Blogtastic

I share the sentiments of Atrios and Matt Yglesias on op-ed pages. The blogosphere has not killed the mainstream media, but it has rendered the op-ed columnist obsolete. That’s why I’m neither excited nor troubled by the Times naming John Tierney as the replacement for Bill Safire.

A year ago, I felt compelled to read all of the NYT columnists, even Dowd. I’d rail against the simplistic ideas and terrible writing of Tom Friedman, marvel at the incisive intellect and political aggressiveness of Paul Krugman, gape in terrified awe at the Lovecraftian product of Bill Safire’s imagination, and guffaw at the buffoonery of David Brooks. Now, I couldn’t care less. I hardly read Friedman at all, and rarely read Safire even before he retired. Krugman regularly gets my attention, but as Matt points out:

I’m thrilled that Paul Krugman has a column at the Times because the Times op-ed page is very influential and Krugman’s voice is invaluable. As a reader, however, I’d actually be much more interested in reading a Krugman-blog. The same is true, I would venture, of just about every columnist whose work I like.