Another RightWRONG pundit: Billy "William" KRISTOL = NostraDUMBASS!!1

[UTUSN]

*******QUOTE*******

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/capitalgames?bid=3&pid=153112

BLOG | Posted 01/02/2007 @ 06:21am

Kristol Clear at Time

.... ...They (neoconservative cheerleaders) were wrong. But they have paid no price for their errors. They did not have to serve in Iraq. None, as far as I can tell, have had sons or daughters harmed or killed in the fighting there. They did not have to bear higher taxes, because George W. Bush has charged the costs of this military enterprise to the national credit card. Though they miscalled the number-one issue of the post-9/11 period, they did not lose their influential perches in the commentariat. Charles Krauthammer, Richard Perle, Robert Kagan, Gary Schmitt, Danielle Pletka and others (including non-neocon Thomas Friedman) who blew it on Iraq still regularly appear on op-ed pages and television news shows, pitching their latest notions about Iraq, Iran or other matters.

Foremost among this band is William Kristol, the editor of The Weekly Standard and former chief of staff for Vice President Dan Quayle. Kristol, a Fox News regular, has not seen his standing as a go-to conservative pundit suffered. Moreover, he has been rewarded with a plum posting. Time magazine's new managing editor, Richard Stengel, has invited Kristol to become what Stengel calls a "star" columnist for the magazine. ... ....

(Long list, here, of Billy's WRONG punditry: )

...Kristol was mistaken about the justification for the war, the costs of the war, the planning for the war, and the consequences of the war. That's a lot for a pundit to miss. In his columns and statements about Iraq, Kristol displayed little judgment or expertise. He was not informing the public; he was whipping it. He turned his wishes into pronouncements and helped move the country to a mismanaged and misguided war that has claimed the lives of thousands of Americans and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians. That's not journalism.

In an effectively functioning market of opinion-trading, Kristol's views would be relegated to the bargain basement. And he ought to be doing penance, not penning columns for Time. But -- fortunate for him -- the world of punditry is a rather imperfect marketplace.

*****

********UNQUOTE*******

[LondonReign2]

1. The basic premise is wrong

The basic premise -- that Kristol is pundit or journalist and therefore should be judged on his accuracy--is wrong. Kristol is a propagandist. In terms of that function, he has been very successful, to the detriment of this country and the rest of the world.

[n2doc]

2. Freakin sportswriters get more grief for their poor predictions!

If you had some "Guru" on ESPN who got 10 or more game predictions wrong, even for a few weeks, they would be hammered by people writing in. They would be laughed off the site with a record as bad as these neocons. When it comes to life and death, well, I guess we just don't care as much.