Why does the NYT even bother running John Tierney's column?

[turbo_satan]

In my mind, he is to the Right what Alan Colmes is to the Left. Safire may have been a dirtbag, but at least he could write and at least he could be provocative from time to time. David Brooks is a far more capable opinionist from the Right and a much better foil for left-leaning heavyweights like Krugman, Herbert, Kristoff, Rich, and Dowd. But Tierney is an utter joke and a waste of space.

Am I the only one who feels this way?

[txaslftist]

1. Apparently.

[MN ChimpH8R]

2. No you're not

Tierney is a total waterhead. How he ever got one of the top spots in American newspaperland - a column in the NYT - is incomprehensible to me. In the words of Wayne, he blows goats.

[Inland]

3. It's low quality stuff.

I read his piece asking why flood control can't be a local responsibility like fighting fires, and thought: this idiot doesn't know that "flood control" along the Mississippi (and most other places) consists of levees that push water to the next locality, that is, consists of moving the flood to the weakest, lowest, or unluckiest point where everybody dies under the water of a hundred upstream communities.

If there was ever an example of how an overarching plan is needed for all localities, it's flood control. But apparently he doesn't think it through. Heck, I live on the prairie and I know that much.

[mcscajun]

4. Perhaps you should write to the NYT

Hell, we already heard this past month of a paper that dropped Ann Coulter because of a flood of letter-writing.

Let's get Tierney dumped from the NYT.

:)

[stopbush]

5. Brooks & Tierney are both hopeless.

One might even think it's all part of a lib'rul plot to make conservatives look stoopid!

[turbo_satan]

6. Disagreed on Brooks

He's a good writer, and although he's often a shill for the Right, he occasionally goes "off the reservation." He was fairly candid about the Katrina failures and just recently he expressed frustration about Bush's stonewalling, lying, and inability to admit error -- see this link:

http://mediamatters.org/items/top/200509120003

He has also written from time to time about class inequity from what I would regard as a fairly progressive point of view. I'm not a fan, mind you, but I do feel that it's important to keep an eye on how the other side thinks. And I maintain that Brooks does think every now and then, unlike knee-jerk droids like Tierney.