columnists

Jay Mariotti Is the World's Worst Salesman

Hamilton Nolan · 08/12/13 09:55AM

Jay Mariotti, a childlike former newspaperman and celebrated asshole, was once a reviled sports columnist. Then he left the media for a three-year "vacation." Now, he's back with his own website. His hilariously inept attempts at promoting it are sure to be its very best feature.

Racial Profiling Is “Common Sense" to Kathleen Parker

Hamilton Nolan · 07/17/13 12:40PM

No matter how great the backlash, the venerable Washington Post is determined to publish explanations from white columnists of why Trayvon Martin's death was actually very understandable. Today: Kathleen Parker says that racial profiling is "common sense." Oh yes.

Hamilton Nolan · 06/12/13 04:08PM

The parade of columnists declaring their support for the NSA's massive secret spying program goes on, and on, and on...

Hamilton Nolan · 06/12/13 09:01AM

After writing two (2) columns about his daughter's college roommate, Thomas Friedman follows up with a column today that consists largely of quotes from a week-old David Simon essay. Thomas Friedman is no longer even trying.

The Vain Media Cynics of the NSA Story

Hamilton Nolan · 06/11/13 10:31AM

In the past week, we've witnessed the post-9/11 era's most comprehensive set of stories about the extent of the U.S. government's secret domestic spying programs. It's front page news worldwide. It's sparked a national debate over privacy and security. And some of our nation's most useless political pundits could not be more bored.

Frank Bruni Writes Column About Summer, As If Anyone Gives a Shit

Hamilton Nolan · 06/04/13 08:33AM

Although Frank Bruni is a bad newspaper columnist, he does write for a very influential newspaper, even if he doesn't always seem to know it. But we can't expect Frank Bruni to always be writing about "news." Sometimes, you just wanna say, "Hey, Frank: could you opine on the current season, for 800 words or so?"

David Brooks Column, or College Kid Musing About Girls? It's Both!

Hamilton Nolan · 03/29/13 08:55AM

David Brooks, a clumsy amateur sociologist who has improbably turned a talent for adjusting his glasses in a wise-looking manner into a gig as a nationally respected opinion columnist, is a busy man. He's teaching a class at Yale, okay? He can't be expected to come up with his own ideas every single week. Today, he hit on a novel solution to his quandary: just have one of his students write his column! You can hardly tell the difference.

Frank Bruni Column Based Entirely on Things that Flickered Across His Laptop Screen One Lazy Afternoon

Hamilton Nolan · 02/11/13 09:28AM

Well-meaning but inept New York Times columnist Frank Bruni is living proof that being a newspaper columnist is harder than it looks. As a normal newspaper writer and food critic, he seemed like a smart, erudite guy; as a columnist, he has proven to be remarkably free of insight or interesting ideas of any sort. Say, did you catch Frank Bruni's column Sunday entitle "The Land of the Binge?" If not, allow us to sum it up for you.

Thomas Friedman: Hyperconnected

Hamilton Nolan · 01/30/13 10:22AM

New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, a mustachioed humanoid robot with a limited vocabulary, was programmed by his creators to do whatever it takes to get his simple, cartoonish message across, even if that means repeating that message over and over and over without end in the nation's premier news outlet until all of us bow down and accept it, just to get him to stop saying it.

Peggy Noonan Is Still Permitted to Write About Politics for Some Reason

Hamilton Nolan · 11/09/12 10:44AM

Peggy Noonan, whose uniquely airy style of kindergarten-reading-level prose works upon the political chattering classes (but no one else) like a snake charmer's flute works on a cobra, wrote one of the most vapid, scoff-worthy, fact-free columns of the pre-election news cycle, in which she predicted that Mitt Romney would win because she'd been seeing a lot of his yard signs around, lately. Well, now comes the post-election follow-up: Peggy Noonan is resigning from her job as a WSJ columnist, in acknowledgement of the unavoidable fact that she is an embarrassment to her profession.

Peggy Noonan Went to Brooklyn

Hamilton Nolan · 10/02/12 09:13AM

Peggy Noonan. White. A white woman, yes, a Manhattanite, but a vital white woman, a woman of opinions, of breathing, of warbling on Sunday talk shows, about America—this America. This country. This great city, New York, where Peggy Noonan sips a gin fizz, contemplates that good American, Ronald Reagan (yes, a good man), and ventures forth—outwards, into the great bustling metropolis—to see what she can see. Lo! Peggy Noonan is surrounded by nonwhites. And what is that awful noise?