I am so weary of all the hand-wringing about folks telling each other to shut up. In the case of George Will, the reason the Washington Post should fire him isn’t because he wrote something impolitic and offensive; it’s because he’s a terrible columnist who contributes nothing but partisan bile to the national debate. He’s awful, therefore he should find employment elsewhere. The Washington Post almost never gets rid of their columnists. David Broder soldiered on for more than a decade past his expiration date, and Richard Cohen has been smelling rancid for at least fifteen years.
It’s almost too rich to see Ron Fournier writing about honesty in journalism, but it’s not a bad place to start when looking to clean up the mess at the Post. What are George Will, Jennifer Rubin, and Charles Krauthmammer (to pick just three obvious examples) contributing to the national discourse? The answer is, mostly bullshit.
Why did George Will write that rape victims enjoy a privileged status on college campuses? It was either to be provocative or simply to poke a finger in the eye of his political opponents. But, either way, it wasn’t an honest argument. It was the rough equivalent of Rush Limbaugh’s assertion that women want access to birth control because they want to have a lot of sex. That’s really not much different than the implication that college women want to get raped because it confers status on campus. It’s just trolling.
But George Will shouldn’t be fired because he wrote something revolting. He should be fired because he makes the paper worse and needlessly pits people against each other.
Ask yourself, is George Will a decent person. If not, why are you paying his mortgage?
