Hi, I'm James Taranto, a member of The Wall Street Journal's editorial board and author of the daily Best of the Web Today column for WSJ.com. Here is a collection of my articles from the pages of The Wall Street Journal (and elsewhere).
2013
The Journalist as Apparatchik (The American Spectator,
September)
J-schools have been miseducating for
at least a quarter century.
A
Strange Sort of Justice at West Point (July 27)
Trent Cromartie was cleared
of sexual-assault charges. But the cadet was kicked out of school anyway.
We
Don’t Need No Stinking Badges (The American Spectator, July/August)
The Obama scandals and the
case against a media shield law.
The
Woman Who Fought Racial Preference (June 29)
Jennifer Gratz felt as if she
had lost her case at the Supreme Court 10 years ago. But this week she sees
vindication, with more to come next year.
Gen.
Helms and the Senator's 'Hold' (June 18)
An Air Force commander exercised
her discretion in a sexual-assault case. Now her career is being blocked by
Sen. Claire McCaskill. Why?
Gabby
Giffords Poisons the Well (The American Spectator, June)
The incivility and unreason
of her case for gun control.
Nuts
to Nutter (The American Spectator, May)
Philadelphia's mayor tries
to suppress a conversation about race.
The
Difference Between 43 and 44? Not So Much. (April 26)
One of the "humbling"
aspects of the job for President Obama may be how much his tenure resembles
his predecessor's.
Back-Alley
Abortion Never Ended (April 19)
The Kermit Gosnell murder trial
challenges a traditional defense of Roe v. Wade.
Journalism
That Dare Not Speak Its Name (The American Spectator, April)
Do Washington Post reporters
deal in the facts, or crusade for gay rights?
The
Clock Ticks on Racial Preferences (March 29)
The Supreme Court may soon
rule that universities cannot anymore use race as a factor in admissions.
Gray
Lady Dumps Darwin (The American Spectator, March)
Feminism is the new creationism.
The Coming
Battle for the Ballot Box (February 9)
A voting-rights veteran talks
about the liberal campaign to expand the electoral rolls—and why Obama is on
board.
The
Medium Is the Motive (The American Spectator, February)
School shootings implicate
the First Amendment as well as the Second.
2013
and Beyond (Commentary, January)
What is the future of consevatism
in the wake of the 2012 election?
2012
Taranto's
Revenge (The American Spectator, December)
This time, it was the conservative
media's turn to fool ourselves.
Jaws
'12 (The American Spectator, November)
Did the mainstream media jump
the shark?
False
Balance (The American Spectator, October)
Obama critiques the media by
appealing to his own authority.
God
Save This Voluble Court (The American Spectator, September)
The ObamaCare leaks bode ill
for judicial inddpendence.
Obama's
Risky Campaign Strategy (July 13)
The campaign's narrow appeals
to particular voting blocs could alienate other Democratic or swing voters.
Prematurely
Gay (The American Spectator, July/August)
Obama takes a chance in endorsing
same-sex marriage.
The
Ineffective Greenhouse (The American Spectator, June)
A reporter thinks she's a higher
legal authority than the Supreme Court.
That
Was No Fluke (The American Spectator, May)
A Democratic distraction doesn't
work out as planned.
We're
All Catholics Now (The American Spectator, April)
The New York Times sneers at
religious liberty.
When
the Archbishop Met the Persident (March
31)
Cardinal Dolan thought he heard
Obama pledge respect for the Catholic Church's rights of conscience.
The
Truth Vigilantes (The American Spectator, March)
Should the whole New York Times
become an op-ed section?
Social
Issues and the Santorum Surge (Feb. 18)
Jeff Bell says they're crucial
to a Republican majority.
The
Appeal of Santorum (The Daily, Feb. 11)
The media myths behind the
former speaker's comeback.
Strange
Newt Respect (The American Spectator, February)
The media myths behind the
former speaker's comeback.
2011
'We
Need an Election' (Dec. 10)
The head of the National Republican
Senatorial Committee on the party's chances to take control next November.
Occupy
the Media (The American Spectator, December)
"Tea Party envy"
sparks a short-lived leftist protest movement.
History's
Smallest Monster (The American Spectator, November)
Former Enron adviser Paul Krugman
remembers 9/11.
After
Osama (The American Spectator, October)
It was downhill for Obama--and
steeply so.
Could
Nader Hurt Obama? (September 23)
Imagining a 2012 protest candidacy
like Pat Buchanan's in 1992.
The
Lonely Narcissist (The Daily, September 20)
What Obama’s self-love means
for his political future.
Two
Decades of Pursuing al Qaeda (September 10)
Years before 9/11, Michael
Mukasey knew all about a free society's vulnerabilities to mass terrorism.
Keep
Rockin (The American Spectator, September)
The Los Angeles Times vs. the
First Amendment.
The
Left's Summer of Discontent (August 12)
Progressives increasingly see Obama as a loser. If so, it's because he is one of them.
Winning
the Future (The Daily, July 27)
In debt showdown, Obama pursues
safest course for re-election.
The
Birth of a Notion (The American Spectator, July/August)
Obama, the media and the birthers.
Online
Journalism's Golden Age (The American Spectator, June)
Sometimes a Berlin Wall is better than a porous border.
The
bin Laden Raid and the 'Virtues of Boldness' (May 7)
Paul Wolfowitz on the death
of Osama, the pro-democracy Arab Spring, and the importance of U.S. leadership..
'Civility'
Was Alwayd Dead (The American Spectator, May)
The post-Tucson pieties prove to be empty.
That didn't take long.
Actual
Malice (The American Spectator, April)
What if Justice Scalia sued
the New York Times for libel?
A
Week in the Death of the New York Times (The American Spectator, March)
The Tucson massacre occasions
a partisan witch hunt.
Whiplash!
(The American Spectator, February)
Mark Halperin is pro-Obama!
No, he's anti-Obama! Wait, he's pro-Obama again!
Strong
Tea (Commentary, January)
A review of "Boiling Mad:
Inside Tea Party America" by Kate Zernike.
2010
National
Partisan Radio (The American Spectator, December/January)
Juan Williams gets defenestrated.
Nina Totenberg stays.
'Push
Back Hard' (The American Spectator, November)
A gesture of "conciliation"--in
your face!
The
Marine Who Has Barney Frank Worried (Oct. 9)
In a district where Scott Brown
won, Sean Bielat mounts a serious challenge.
The
Klein Clan (The American Spectator, October)
Is anything more stupid than
a liberal media conspiracy?
The
Legend of Helen Thomas (The American Spectator, September)
A living icon of journalism
whose admirers cannot be reached for comment.
'A
Commandeering of the People' (July 23)
A legal scholar handicaps whether
the Supreme Court will find ObamaCare's insurance mandate constitutional.
We're
From the Government (The American Spectator, July/August)
How to hold politicians accountable--and
how to avoid doing so.
Ordinary
Ornery (Commentary, June)
A review of "The Next
American Civil War" by Lee Harris.
Tea
and Sympathy (The American Spectator, June)
Conservative populists get
strange new respect.
The
Right's Happy Warrior (May 1)
"I'm optimistic,"
says R. Emmett Tyrrell, "but it's sort of like being optimistic in 1939
and saying, I think we can beat the Germans."
Bar
Fight (The American Spectator, May)
The New York Times opposes
"politically motivated witch hunts"--sometimes.
Censorship
Inc. (The American Spectator, April)
A corporation uses its First
Amendment rights to denounce First Amendment rights for corporations.
Garden
State Voters Gear Up to Recall a Senator (March 20)
The Constitution is on the
Democrat's side, even if New Jerseyites no longer are.
Glenn
Beck Isn't Lonesome (The American Spectator, March)
He's no "face in the crowd,"
but he's mad as hell.
Peer
Pressure (The American Spectator, February)
The global-warming scandal
and the "Big Cutoff."
The
Media and Corporate Free Speech (Jan. 30)
President Obama
says the Supreme Court made a big mistake. The pre-eminent First Amendment expert
disagrees.
'Nobody's
Watching Charlie Rose' (Jan. 16)
Glenn Beck on conspiracy
theories, his critics on the right and left, and how he resembles Howard Beale
of "Network."
2009
Caprice
Prize (The American Spectator, December)
Even journalists
can't defend Obama's Nobel.
Our
'Constitutional Moment' (Nov. 14)
Seth Lipsky says
our founding document is especially vital today, in an age of expanding state
power.
'Call
Fox' (The American Spectator, November)
The mainstream
media are slow to report on Obama scandals.
Taking
On the 'Democrat-Media Complex' (Oct. 17)
Andrew Breitbart
on bringing down Acorn, Hollywood liberals, and embarrassing the mainstream
media.
Appeal
to Authority (The American Spectator, October)
Journalists defer
to Democrats--sometimes even letting them write the news.
Now
They Tell Us (The American Spectator, September)
In the Obama era,
breaking news is hard to do.
There
Is Such a Thing as Too Much Judicial Restraint (July 13)
The Supreme Court
leaves big decisions for future justices.
Tea
Hee (The American Spectator, July/August)
A conservative
protest movement draws media mockery.
Nuance
and Nazis (The American Spectator, June)
Has the New York
Times gone soft?
How
an Evolutionary Garden Grows (May 7)
The man with whom
Darwin walked, and his botanical legacy.
A Joint
Venture Is the New Hip Thing (May 1)
A visit to the
factory where part of me was made.
Gold
Star Movie (The American Spectator, May)
What it took to
make a successful film about the Iraq war.
A
Times Leader (The American Spectator, April)
Libya's dictator
becomes an op-ed writer.
The
Honeymooners (The American Spectator, March)
As Obama prepares
to take over, the press speaks ruth to power.
Blogged
Down (The American Spectator, February)
In 2004, they debunked
humbug. In 2008, they propagated it.
The
Ex Files (Jan. 16)
George W. Bush
joins the club.
2008
Fact-Check
Follies (The American Spectator, December/January)
The latest way
opinion journalism masquerades as straight news.
'Our
Culture Is Better' (Nov. 29)
Geert Wilders:
Champion of freedom or anti-Islamic provocateur? Both.
The
War Against the Normal (The American Spectator, November)
Smearing Sarah
Palin as a devout Christian and a mother.
Edwards
Lied, People . . . Were Born? (The American Spectator, October)
The National Enquirer
scoops everyone else.
Bad
Judgment (The American Spectator, September)
How the L.A. Times
became a party to a vexatious litigant's smear campaign.
How a
Young Lawyer Saved the Second Amendment (July 19)
One plaintiff was
a gay man who had used his gun to stop a hate crime.
A
Harsh Mistress (The American Spectator, July)
Will the media
still love Barack Obama in the autumn?
Vast
Company (The American Spectator, June)
Mrs. Clinton joins
the right-wing conspiracy.
Attack
of the Keller Tomatoes (The American Spectator, May)
The New York Times
tries to "swift boat" McCain.
Fanfare
for the Column Man (April 30)
A musical kerfuffle
in Chattanooga.
We
Stand Behind Our Stereotype (The American Spectator, April)
The New York Times
embraces the "wacko vet" myth.
The
Audacity of Hype (The American Spectator, March)
How Obama and Mrs.
Clinton fell for their own good press.
US Has
Moved Beyond Racist Past (Australian, Feb. 11)
Obama may lose,
but not because he's black.
That
'80s Show (The American Spectator, February)
The press remembers
Reagan, not always fondly.
Poetic
License (Jan. 25)
Republicans need
not apply.
2007
The
Second Time as Farce (The American Spectator, December/January)
Blasts from the
past from Dan Rather and Anita Hill.
Legal
Warrior (Nov. 24)
Can the lawyer who won Bush
v. Gore win over social conservatives for Rudy Giuliani?
Unstatesmanlike
Conduct (The American Spectator, November)
Larry Craig didn't
cover himself in glory. Neither did the press.
Issues
of Narrative (The American Spectator, October)
What journalists
do when "the facts are wrong."
In
Katrina's Wake (Sept. 8)
Louisiana's would-be
governor says the state needs a sense of urgency.
Unaccountably
Biased (The American Spectator, September)
Has the Associated
Press given up on straight news?
'It
Didn't Happen' (July 26)
Democrats go soft
on crimes against humanity.
Ignorance
of the Law (The American Spectator, July/August)
How journalists
help politicize the Supreme Court.
The
Truth About Guantanamo
(June 26)
Proposals to treat
detainees as criminal defendants make a mockery of international humanitarian
law.
No
News Is Good News (The American Spectator, June)
Reflexive pessimism
and dubious "experts" in terror-war coverage.
Dealing
With Iran (May 26)
Israel's former--and
future?--prime minister talks about the threats to peace.
Disparate
but Not Serious (May 18)
College is an expensive
way of taking an IQ test.
Life
in the Vast Lane (The American Spectator, May)
Journalists treat
Mrs. Clinton with kid gloves. That may not last.
'Let's
Just Say' (The American Spectator, April)
A global-warmist
hysteric trivializes the horrors of Nazi Germany.
Who's
Counting? (The American Spectator, March)
The media's "grim
milestones" in Iraq further a political agenda.
Reckless
Caution (Feb. 8)
Edwards vs. Clinton:
Indecision 2008.
Tit
for Tet (The American Spectator, February)
The media follow
the Vietnam script in Iraq. Will the Democrats' victory change that?
2006
On
Reflection, This Timely Honour's All Mine (Australian, Dec. 26)
It
came as something of a surprise being named Time's Person of the Year.
Raging
Bill (The American Spectator, December/January)
Why
did Clinton blow up at Chris Wallace? Because he's used to sycophantic interviewers.
Lieberman
Saves the Day for Hillary (Nov. 11)
Had
Lamont won, she might have had to lurch left.
Read
and Despair (The American Spectator, November)
Media
myths about Guantanamo.
Boomer
Terror (The American Spectator, October)
The
New York Times struggles to make sense of the world.
Hicks
Trial a Privilege Not a Right (Australian, Sept. 25)
The
case against the Guantanamo detention camp rests on myths.
War
Inside the Wire (Sept. 16)
You
can handle the truth about Guantanamo Bay.
Where
the Wild Things Are (Sept. 15)
Not
everyone at Guantanamo is a terrorist.
Endangered
Species? (Aug. 5)
A
moderate Republican faces a liberal Democratic tide.
Getting
to Yes (July 1)
For
Chief Justice Roberts, it isn't easy.
Suicide
Out of Spite (Australian Online, June 15)
Don't
fret over the deaths of three irredeemable jihadists.
Kos
Celeb (May 13)
Meet
the man who's gunning for Joe Lieberman.
Brother
From Another Party (April 8)
Can
a black Republican win in a blue state?
Bad
News Bearers (The American Spectator, February)
The
media won't defeat America by fighting the last war.
A Strong
Executive (Jan. 28)
Dick
Cheney discusses presidential power and foreign policy.
A Waiting
Period on Abortion (Jan. 23)
If
you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.
He
Didn't Say Uncle (Jan. 20)
But
Salvador Taranto lived to become one.
2005
Latter-day
President? (Dec. 31)
A
Mitt Romney candidacy would test the religious right.
Pro-Wife
Extremism (Nov. 5)
Judge
Alito was right on spousal notification.
Filibuster
Bluster (Oct. 1)
Liberals
threaten a fight over Justice O'Connor's replacement. Mr. President, call their
bluff.
How's
He Doing? (Sept. 12)
Bush
is "average," but far from ordinary.
Myths
of Hurricane Katrina (Australian, Sept. 8)
Like
looters, the Angry Left seeks opportunity in disaster.
Kerry's
Quagmire (The American Spectator, July/August)
How
the liberal media helped re-elect George W. Bush.
The
'Roe Effect' (Society, July/August)
Abortion
today results in fewer Democratic voters 18 years from now.
C Man
in the Navy (June 8)
John
Kerry turns out to have been an average student, just like President Bush.
Why
I'm Rooting for the Religious Right (May 5)
Secular
liberals show open contempt for traditionalists.
Cold
Warriors Get Their Due (Australian, April 6)
Gorbachev's
death is unlikely to draw the fanfare that greeted the demise of Reagan and
the pope.
Who
Will Remember Terri? (April 1)
Disabled
Americans aren't eager to embrace the "right to die."
Hillary's
Secret Weapon (Feb. 25)
Republican
loathing may make her the next president.
How
Privacy Went Public (Feb. 8)
Penumbras
and emanations make strange bedfellows.
2004
Chief
Justice Thomas (Dec.
31)
President
Bush gets a free pass on replacing Rehnquist. Here's how he can make the most
of it.
Be Careful
What You Wish For (Dec. 7)
Overturning
Roe v. Wade would be good for the Democrats.
Now Tell
Me Who Won (Nov. 3)
The
best and worst of the presidential race.
The
Guy on the $10 Bill (Oct. 20)
Alexander
Hamilton was much more.
Gloom
Is Not a Plan (Sept. 30)
Is
John Kerry's personality winning enough to win in Iraq?
The
Democrats' Patriotism Problem (Aug. 30)
Whining
about imagined attacks is not a winning approach.
With
Trends Like These . . . (July 27)
No
Republican has won the presidency without Ohio. So what?
If You're
Happy and You Know It, Run for Office (July 9)
Good
cheer is a political asset.
What
Makes a President Great? (June 10)
Scholars
finally begin giving Reagan his due.
Touché!
(OpinionJournal.com, March 29)
Our
readers give a Frenchman a piece of their minds.
Why
Do Dems Lose in the South? (March 8)
Don't
blame civil rights.
2003
To Coin
a Prez (Dec. 12)
Reagan
was ahead of his dime.
Left
Behind (Dec. 8)
Liberals
imitate the retro-right.
Taking
'Cides (OpinionJournal.com, Aug. 11)
Fox
News should drop the term "homicide bomber."
Politicians
Go Online (Aug. 6)
They
can run, but can they blog?
Handicapping
the Democrats (OpinionJournal.com, June 30)
Howard
Dean wins an online "primary." Will Al Gore regret having helped create the
Internet?
Indian
Summer (June 4)
In
Jayson Blair's wake, newspapers inch away from political correctness.
No Distraction
(OpinionJournal.com, March 6)
Why
liberating Iraq is crucial to beating terrorism.
Poetry
for the War (OpinionJournal.com, Feb. 12)
A
whole new way to slam Saddam.
2002
Just
What the Doctor Ordered (OpinionJournal.com, Nov. 25)
"Post-traumatic
slavery disorder" is only the start.
Half
Empty (OpinionJournal.com, Oct. 10)
How
Stephen Glass might have covered the Stephen Glass scandal.
The New
Red Scare (Aug. 14)
Is
America in danger of "creeping totalitarianism"? No. There's no such
thing.
Enronymy
(OpinionJournal.com, March 4)
New
names for a disgraced company.
The New
Sue Review (OpinionJournal.com, Jan. 28)
Our
readers' suggestions for trial lawyers--and "Simpsons" writers.
'My
Camel Ate the Manifest' (OpinionJournal.com, Jan. 14)
Our
readers explain it all to Colin Powell.
2001
A Squandered
Opportunity to Give the Devil His Due (Australian, Dec. 28)
Why
Osama bin Laden should have been Man of the Year.
Zero
Tolerance for Duck Sauce (Aug. 27)
New
Jersey throws the book at an innocent schoolboy.
In
Praise of Online Journalism (June 27)
We
helped bust Slate's hoax.
'Zero
Tolerance' Makes Zero Sense (May 18)
School
discipline goes mad.
A Newspaper
Plays With Fire (Feb. 7)
Did
a reporter go too far in pursuit of a hot story?
Marconi
Goes Online (Jan. 12)
"Wireless" once meant radio. It may again.
2000
We
Have a Winner (OpinionJournal.com, Dec. 15)
Actually, 10 of
them. The October Surprise contest is over at last.
The
October Surprise: Readers Respond (Oct. 3)
How will
Clinton try to influence the November election?
Got a
Sense of Humor? (OpinionJournal.com, Aug. 28)
Rudy Giuliani is
the butt of PETA's latest joke. Maybe the organization itself is just a prank.
Why
Class Warfare May Work This Year (Aug. 24)
Al Gore has followed Bill Clinton's lead by abandoning the nonworking
poor.
Recycling
Shouldn't Be a Crime (July 11)
The Boston Globe is shocked, shocked to find that rewriting
is going on.
Swiss
Army Life (Wall Street Journal Europe, June 30)
The joys of armed neutrality.
Global
Village Idiots (April 18)
Protest, 2000-style: you name it, someone's against it.
It's
Noncensus (New York Press, March 15)
The Census Bureau discovers interracial marriage.
Next,
Cyberbums (New York Press, March 1)
Urban blight comes to the Internet.
Havana's
Hostages (Jan. 31)
Fidel Castro divides Cuban families.
Elian's
Journey (Jan. 24)
An exclusive interview with the two adult survivors.
A
Byte to Eat in the Kitchen of Tomorrow (Jan. 14)
Computers can organize recipes, but they still can't cook.
1999
Extra!
Extra! Journalists Gaze at Own Navels! (Dec. 31)
The L.A. Times screwed up. But do we need to read 35,000
words about it?
I, the
Jury (New York Press, Dec. 8)
How I shirked my civic duty.
Ku Klux
Klowns (Oct. 26)
Meet the face of the New Racism--if you can find it amid all
the counterdemonstrators.
The
Pastor vs. the Social Workers (Sept. 15)
A minister, charged with abuse for spanking his son, slaps the
state with a lawsuit.
In
Praise of Waffling (Aug. 31)
How Roe v. Wade distorts American politics.
Halfway
Around the World--Ultimate Sun Block (Aug. 13)
A total eclipse of the sun, as seen from a small Turkish town.
Save
the Bugs! A Touchy-Feely Utopia in 2000 (Jan. 15)
Silly liberals take on silly computer problem. Silliness ensues.
1998
The
Real Sexual McCarthyites Back Clinton (Dec. 22)
Larry Flynt and Betty Friedan aren't really such strange
bedfellows.
An
Adolescent View of Smoking (The American Enterprise, September/October)
Hey kid, Hillary Clinton says you shouldn't light up. What could
be cooler?
Why
Stereotypes Are So Hard to Eradicate (Aug. 12)
We can't help but make generalizations, and many of them are
based on experience.
Who's
a Hypocrite--and Who Cares? (Aug. 4)
Why shouldn't vice pay tribute to virtue once in awhile?
A Kiss
Is Still a Kiss, but a Grope Can Be a Felony (March 19)
What if Bill Clinton were a lowly worker's compensation judge?
Why
the Unabomber Must Die (Jan. 6)
He sought a soapbox. Execution is the only way to be sure he'll
never have one.
1997
Nader's
Raiders Try to Storm Bill's Gates (Nov. 18)
A self-styled consumer advocate exposes Microsoft's plan for
total world domination.
The
Cigar Bar (March 27)
A smoker's quixotic quest for justice.
The Year
3000 Problem (Jan. 28)
Y2K is all hype. It's Y3K we should be worried about.
1996
Tax Incentives
I'd Like to See (Sept. 11)
The government should encourage people to quit annoying
me.
Close
Encounters of the Third-Party Kind (Aug. 13)
A bold experiment in American politics: a coalition between
the wacky and the wacko.
Berlin
Diarist: Still Divided (City Journal, Summer 1996)
Mental walls collapse more slowly than physical ones.
1990
The Avant-Garde
Laughs--at Last (New York City Tribune, Dec. 11)
A hilarious send-up of the NEA controversy.
The
Homeless Are Ill Served by Advocates (Nov. 14)
Let them sell the Daily News.
NEA
Head John Frohnmayer: Caught in the Crossfire? (New York City Tribune, Nov.
2)
His top lawyer slanders a Christian conservative.
The
Prurience and Prejudice of Holly Hughes (New York City Tribune, Oct. 8)
An evening with America's preeminent lesbian performance artist.
Let's
Not Rush to Conclusions About Rock Music (New York City Tribune, Sept. 5)
Tunes for the traditionalist.
Daniel
Ortega Plots a Sequel to 'Revenge of the Nerds' (New York City Tribune, Aug.
15)
Nicaragua's answer to Michael Dukakis.
These
Marxist Hacks Are Hackers Too (New York City Tribune, Aug. 7)
Online pioneers of the kooky left.
Roseanne
Barr: From Deification to Disgust (New York City Tribune, Aug. 1)
A heroine? A goddess? Or just a pig?
A
Civics Lesson for the ACLU Chief (New York City Tribune, July 24)
A so-called civil libertarian takes an extreme antidemocratic
position.
Just
Give Me That Old Time Derision (New York City Tribune, July 24)
Karen Finley preaches to the choir at Lincoln Center.
Charting
Controversial Art (New York City Tribune, July 17)
"Serious Fun!": Crotch-grabbing and shooting Sen.
Helms.
College
Campuses Crawling With Crazies (New York City Tribune, July 13)
A report on political correctness, back when it was still news.
1988
The
Rooster Papers (The Quill, September)
A student's journalistic feathers are plucked.