Bill Kristol, co-editor of the Weekly Standard, has been named by The New York Times as a weekly op-ed columnist. The Times has apparently defended its appointment at least in part on the ground that it was giving a voice in its pages to "a serious, respected conservative intellectual."
I object! I certainly do not object to the Times opening its op-ed page to respected conservative intellectuals although I do question why it should select someone who already has enormous exposure in the mass media, both through his own Weekly Standard and as a Fox News contributor. I am a strong critic of all the mass media for their habit of looking to the well established commentators when they make a change rather than recruiting new voices that do not already have platforms elsewhere.
But my larger criticism is that I think Bill Kristol is a lightweight when it comes to serious conservative thought. No, I am not a subscriber to the Weekly Standard and I don't catch Kristol on Fox News very often. But I've heard enough of him over the years to reach my own conclusion that he is not a serious thinker (and certainly not to the extent his father was). He is bright, ambitious, outspoken and has had a successful career in politics and commenting about politics. If that is what The Times considers a serious, respected conservative intellectual, that's unfortunate.
It is fair to ask whether I think Thomas Friedman or Maureen Dowd are serious, respected intellectuals. I have difficulty describing either as an "intellectual" although Friedman has offered a fair number of good insights over his years of writing, combined with some simplistic thought and analysis. Dowd is certainly sharp tongued. But I still do not believe that Kristol has the intellectual firepower, as opposed to an ability to articulate a party line and market himself well, to be a weekly columnist in the Times. My view is in no way affected by his strong criticism of the Times in the past. That definitely would not disqualify him. It is the superficiality of his analyses, as I have heard them over the years, that does.
