Let Lileks Be Lileks

It is good to see James Lileks return to the print edition of the Star Tribune with a regular column. He's the best writer on staff and his work deserves to be disseminated beyond the Internet bucket he was relegated to last year.

The media liberals in town, who are accustomed to having a monopoly for their opinions appearing in the local press, are predictably getting the shakes over what this may mean. Lileks has always been a tough case for them to handle. He's clearly more talented than they are and he's an apostate to the dominant media culture. So a mix of condescension and grave foreboding usually accompanies reviews of his work. For example, this from MinnPost (excerpts):

Lileks — who plays a piquant right-winger on talk radio and a genial, impish cultural curator on the Strib's buzz.mn -- will make his first appearance on Friday's Metro cover in the now-vacant columnist slot.

According to [Managing Editor Rene Sanchez], "James will write a local column every Friday in the great spirit of what he does for Buzz. He will have the same wide latitude we give other columnists, but I expect it to be more rollicking than overtly political. It won't be the kind of column you'd see on editorial pages."

But if politics is part of the Friday portfolio, that would give the Strib two conservative columnists and one liberal.

Ooo, that does sound dangerous! Wouldn't want to upset that long standing tradition of completely fair and balanced editorial coverage by the Star Tribune. Better keep Lileks on a nice safe, tight chain.

I'm sure Rene Sanchez and the rest were comforted by Lileks' opening effort last week, especially his promotion of the "political blog" Minnesota Monitor as merely an information resource, without mentioning its a paid propaganda outlet of Democratic party activists.

For what its worth, Lileks seems to be fully on board with this approach, as quoted in MSP Magazine:

No, no politics. There's enough of that out there as it is. These will be basic stories, stories not precisely what I've been doing in this market. It'll be a metro column, maybe a little less domestic than what I've been doing."

There are three reasons for avoiding [politics]. One, I have my own blog. Two, I'm not really reliable on issues. I'm all over the map And three, we already have Nick and Katherine. There's really no place for me in that Manichean dichotomy."

Lileks is in a tough spot over there. I'm sure he's painfully aware of the need to avoid further spooking the liberal herd. Or maybe that's his real opinion. I don't know, we don't consult on these matters (or any matters). But, to me, none of the reasons he cites are sufficient to place the quirky, piquant, impish straight jacket on the guy for his new column. Newspapers should not have a maximum capacity for political content, quite the opposite really. The political material he includes in his blog is philosophically consistent, which is more important than an opinion on any given issue. Most importantly, he writes it in an insightful, highly entertaining, and persuasive manner.

As much as I enjoy the musings about domestic life, architecture, and 50s nostalgia, Lileks excels when writing about current events and politics. In his own fashion, his work in this realm is on the level of PJ O'Rourke, Mark Steyn, Dave Barry. Let him do this with free reign and without the restraints of fearful editors looking over his shoulder and he could be a national star, a recognized brand, an enduring institution for this town. That's the true value he represents for a newspaper interested in attracting readers. If that's too dangerous for them, find an insightful, entertaining, persuasive liberal to match him. (Note to Star Tribune, you do not currently have this person on staff.)

However, if the newspaper has other priorities than attracting readers, a nice, safe, more boring, and less widely read product is what they're going to get. In the long run, I doubt anybody is going to be happy with that. Except maybe the liberal media critics who will be baying in protest at the slightest hint Lileks is exhibiting undue conservatism in the future. Going forward, let's hope the ownership over there cares more about the bottom line than their status with these self appointed enforcers of the ideological status quo.