re: #329 The Sanity Inspector

So Barrett, how’s the book coming along? Any teasers to share with us? I’ve gotta confess, I don’t get the theme of the book. Are you saying that these columnists have not only been wrong—which is a dog bites man story if there ever was one—but that their errors have also failed our country in some larger sense? Thanks for any enlightenment.

The main thrust of the book is that once a pundit is made, he is rarely unmade, which is merely a cute way of saying that there is little accountability in the pundit trade. Much of the contents deal with the incredible extent to which certain well-regarded pundits such as Thomas Friedman and Charles Krauthammer have failed in their predictions, contradicted themselves, and otherwise made very poor use of the opportunities they have been given. To the extent that their output is taken to heart by voters and policymakers, yes, they have damaged the country to some extent or another, in my view.

Obviously, the theme of the book is not that these people have been wrong, but rather that they have been wrong to a large extent whereas others, including bloggers like Glenn Greenwald and Juan Cole, have been right, which is to say that this is not simply a matter of taking a few mistakes from years of output. I think that anyone who reads the book will come away with very little respect for its subjects.