Remembering William Safire....

Back in my good old liberal days, when I was young and stupid, I happily read the dishonest New York Times, regularly. I loved reading William Safire's sprightly Sunday column, On Language, that focused on grammar, usage, and etymology of the English language.

Also, he was a regular commentator on 'Meet the Press.' In one particualry memorable discussion, where I remember that some of the commentators were exasperated by the blatant dishonesty of MIT economist Paul Krugman and his use of false and deceptive statistics, William Saifre came to his defense explaining that Krugman was not a reporter but a pundit and that pundits are not bound to rules to write the truth but only to support one's column position. This epiphany and the reality that columnists and opinion writers are not bound by holding to the truth or covering multiple facets of an issue but can actually say anything in support of their positions is something that people need to understand and digest whenever reading any editorial or op-ed