Two Weeks Straight

Last week, the Washington Post Outlook Section published an instantly infamous essay by anti-feminist Charlotte Allen on how silly and thoughtless women are (thus refuting her desire to be taken seriously). Today, the editors have chosen L. Brent Bozell, of the right-wing Media Research Center, to write a short, inaccurate history of the past twenty years of grievances of "the conservative movement" against the Republican Party, which has - as should be clear - neglected conservative policies and the conservative base except in rare instances (funny enough, he never once mentions abortion or school prayer . . .).

So, two weeks straight, some of the most important space in print opinion journalism is turned over to someone whose grasp of facts and reality is dim at best, often sliding in to Cloud-Cuckoo Land with such phrases as the following:

But after eight years of Clinton's corruption . . .

How anyone could type that sentence after all the facts of the matter have publicly exonerated Clinton from every charge of corruption (with the exception of a personal impropriety), while the Bush Administration is drowning in corruption - the mind boggles that an editor would let it pass without saying, "You know, Brent, this line right here? It's a bunch of crap."

But, after they published Charlotte Allen's piece of misogynistic nonsense, who would expect something like serious editorial oversight or vetting?

Who publishes next week? Silvio Berlusconi on media independence? Clarence Thomas on the death of racism on the right?

Maybe Leonard Downie on prudent editorial judgment in the newspaper business, and the high standards of American journalism?

And, of course, it's the internet's fault and the education system's fault and video game playing's fault that print journalism is dying. Not the lack of integrity and professionalism of the press. . .