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Kinsley on Intellectual HonestyBill Buckley had it, journalism should strive for it, and politics needs more of it.


Posted Thursday, Feb. 28, 2008, at 1:12 PM ET

(Continued from page 2)

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Los Angeles: The New York Times coverage of the McCain-Lobbyist story raises the issue of sloppy journalism versus ethics in journalism. Any thoughts on this?

Michael Kinsley: On balance, I am in favor of ethics in journalism and against sloppy journalism.

That NYT piece was not good, in my opinion: insufficiently sourced. Of course, that doesn't mean it's not true, including the innuendos. But if they have the goods, they didn't serve them up.

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Nantucket, Mass.: Certain conservative bloggers are choosing to honor Buckley's memory by showing his famous exchange with Gore Vidal, in which Buckley threatened to punch Vidal. Based on what you know, is this how Buckley would like to be remembered?

washingtonpost.com: William Buckley vs. Gore Vidal (YouTube)

Michael Kinsley: That clip is pretty entertaining. But Buckley's legacy is much more what everyone is writing about—how he united the fragments of American conservatism and paved the way for Goldwater and then Reagan.

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Re: Intellectual honesty: You write "David Brooks is very intellectually honest." What about when Philadelphia Magazine that showed he made all his facts up about "Red America"? I think you just like him because he's your identical twin.

washingtonpost.com: Boo-boos in Paradise (Philadelphia Magazine, April 2004)

Michael Kinsley: I think that was carelessness, not purposely making up facts (which would be worse than intellectual dishonesty). I will say that Philadelphia Magazine piece was awfully good.

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Re: "That sounds like a bit of hyperbole. But I do believe that free trade is almost always the right answer.": How can free and fair trade exist between nations that don't observe the same or similar environmental and labor regulations?

Michael Kinsley: We're not going to settle the free trade debate in this chat. But very briefly: the case for letting your own citizens buy and sell anything they want to/with foreigners does not depend on reciprocity. The famous example comes from Henry George, my favorite economist (19th century): If a trading partner's harbor is full of rocks that make it hard for boats to pull in and unload goods, are you better off if you dump some rocks in your own harbor? (Or something like that ...)

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Anonymous: Can you discuss the line of demarcation between sloppy and unethical journalism, especially when covering celebrities and public figures?

Michael Kinsley: This is a big question! I don't have a simple rule. I do have one on the related question (maybe it's the same question) of when should you publish stories about a politician's sex life. The answer is: when you think that a significant fraction of your audience would find it politically relevant. That is: it's not when YOU find it politically relevant, and it's not just when people would find it interesting. But if you deny them this information that you know would affect how they vote (sometimes BECAUSE you know this would affect how they vote) this is self-censorship. It's not up to you to keep information from people because you fear they would misuse it

Ironically, in the years since I first wrote about this (back when it was Teddy Kennedy at issue!), I think people have become more blasé about this stuff, almost to the point where the obligation to write about it disappears. But probably not quite.

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Anonymous: If McCain isn't elected President in 2008, do you think that empowers the social/religious conservatives via an "I told you so" mentality? Do you agree with me that a large schism will appear in the national Republican Party post-Bush—one larger in scale than the vacuum created in the Democrat Party post-Clinton?

Michael Kinsley: During my years at the New Republic (and I believe they've continued this tradition) we would have a big "recriminations" issue after each election that Democrats lost. I think the Republicans will no doubt have a big finger-pointing orgy if McCain loses. On the other hand the Dems will surely have one if he wins.

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Bowie, Md.: I never wrote to thank either you or Mr. Buckley for those outstanding Firing Line special debates you used to host on PBS on Friday nights. Given 2-3 hours and many of the leading personalities on both side of most issues, the quality of discussion was far better than any other on TV. Is anyone airing a similar concept today?

Michael Kinsley: Thank YOU. I deserve no credit—I was just a hired gun. Actually, a lot of the credit goes to a man named Warren Steibel who was the producer of these things. He died a couple of years ago, unfortunately. And of course to Bill Buckley.

Two hours debating one topic? Are you crazy? Of course there's nothing like it on TV now. Actually, I used to think that the very rigid format—two minutes for X to question Y and then 3 minutes for X and Y to converse and 90 seconds for X, Y and Z to question A—was a roadblock to good discussion. But in hindsight, they were really pretty good.

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Boston: Isn't the problem for McCain that he's now widely known to be very cuddly with lobbyists in general? And what about his lobbyist/campaign chair doing his lobbying from the "Straight Talk" express—that's pretty unseemly!

Michael Kinsley: Thanks everybody. I've gotta go.

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Michael Kinsley: Bye, and thanks.

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Slate's founding editor, Michael Kinsley, served as co-host of CNN's Crossfire from 1989 to 1995. He was the Columbia Journalism Review's Editor of the Year in 1999. After leaving Slate, he had a stint as the Los Angeles Times' editorial page editor and now is a columnist for Time magazine, Slate, and the Washington Post.
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