Jennifer Rubin moves from Commentary to the Post's op-ed pages, which is obviously a smart move. Rubin had toiled in the vineyards of Pajamas Media and Commentary and the American Spectator for years, starting with smart stories that untangled complicated legal issues, moving to foreign policy and political punditry, and becoming one of the pundits that Republican politicians take seriously.
Michael Calderone mentions the hire in the context of my brief tenure at the Post mothership. I'm not privy to how these decisions are made, but I was hired in April to join the national desk, the politics section of the paper/web product; Rubin joins the opinion side of the paper. I covered the conservative movement with an inside/outside perspective; Rubin is absolutely in and of the movement. What we have in common is immediacy bordering on OCD -- I don't think Rubin can let any news go un-analyzed, which is what you want in a blogger/reporter/pundit.
My problem with Rubin is not her reporting and knowledge (which are both considerable), but the atrocious hackery she draws from it. I've pointed out her terrible arguments on a number of occasions, and if this is what the Post is paying for, then they are doing it on purpose. She's very eloquent and detailed as Weigel says, but her logic has more holes in it than the Bengals offensive line. In a very real sense, she's the anti-Maddow.
No, the Post is hiring a partisan flamethrower with a veneer of credibility, Dave. But you're right when you say it's a smart choice for them. Who's going to call them on it? Oh wait, Dave's already on that.
Carping from Media Matters about why the paper doesn't need more conservatives when it already has Will, Krauthammer, Gerson and Thiessen to begin in 3, 2...
Who the Post hires is the Post's business, but all this does is give Rubin's hackery a much wider audience. The Post is good for that these days.
On the other hand, the Post could have hired Megan McArdle, so there is that.
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4 comments:
Well, if Kaplan U. gets run out of business for ripping off students and taxpayers, as seems quite possible, there won't be a WaPo much longer. All these Beltway conservative columnists will be unemployed, certainly the Washington Times can't afford them all, and in part thanks to them, the safety net is frayed.
Somebody's jealous...
Not really, no.
*snerk*
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