Farewell to the Fifth Columnist

David Weigel | November 14, 2006

New York Times columnist John Tierney has filed his final piece for the paper's op-ed page. I can't link to it, though, because it's behind the TimesSelect wall. And therein lies a possible reason why Tierney is cutting his tenure short - he had the bad luck to launch the column just as the company was cutting off access to its site, limiting the impact Tierney's stories could have.

Whatever they do the next two years, I won’t be here to kick them around. This is my last column on the Op-Ed page. I’ve enjoyed the past couple of years in Washington, but one election cycle is enough. I’m returning full time to the subject and the city closest to my heart: science and New York. I’ll be writing a column and a blog for the Science Times section.

I hate to abandon my libertarian comrades here fighting in the belly of the beast, but this is the right moment to leave. After six years of libertarians reluctantly electing Republicans as the lesser of two evils, we’ve finally had enough. We’ve voted out big-government conservatism, and the result is the happy state of gridlock. For now, our work is done. See you in January in a new column on a new page.

A little more than a year ago Julian Sanchez interviewed Tierney about his gig.

Comments

|11.14.06 @ 2:53AM|#

Dammit, I liked the guy! Any word on where he's working next?

Garth|11.14.06 @ 10:20AM|#

Rats! Tierney was the only voice on that page that I looked forward to reading. The rest might be o.k. from time to time but any anticipation of what they are about to say is always tinged with dread.

JPL|11.14.06 @ 11:16AM|#

Tierney lost all his libertarian street cred for me when he advocated the execution of hackers because they damage the economy more than murderers. He's the libertarian equivalent of the Republican who decides the cesspool is a hot tub.

Good riddance.

|11.14.06 @ 12:33PM|#

If Friedman and Brooks leave, I'm never picking up that paper again. Of course, given that Friedman has (as he repeatedly claims) the sweetest gig on the planet, I doubt the former will happen. The latter? Who knows...

|11.14.06 @ 12:39PM|#

Panurge, Tierney will become a science writer at the NYT.

|11.15.06 @ 8:25AM|#

Why would anyone pay to read Flatso Friedman, Maureen Dowd and Rosy Cheeks Brooks? Second rate analysts, and that's being kind. Absolute garbage. BTW: Friedman got his name before TimesSelect. Tierney is screwed if he wants to write a book because TimesSelect is so bad for writers.