Definitely not a "knee-jerk liberal publication"
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Definitely not a "knee-jerk liberal publication"
The New York Times, the so-called "paper of record," adds to the record of how torture architect John Yoo got that Inquirer column:
Harold Jackson, The Inquirer’s editorial page editor, said he was surprised by the sudden delayed anger directed his way over Mr. Yoo. He said the decision to hire a columnist was his, but that “Mr. Yoo was suggested by the publisher,” John (sic..er, that should be Brian-ed.) Tierney.
“There was a conscious effort on our part to counter some of the criticism of The Inquirer as being a knee-jerk liberal publication,” Mr. Jackson said. “We made a conscious effort to add some conservative voices to our mix.”
The NYT also spoke with our CEO:
“What I liked about John Yoo is he’s a Philadelphian,” Mr. Tierney said. “He went to Episcopal Academy, where I went to school. He’s a very, very bright guy. He’s on the faculty at Berkeley, one of the most liberal universities in the country.”
To critics of the hiring, he said, “The most important speech to defend is the speech you hate,” and he said there were not all that many critics. “I’ve gotten more mail recently on our making our comics smaller than I have on John Yoo.”
I kind of thought they'd already dispelled that "knee-jerk liberal" thing by hiring Rick Santorum, Michael Smerconish, etc., but maybe that's just me. Two other quick rebuttal points (as I was cited in the Times article but neither called nor interviewed) would be that a) no one has ever said anything about denying Yoo the right to speak freely but this is about giving a megaphone to this man, out of about 4 million Philadelphians, who advocated -- successfully! -- for the United States of America to undertake torture amd b) there are plenty of principled, thoughtful and interesting conservative voices out there, along the lines of Andrew Sullivan, whose moral clarity on this particular issue would have brought some honor to 400 North Broad Street.
Here's a good rule of thumb: Newspapers should protect free speech, but should project moral vision.
"Just wanted to let you know that you accidentally referred to Andrew Sullivan as conservative." . . . . Well, he's not in the 21 percent minority of heretics, if that's what you mean.
Does this make me less than human? I have absolutely zero interest in Will's obsession with torture. Am I the only one?— AngryWhiteMale- "About 40+ million of these murders since Roe v. Wade." . . . . . Actually more than that annually in the US. And certainly trillions since the ascent of man, not counting God's abortions through miscarriage. It was perfectly legal during Jesus' time, and its odd that He never mentioned it in the Gospels.
- montani: ""About 40+ million of these murders since Roe v. Wade." . . . . . Actually more than that annually in the US. And certainly trillions since the ascent of man, not counting God's abortions through miscarriage. It was perfectly legal during Jesus' time, and its odd that He never mentioned it in the Gospels." Jesus doesn't not to relate every debauched practice of his time that was wrong for it to be wrong. One of the earliest extra-biblical documents mentions it. Even the Greek Hippocratic Oath mentions it as something doctors should not do. Your post also has another deficiency. Just because I cannot take another's life via murder does not mean God does not have prerogatives over His own creation. And that's ignoring primary and secondary causes being a factor. So the fact remains. Liberals tend (I know there are pro-life liberals) to support the murder of the unborn. They may not like feeling guilty. Their consciences probably are nagging them. Maybe that's why they get so upset about torturing al Qaeda members. It probably gives them a release valve and they don't have to listen to their consciences for a little bit.— geoffrobinson
- Bunch, YOU put the jerk in "knee jerk"— JingoGuy
- I am assuming that Yoo was hired since all former Nazi SS members have died.— Continuum
- (1) What makes a newspaper's reputation is not just the variety of it's columnists or writers but it's EDITORIAL comments and particularly it's political endorsements. Therefore, the New York Times and this paper are the very definition of knee jerk liberalism. (2) Andrew Sullivan is no conservative and you can have him along with that other one Specter. I guess you can then classify the both of them as "conservative Democrats" - you know, the 5% minority of heretics to the slavish 95% of Obama sychophants. (3)Will, what is like to know that Sarah Palin, author to be, will probably get a deal worth more than you will make for the rest of your life? If that awe inspiring jerk Alan Greenspan got $8.5 million from Harper Colins, what do you suppose the good Governor of Alaska will get? You can only dream.....(4)AGAIN to the editors of this divine paper, can't you limit the postings of this twit above. Day in and day out he consistantly posts 20% of the posts on any given subject. He is as much of a sleuth as the Pink Panther. Well, he's got the pink part down pat anyway.— WriteWinger
- I'm still fascinated that Yoo teaches at Berkley.— RG
Comment removed.- Comment removed.
- Will, i just heard you on Smerconish. You sounded like a scared kid when confronted by the principal when he asked you those questions...The fact is that "torture" was legal and we recieved great intel from it. Liberals still can't answer the question that would they waterboard a terrorist to save American lives? Why do they always waffle? And who said waterboarding is torture? Gouging eyeballs and chopping off fingers....now thats torture...and if it would save lives then I would be for that as well. And to the people that still believe that waterboarding is torture, then why does some of our military branches waterboard it's own for training purposes?? Are we torturing ourselves??— Front Man11
- Beating a dead horse, Vol. II. C'mon Will, isn't there a soccer story you could write about and spare us this pain?— jimmymack
- "I kind of thought they'd already dispelled that "knee-jerk liberal" thing by hiring Rick Santorum, Michael Smerconish," - you mean 0bamaconish, the "Republican" who voted for the 0bamassiah? That's the liberal version of "balance". Keep up that "customer is always wrong" stance... that's a great way to increase readership and business.— fafafooey
- "The fact is that "torture" was legal and we recieved great intel from it." Really? Ask Ali Soufan, or the FBI director, both have claimed the intel received from it was basically useless. Add in the sheer number of times, if you have to waterboard someone 83 times, common sense says it doesnt work.— RG
- Comment removed.
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