Best of 2005

Now that we're in the second half of January, I think it's safe to judge the best articles, posts, quotes and blogs of 2005.

Best column: Karl's New Manifesto:

David Brooks of the NY Times used a Marxist analysis to show how leftists perpetuate oppression. His writing style is measured and courteous, but his attacks modern leftists are brilliant. I emailed the article to a normally long-winded philosophy professor, his only reply about the column in a three-paragraph response was, "I usually enjoy David Brooks' columns, but this one was particularly provocative."

Best quote: Senator Jim Inhofe

After the shame of our state, Senator Tom Harkin, proposed Congressional action to mandate liberal radio programming for armed forces, Jim Inhofe wet to the Senate floor to explain that radio programming was not, in fact, controlled by Congress. He explained to mentally-deficient democrats why the nonpartisan formula based on listenership ended up excluding AirAmerica filth; from his floor speech on November 8:
"The other day I was in the elevator coming up to cast a vote. I was with two of our democrat colleagues, two I respect very much, two very liberal democrat senators, and they were complaining about the fact that all the talk shows are all conservatives and they don't have successful liberal talk shows, and they said, these were their words in the elevator, they said, 'there ought to be a legislative fix to this.' I said, what you guys don't understand is this is market driven. There is just no market for your liberal trite."

I should point out that this quote played a role in in a snarky troll post. Some liberals were upset that a New Hampshire radio host was being let go for driving away advertisers like car dealerships for railing against SUV's. Liberals on the blog thought big business was driving her off the air and advocated government intervention to protect free speech. I posted (under the name 'laughter') an entry-level economics lesson, explaining that she had no fundamental right to a radio show, that she was being driven off not by business but by low popularity: if she was popular, there would be advertisers who want her "legions" of listeners to hear about her products. Alas, economics, constitutional law, logic, etc. is lost upon liberals (but they are good at finding ways to spend money).

Most egregious reporting: Last Letter Home

2005 wasn't a good year for media outlets, from the amazingly overstated Hurricane Katrina aftermath stories to executives spewing outright anti-American lies or reporters making stories of themselves (Judith Miller, James Risen, Mary Mapes).

In my view, James Dao of the New York Times loses for giving the clearest example of 2005 about reporting with an agenda. Michelle Malkin provides pages of documentation about the incident. Mr. Dao, wanting to paint troops in Iraq as fatalistic, took a sentence from the last letter of a Marine completely out of context for an article about the 2000th death from Operation Iraqi Freedom. In a letter containing phrases like, 'Others have died for my freedom. Now this is my mark' and 'I'm here helping these people, so that they can live the way we live', the reporter used the fallen soldier's introduction to get what he wanted for the article. The family of the Marine came forward to set the record straight.

Best news blog: NRO's The Corner

The National Review has by far the most up-to-the-minute information and some of the best columnists (Victor Davis Hansen, Jonah Goldberg, Larry Kudlow) of any free website. The Corner is one of the best resources for finding who said what, when.

Best general blog: I Hate Horses

Hat tip to Kelly Guiter, from 'Just a Bit Outside...' sports blog. On the lighter side, these posts are funny, but the reader comments are truly hilarious. Contractually guaranteed to brighten even the most depressing day.