Lippmann, a Pulitzer Prize winner, wrote a syndicated column on national and international affairs. He advocated a philosophy in which honest reflection on common experiences would lift citizens out of their parochial worldviews.
A pundit is someone who offers commentary in the media on a particular subject area. A gallery of legacy newspaper pundits would include a more raucous wing. Turn a corner and the cranky “Sage of Baltimore,” H. L. Mencken, appears. The satirist and cultural critic, who was born in 1880 and died in 1956, lived for most of his life in a neighborhood of old West Baltimore.
He was suspicious of representative democracy and predicted in 1920: “On some great and glorious day, the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”
The syndicated humorist Mike Royko would bring a more working-class sensibility to his targets. He began writing columns for a U.S. Air Force newspaper in 1955 and would eventually produce more than 7,500 daily columns for Chicago newspapers. Among his targets was Frank Sinatra, whom the columnist once accused of commandeering Chicago police for personal security.
Molly Ivins appears next, promising in 2003 “even more bushwhacking.” She co-wrote “Bushwhacked: Life in George W. Bush’s America” in conjunction with newspaper columns that were frequently critical of the president, a fellow Texan.
Holding politicians and institutions accountable often requires combative voices. What kind of commentary is needed now, though, when so much political talk is degrading and divisive? I ask this question as a former editorial writer who studies how journalism operates as a political institution. I want to suggest that pundits support democracy when their combat is driven by ideas rather than tribal identities.
Lippmann, a Pulitzer Prize winner, wrote a syndicated column on national and international affairs. He advocated a philosophy in which honest reflection on common experiences would lift citizens out of their parochial worldviews.
A pundit is someone who offers commentary in the media on a particular subject area. A gallery of legacy newspaper pundits would include a more raucous wing. Turn a corner and the cranky “Sage of Baltimore,” H. L. Mencken, appears. The satirist and cultural critic, who was born in 1880 and died in 1956, lived for most of his life in a neighborhood of old West Baltimore.
He was suspicious of representative democracy and predicted in 1920: “On some great and glorious day, the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”
Vice President Kamala Harris will give a speech on the National Mall on Tuesday as she seeks to sway last-minute voters to her campaign one week before the Nov.