|
Cella critiques NR
Our regular participant Paul Cella, editor of Cella’s Review, has written a critique of National Review which has been discussed today by Ramesh Ponnuru and Jonah Goldberg at NRO’s The Corner. Posted by Lawrence Auster at September 09, 2003 07:28 PM | Send Comments
Paul Cella says the simple truth about Jonah Goldberg: he’s trvial — extremely shallow. He’s like a little gab-artist flitting about without ever saying or thinking anything. I mean, how is it conceivable that that’s even in dispute? The wonder is how Goldberg ever got chosen by Buckley to head up NRO. Did Buckley owe his dad or mom a big favor, or something? I’ve always supposed that must be it. Of course, he’s been fired now, so that’s water under the bridge. But he’s harmed the publication’s reputation for the foreseeable future — potential conservative readers will continue to have an approach-avoidance reaction to it: “once bitten, twice shy.” We’ll see if Lowry (that’s their new honcho, right?) can build its reputation back. In this vein, my very strong advice to Lowry: fire Domenech immediately or NRO hasn’t got a prayer. Posted by: Unadorned on September 9, 2003 8:54 PMWhat’s this about Goldberg being fired? Goldberg is the editor of NRO, Lowry is the editor of NR. Also, I don’t exactly agree with Unadorned that the trouble with Goldberg is that he’s shallow and trivial. He may be those things, but, though I tried to ignore him for a long time, I’ve come to believe that he nevertheless is playing a significant role in contemporary politics, which is, by his very triviality and superficiality, to undo whatever is left of whatever conservative issue or principle he touches upon. He is a ubiquitous dissolver of conservatism. Posted by: Lawrence Auster on September 10, 2003 1:18 AMActually, Kathryn Jean Lopez is the editor of NRO. Jonah Goldberg was “promoted” to Editor-at-Large in November 2002 Goldberg, alas, is very important. He is widely published and any demotion he may have suffered at NR has not reduced his exposure at all. He has taken a café society quipster style of political gossip and succeeded in fobbing it off as conservatism. If Goldberg is a lightweight, he is still a heavy burden for true conservatives seeking to be heard. HRS Posted by: Howard Sutherland on April 22, 2004 9:42 PMGood to hear from you again, Mr. Sutherland! Posted by: paul on April 22, 2004 10:29 PM |