category of viable yet decent as well.
I think the Huff herself is a good darkhorse to lay money on, now that she is jetissonning her former platform.
Of course this means they'll be pretty much all white, no? Perhaps then the field will be a strictly non-white one.
I guess that would eliminate Josh Marshall.
In any case, I fully expect a downgrade. Herbert was no genius, but he never lost touch with America's growing class problem, which main him stand out pretty starkly from the Times' and Post's default mentality.
#2 Posted by LorenzoStDuBois, CJR on Tue 29 Mar 2011 at 02:10 PM
I think they should try to poach some talent from The American Prospect - Adam Serwer, for example. I expect Jamelle Bouie would be up to the task, but he has a shorter résumé.
#3 Posted by Aaron, CJR on Tue 29 Mar 2011 at 04:56 PM
Here’s a novel idea, how about someone who didn’t work for Ramparts or the Daily Worker/People's World.
#4 Posted by Mike H, CJR on Tue 29 Mar 2011 at 05:28 PM
Whoever they go with will be Journ-o-list approved.
#5 Posted by Mike H, CJR on Tue 29 Mar 2011 at 05:31 PM
Melissa Harris-Perry
#6 Posted by Anna Clark, CJR on Wed 30 Mar 2011 at 04:39 AM
Over on The Audit, Ryan Chittum suggests that Neil Barofsky, the outgoing special inspector general for the TARP program, would be a nice addition.
#7 Posted by Clint Hendler, CJR on Wed 30 Mar 2011 at 12:54 PM
If they're looking to replace Herbert as something of an in-house conscience, my vote goes to John Judis. He's been writing brilliantly about policy and politics for a few decades, and never fails to make illuminate any topic he tackles. His smartly progressive/center-left orientation is in the best tradition of The New Republic, his current journalistic home, and perfect for the current Times op-ed page.
#8 Posted by John Ettorre, CJR on Wed 30 Mar 2011 at 02:30 PM
Raising hand here! :)
www.punditmom.com
In the alternative, how about one of the many other women political bloggers who write forcefully, eloquently AND from a point of view that is seldom seen in the New York Times or any other large media outlet. I've got names -- NYT, call me. :)
#9 Posted by Joanne Bamberger aka PunditMom, CJR on Wed 30 Mar 2011 at 03:31 PM
I vote for Joanne Bamberger aka PunditMom and also raise my own hand as available!
#10 Posted by Tracee Sioux, CJR on Wed 30 Mar 2011 at 03:41 PM
@ Joanne Bamberger aka PunditMom .... you are just what the Times needs, another left wing feminist who is hopelessly addicted to identity politics, that’ll hit home with mainstream America!
#11 Posted by Mike H, CJR on Wed 30 Mar 2011 at 03:48 PM
After Frank Rich, my favorite was Walter Shapiro, who I first read in the pages of USA Today, and who is not listed in the Huff blog so i guess he didn't survive the {Politics takedown.
#12 Posted by Mel Silverman, CJR on Wed 30 Mar 2011 at 03:50 PM
Robert L. Lindstrom's Literacy 2.0 blog at http://www.literacy20.com/ is really an important voice - wish he had a platform like NYT.
#13 Posted by Philip Merrill, CJR on Wed 30 Mar 2011 at 04:58 PM
How about Alicia Shepard, NPR Ombuds(wo)man, whose contract expires in June? She's well-spoken and has a great eye for politics and culture.
#14 Posted by sandra fish, CJR on Wed 30 Mar 2011 at 06:12 PM
If they can inhale all those blogging guys (whom they profiled in a boys-only bloggers profile) they certainly can choose among the crew of gifted women blogging on issues of all kinds. PunditMom for one. Go read her Politics Daily columns - or Jill Miller Zimon -- and Kelly Wickham whose moving posts on education, race and family would stand up against anything there at present. Or Robin Marty or Jessica Mason Pieklo, both of whom I work with at Care2. My twitter feed is full of gifted women watching the world. They aren't that hard to find.
#15 Posted by Cynthia Samuels, CJR on Wed 30 Mar 2011 at 09:38 PM
How about unfriending a few of the survivors, such as the Fishmonger, the worst fraud in American education, except for the ass who runs Language Log?
Really, the Fishmonger's thoughts on writing sentences are radically unsound. He is possibly a better case for psychoanalysis than Gaddafi. At least we know that the latter is around the bend. Fish just won't admit it.
If Killer elevates S. Fish, then we will realize that he has lost his mind. Totally. I suspect he (Bill) is steadily becoming the Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov of the American media anyway.
With his column cluttering up the Sunday Magazine. No doubt the basis of a lost book called "The Justification." If he is not close to the edge, I miss my mark.
In the Guardian's well-written account of WikiLeaks, Killer comes off as a grey man of a paper with imprecise secret bureaucratic instincts. I think he would be better off in Turkmenistan where he belongs.
My candidate is the author of "101 Theory Drive." If not, Lucifer. He spoke well in the ninth book of "Paradise Lost."
#16 Posted by Clayton Burns, CJR on Wed 30 Mar 2011 at 10:35 PM
I suggest Jill Miller-Zimon! Read her on her blog, writes like she talks
#17 Posted by Tamela Lee, CJR on Thu 31 Mar 2011 at 02:35 AM
Hopefully nobody!
#18 Posted by Ed Franks, CJR on Thu 31 Mar 2011 at 02:46 PM
How about Barbara Ehrenreich or Katha Pollit? Or Jill Miller-Zimon? Or the women at MomsRising? We need an Alison Stevens (British journalist) of the New York times. And they should know this.
#19 Posted by Nanette , CJR on Thu 31 Mar 2011 at 04:04 PM
How about the Toronto Star's Michelle Shephard or the former Washington and now Hufffington Post's Dan Froomkin. Whomever it is, the Times will be sure to bracket any liberal with at least two conservative voices, lest the conversation become shrill.
#20 Posted by E. Huntingdon, CJR on Thu 31 Mar 2011 at 08:08 PM
The UK Guardian's Jonathan Hari would be brilliant.
#21 Posted by E. Huntingdon, CJR on Thu 31 Mar 2011 at 08:11 PM
Even more important; why on earth would they move snarky Nocera to op-ed?
#22 Posted by Mike Robbins, CJR on Sun 3 Apr 2011 at 10:43 AM
Naomi Klein
http://www.ted.com/talks/naomi_klein_addicted_to_risk.html
Bethany Mclean
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-january-15-2009/bethany-mclean
#23 Posted by Thimbles, CJR on Sun 3 Apr 2011 at 07:43 PM
Guys from http://neweconomicperspectives.blogspot.com/
like Bill Black or HEY! Where did this guy come from?!
http://neweconomicperspectives.blogspot.com/2011/04/mr-greenspan-takes-it-all-back-his-old.html
#24 Posted by Thimbles, CJR on Sun 3 Apr 2011 at 07:47 PM
Whoops brain flatulence. I confused Michael Hudson with Michael Lewis:
http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/372964/february-01-2011/michael-lewis
Of course Hudson seems to have some chops.
#25 Posted by Thimbles, CJR on Sun 3 Apr 2011 at 07:52 PM
I suggest Connie Shultz out of Ohio.
#26 Posted by Michael J. Wilson, CJR on Mon 11 Apr 2011 at 03:50 PM