Why does townhall.com have so many teeny bopper columnists?

[bluestateguy]

Take a look at their columnist website and alongside the usual conservative columnists from Michelle Malkin to George Will to Bob Novak, you will find that they regularly have columns posted by interns from the Heritage Foundation or other right wing think tanks or even conservative campus groups.

Call me elitist (I don't care), but I'm a little old fashioned when it comes to my standards for columnists. In the old days of journalism, a columnist was usually a sage wise old man or woman who had been around the block, someone who could offer a word or two of maternal/paternal advice and perspective amidst all of the madness of current events and politics. Can some 21 year old intern at a think tank really do that?

[Lexingtonian]

1. Our sages

are not keeping up, unfortunately. Look at David Broder- he's always behind the curve, struggling to keep up with it. As for our side's pundits and wise folk, they're not doing too well either. Overcoming internalized conservatism and a view of the country and the world taken from the late Cold War isn't easy.

As for the Republican adolescent brigade- look at the rationality, mental age, and maturity of the audience they're supposed to appeal to. It's a perfect match.

[izzybeans]

2. Think of them as horses in the stable. Periodically, after a bunch of

whipping and cattle prodding they are allowed to run circles in the field. Nothing more or less.

[NYCGirl]

3. Maybe they don't pay and the columnists are working for something to

put on their resumé?

[Dr Ron]

4. Don't need experience or knowledge to do what they do

As all they do is repeat the standard talking points, they don't need experience to provide the wisdom to write something meaningful

As they twist the "facts" to support their conclusion (or make up the "facts" as they go along) they don't need expertise in what they are writing about.

Hell, you could train a chimp to write most of what they write:

[Dr Ron]

7. Correction

The chimp on the right is proving to be an above average conservative writer.

The chimp on the left was not able to handle the work and was reassigned to a simpler job.

[deutsey]

5. Because the Right takes seriously cultivating its next generation of

pundits.

We, apparently, do not.

[Book Lover]

6. They're there because the Repubs take care of their own

Where is a similar slate of newly minted journalists on our side?