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But then, out of the fetid chemical baths of the Garden
State, arose a man bearing our standard, who has since
taken on the Bush administration and right-wing peddlers
of misinformation everywhere. He is a hero; he is
a singular point around which all concerned liberals
should gravitate; he is… an economist. Paul
Krugman has taken the lead role in the fight against
the conservative ballyhoo.
He has, since 1999, been chipping in his professional
opinion on American economics as an op-ed columnist
for The New York Times, and subsequently drawn the
ire of right-wing pundits everywhere. But to write
about economics is, as my editor put it, pretty boring
and dry, so I won’t do it. I will instead show
you how Mr. Krugman has significantly widened the
scope of his investigations as of late, and, in doing
so, become the liberal voice of truth in this season
of uncertainty.
Enter the Franken. Mr. Krugman, in expanding his
bailiwick, has moved beyond the printed word and taken
his message to the airwaves. Of course he is still
writing his column and promoting his books, but he
is also now a weekly regular on The Al Franken Show
on Air America Radio. Krugman fits the show’s
profile perfectly. His breadth of knowledge and gravitas
simultaneously complement and offset Mr. Franken,
who is both remarkably knowledgeable and profoundly
silly. Mr. Krugman does, at times, get a few laughs
himself, which is a remarkable achievement for a professional
economist. The two discuss economics quite a bit,
but they also point out the administration’s
failings with regard to Iraq, and the threats facing
the fairness of the upcoming election. They have also
delved into the prevalent media bias in this country,
which brings us to what has probably been one of Mr.
Krugman’s finest moments.
The Debate Debacle. Sunday, August 7th on CNBC’s
Tim Russert: O’Reilly vs. Krugman. The nation’s
biggest media blowhard going toe-to-toe with…
Paul Krugman. This was an affair for the ages. The
controversy over the overt conservative bias in the
American media came to a head in the past month with
the DVD release of Outfoxed, which laid bare for the
first time all the journalistic liberties Rupert Murdoch
has taken in his defense of rabid conservatism. As
the dewlapped, splotchy face of the Fox News Channel,
Bill O’Reilly took quite a bit of umbrage at
this. On the July 21st O’Reilly Factor he declared
war on the New York Times because of their “defamation”
of Fox News, and challenged any Times editor or columnist
to a debate. Mr. Krugman stood up.
What followed was one of the more entertaining and
informative spectacles ever committed to film. Mr.
Krugman came into the “debate” with a
menagerie of facts, statistics, and cogent arguments
to prove his points. O’Reilly came in with his
short fuse and particularly loose neck skin. What
followed was a calm, measured performance by Mr. Krugman,
who intelligently discussed the Bush tax cuts, the
Outfoxed documentary, Fahrenheit: 9/11, and the media
distortions of Fox News and Mr. O’Reilly. It
should be noted that Tim Russert, though largely uninvolved
in the exchanges, was reinforcing the points Krugman
brought up. O’Reilly’s responses were
typical. He touched on every emotion in his range:
smug, indignant, outraged, and acerbically bombastic,
and he shifted between them instantaneously. He spat
out a bunch of inflated or imagined statistics, and
made improper references to 9/11, communists, fascists,
Fidel Castro, and the Ku Klux Klan as he shouted over
Mr. Krugman. The one moment of this debate that solidified
Mr. Krugman’s status as a hero, in my mind,
is when he said to O’Reilly, “This is
not your show, you can’t cut my mic.”
By widening his scope of criticism to include the
war policy in Iraq, the dangers to our electoral system,
Bill O’Reilly, and the rest of Fox News, Mr.
Krugman has done what no other liberal in the media
has managed to do. He has become the apotheosis of
intelligent, progressive commentary. Others have tried,
but they have been hesitant or unable to do so. Michael
Moore has done his best, but he has been hampered
by his extreme ideologies and conspiracy theories.
Al Franken has made significant inroads, but not everybody
is willing to take a comedian seriously.
Paul Krugman does not suffer these detractions. He
is a widely respected intellectual who bases his ideas
on extensively researched evidence, and who comports
himself in a manner that is determined and defiant,
but measured and respectable at the same time. It
is therefore very difficult to dismiss him as a wacko
or a smear artist. In thrusting himself to the media
forefront, he is quietly emerging as the strongest
voice in defense of liberalism, and as its most potent
weapon against the deceptions of the right.
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