NYT Opinion Editor Hires Bono, 'Jokes' About How Conservatives Lie

 New York Times opinion editor Andrew Rosenthal lost all professional credibility when he hired "lightning rod conservative" Bill Kristol late last year and then -- and then! -- called Liberals "intolerant" for not accepting this "serious, respected conservative intellectual" as a particularly edifying addition. Well, Kristol's one-year contract is almost up, and we're amazed that Andrew Rosenthal still has a job. Any job. So what's the fixin' plan for 2009, Rosenthal? His answer: hire, uh, rock stars such as that U2 guy who cares about AIDS, The Bono.

Rosenthal told a crowd at elitist Columbia School of Journalism last night that he has hired Bono to write six to ten op-ed pieces for the New York Times in 2009 about, what, African poverty or whatever his hobby is. How 2004 is that?? We guess the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Harvard and decorated Rhodes Scholar who already writes about that shit for the Times op-ed page, Nicholas Kristof, wasn't addressing these issues well enough in his twice-weekly column. ENTER BONO.

Ken Layne just typed in our fancy editorial chatroom, "Everything has become a terrible dumb joke that we are supposed to take seriously."

Rosenthal also made this terrible dumb joke: "The problem with conservative columnists is that many of them lie in print." Ha ha!...??

He did not indicate what would become of Kristol after this year, or of the conservative representation on the op-ed page, but did note that he liked such journalists as Megan McArdle and Byron York. Ugh. Just hire Ross Douthat and get it over with.

 'Times' Op-Ed Pages Hires Bono [Radar]