Monday, December 06, 2004
Another One Bites the Dust
James A. Goldsborough, the reactionary leftist-in-residence at the San Diego Union-Tribune, is quitting. He says in his farewell column today that he has resigned because his editor killed his column last week, "without discussion." The column that was spiked can be read here. Smash has more.
I've never liked Goldborough's writing. Besides being way too holier-than-thou for my taste, I don't recall a single piece of his in which he backed up his opinions with facts. Not to say that he didn't put facts in his columns, but they were irrelevant to his opinions, i.e., they proved some other point than the one he was trying to make. The column that was spiked is a case in point. Goldsborough argued that Bush was pandering to Jews by supporting Sharon's policies respecting the Palestinian Arabs, but the facts he cites -- Jews voted for Kerry by a 3-to-1 ratio -- don't support that argument. They only support the proposition that Jews tend not to vote Republican.
Now, I didn't read every column he ever wrote, so I might be wrong, but it always seemed to me that Goldsborough took the DNC talking points as revealed truth and went on from there. I don't have a problem with opinion columnists giving opinions, but I've always thought it bad form for a professional journalist to engage in circular logic in his pieces. Goldsborough would have been a lot more convincing if he'd laid better foundations for his arguments. I won't miss him.
I've never liked Goldborough's writing. Besides being way too holier-than-thou for my taste, I don't recall a single piece of his in which he backed up his opinions with facts. Not to say that he didn't put facts in his columns, but they were irrelevant to his opinions, i.e., they proved some other point than the one he was trying to make. The column that was spiked is a case in point. Goldsborough argued that Bush was pandering to Jews by supporting Sharon's policies respecting the Palestinian Arabs, but the facts he cites -- Jews voted for Kerry by a 3-to-1 ratio -- don't support that argument. They only support the proposition that Jews tend not to vote Republican.
Now, I didn't read every column he ever wrote, so I might be wrong, but it always seemed to me that Goldsborough took the DNC talking points as revealed truth and went on from there. I don't have a problem with opinion columnists giving opinions, but I've always thought it bad form for a professional journalist to engage in circular logic in his pieces. Goldsborough would have been a lot more convincing if he'd laid better foundations for his arguments. I won't miss him.
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