LA TIMES UPDATE….Jon Chait now has a weekly column in the LA Times. He’s a great choice to be a columnist, and I say that even though his maiden effort is yet another tedious rant about what a poor candidate John Kerry is. Crikey. That’s not exactly an inventive hook for an op-ed.
Michael Kinsley’s tenure as editorial page editor is now about three months old, and the weekly columnist lineup looks like this so far:
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Two centrist liberals: Chait and Kinsley himself.
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One embarrassing lefty: Robert Scheer.
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One appealing neocon: Max Boot. (As near as I can tell, Boot is the neocons’ best ambassador to the real world. He’s a good writer and smart enough to stay away from the more Strangelovian aspects of neocon looniness.)
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One local color columnist: Patt Morrison.
Overall, this isn’t bad. I’d like to see Kinsley get rid of Scheer and replace him with someone who’s more persuasive, but who knows? Maybe that’s in the works. And how about a weekly blog column? Maybe pick a couple of good blog posts from the previous week and run them side by side or something.
Still, things are looking up. Another few months and the LA Times op-ed page might actually be competitive with its more famous East Coast competitors.
