Monday, November 22, 2004

In Defense of Michelle Malkin

Well, only barely. I'm glad to see her ignorant bile have been removed from another newspaper, but I do take issue with this description of her:

Lake explained that "readers often took issue with her seemingly mean-spirited rantings and suggested that she be dropped. Well, she’s outta here, silenced for being 'too stridently anti-liberal,' the assessment of the editorial board."

Editorial writer Don Luzzatto told Lake: “I was really put off by her penchant for name-calling and ad hominem attack. I think we can do much better.”

Another editorial writer, Bronwyn Lance Chester, said: “I think she habitually mistakes shrill for thought-provoking and substitutes screaming for discussion. She’s an Asian Ann Coulter. I also think that, like Coulter, she says outrageous things just to get TV appearances and book deals. She’s the worst of what’s wrong with punditry today. She adds absolutely nothing to genuine political discourse.”


I think that someone's race or ethnicity is relevant to the discussion in many cases, though here it's just gratuitous and irrelevant. If Malkin regularly used her race in her writing to whatever extent, or directed her writing to an Asian-American audience, it might have relevance. But, since we're unlikely to hear about "Ann Coulter, the white Michelle Malkin..."