November 15, 2004

Wanted: Right-wing apologist

Woooo! William Safire is finally stepping down as an Op-Ed columnist! Oh...but he's still going to be writing "On Language". Damn.

My favorite part of the article is this subtle commentary from Arthur Sulzberger, Jr.: "Bill's provocative and insightful commentary has held our readers captive since he first graced our Op-Ed Page in 1973." And soon they will be free.

Posted by Francis at 02:24 PM | TrackBack
Comments

The moment when I realized that William Safire didn't know crap about language has got to be the top jewel in my crown of disillusion. I had rejected his politics from ... well, before I had politics, I'm sure, but I looked forward to the On Language column every Sunday with true nerd's zeal (I also always checked out the castles-and-mansions ads in the magazine, deciding which were good and which lousy). Even when it became clear that nearly every week he would totally miss the point of some piece of youth slang, I cut him some slack, figuring that no adult ever got youth slang right. It wasn't until I was more or less an adult myself that I realized he was talking out of his ass on every single topic he brought up, not just on youth culture.
Somehow, realizing Edwin Newman was full of crap didn't have the same effect on me; I still have that copy of Strictly Speaking somewhere.

Thanks,
-V.

Posted by: Vardibidian at November 15, 2004 02:50 PM

He certainly ain't my cup of tea, but I hope he still goes on the Meet The Press with Maureen Dowd every once in a while. For some reason that is known only to the Gods, they're an interesting duo. If C-SPAN made a heady reality show with two forced to live together, I'd probably watch. Imagine the banter around the water cooler as people would say things like "Did you see Dowd zing Safire with that Puzo reference last night???"

I'm a sad, sad man.

Posted by: drew at November 15, 2004 04:55 PM