In which we decide to add a blog to our highly exclusive list!

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 4, 2012

Rosenthal takes a stand: Yesterday, we finally did it.

We don’t read a lot of blogs. Yesterday, we added Andrew Rosenthal’s blog, The Loyal Opposition, to our highly exclusive list.

Rosenthal is the editor of the New York Times editorial page. Watching him on TV, he has always struck us as a warm, genial person. But we haven’t been fans of his editorial page—and we were puzzled late last year when he started his blog. How could someone in his position have time for all this crap?

Yesterday, it was this post which caused us to add his blog to our highly exclusive list. Rosenthal wrote direct from Des Moines. Slaying an imagined dragon, he started out like this:

ROSENTHAL (1/3/12): Nobody Likes to Talk About It, but It’s There

DES MOINES—Talking about race in American politics is uncomfortable and awkward. But it has to be said: There has been a racist undertone to many of the Republican attacks leveled against President Obama for the last three years, and in this dawning presidential campaign.

“Nobody likes to talk about it?” Whatever you may think of Rosenthal’s complete post, he rattled off some of the most familiar material in the current political playbook. Everybody has made the same points; so has everybody’s uncle and everyone else’s great aunt. Whatever you think of Rosenthal’s post, the points he makes are extremely familiar. And yet, the editor of the Times editorial page seemed to think he was taking a dangerous stand. He seemed to think he was saying the things no one dares express.

Watching Rosenthal on TV, he has always struck us as a genial person. For the most part, though, we think the editorial page has done poor work under his direction. In the next few days, we may cite a few recent posts from his blog—for example, this. But good grief!

When we read that headline, we finally knew! Due to Rosenthal’s high position, we simply had to add this blog to our exclusive list.