{"id":259,"date":"2009-03-12T01:14:19","date_gmt":"2009-03-12T01:14:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/cityofbrass\/2009\/03\/ross-douthat-replaces-kristol.html"},"modified":"2009-03-12T01:14:19","modified_gmt":"2009-03-12T01:14:19","slug":"ross-douthat-replaces-kristol","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2009\/03\/ross-douthat-replaces-kristol.html","title":{"rendered":"Ross Douthat replaces Kristol at the New York Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

I had hoped that the New York Times<\/i> would pick Joshua Trevino to replace Bill Kristol<\/a>‘s sordid run as opinion columnist, but their pick of Ross Douthat<\/a> is definitely a solid choice (though also a far more cautious one). Douthat is a principled conservative voice who does not toe the Republican party line<\/a>, but neither does he rock the boat with major critiques of his own team (unlike Trevino, who had no qualms<\/a> about holding his side accountable<\/a>). Douthat can be trusted to represent a “safe” form of conservatism quite reliably, in marked contrast to the loony fringe that dominates most conservative right-wing discourse. As such, Douthat at the Times<\/i> is probably conservatism’s highest-profile palatable advocate. <\/p>\n

The Times<\/i> may not have been the place for a more innovative voice like Trevino- in (obvious) hindsight, a safe pick like Douthat was probably inevitable. However, the Atlantic<\/i> now has a slot to fill for a blogger, presumably of conservative bent, and unlike the Times<\/i> would benefit highly from a voice that will make some noise. A strong conservative voice is especially needed given that their other major bloggers are liberal (Sullivan) and libertarian (McArdle). Who better than Trevino to reinvigorate the Atlantic’<\/i>s blog corps and provide some genuine diversity?<\/p>\n

Related – my earlier argument for Trevino at The Times<\/i><\/a>, the bulk of which remains just as valid a rationale for an Atlantic<\/i> gig. Also, here’s Douthat’s old blog at The Atlantic<\/i><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I had hoped that the New York Times would pick Joshua Trevino to replace Bill Kristol‘s sordid run as opinion columnist, but their pick of Ross Douthat is definitely a solid choice (though also a far more cautious one). Douthat is a principled conservative voice who does not toe the Republican party line, but neither…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":165,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[107,474,26],"class_list":["post-259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-purple-politics","tag-conservatism","tag-media","tag-politics"],"yoast_head":"\nRoss Douthat replaces Kristol at the New York Times - City of Brass<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ross Douthat replaces Kristol at the New York Times - City of Brass\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I had hoped that the New York Times would pick Joshua Trevino to replace Bill Kristol‘s sordid run as opinion columnist, but their pick of Ross Douthat is definitely a solid choice (though also a far more cautious one). 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City of Brass is his weblog, which was founded in 2002 under the name UNMEDIA. He is a co-founder of the annual Brass Crescent Awards. The name City of Brass refers to the Story of the City of Brass in the Thousand and One Nights, and the poem by Rudyard Kipling of the same name: Here was a people whom, after their works, thou shalt see wept over for their lost dominion; And in this palace is the last information respecting lords collected in the dust. -- Thousand and One Nights, Story of the City of Brass IN A land that the sand overlays, the ways to her gates are untrod, A multitude ended their days whose fates were made splendid by God, Till they grew drunk and were smitten with madness and went to their fall, And of these is a story written: but Allah Alone knoweth all! -- Rudyard Kipling, The City of Brass (1909)"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/165"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}