![]() From 2006 to 2007, he was an editorial page editor for the Los Angeles Times. įrom 2008 to 2016, he was editor-in-chief at the monthly libertarian journal, Reason. Through an FOIA request, Welch obtained a copy of McCain's National War College thesis which, based on his experience as a POW, argued for the teaching of US foreign policy to military recruits. In McCain: The Myth of a Maverick, Welch argued that a McCain presidency would advance a statist agenda. In 2007, he wrote a portrayal of 2008 Republican presidential nominee John McCain from a libertarian perspective. Commentator Mike Rosen praised his research as "yeoman's work." He researched the effects of UN sanctions against Iraq, often criticizing the reporting of others. In the early 1990s, he was one of the founders of the Prague-based newspaper Prognosis. In the late 1990s, Welch wrote for Tabloid.Net, along with Tim Blair and Ken Layne. Through his mother, author Mary Bobbitt Townsend, he is the great-great-grandson of Rear Admiral Hugo Osterhaus. ![]() He attended UC Santa Barbara as part of the class of 1990, but did not complete a degree. Welch was born on Jin Bellflower, California. Perhaps government is well-suited to perform only certain roles or tasks.Matthew Lee Welch (born July 31, 1968) is an American blogger, journalist, author, and Conservatives and liberals just need to find ways to distinguish the different domains from one another. But there need be nothing internally inconsistent about these approaches. ![]() This is a pretty simplistic idea, which seems to arise from the consideration that, crudely speaking, libertarians want government to do next to nothing, whereas conservatives and liberals each want government to be particularly involved in certain domains of life (whether economic, international, or social affairs) but not others. Beam also buys into the idea that libertarianism “is more internally consistent” than either conservatism or liberalism. For instance, he thinks the Constitution is a “libertarian document.” John Vecchione at FrumForum has a nice response to that one. It looks to me like Balko just doesn’t like being called nuts, which is an understandable but different objection.īy the way, if we actually want to talk about the substance of Beam’s piece, I thought a couple of the things he said about libertarianism were overly generous. It seems to me that Balko’s protest doesn’t have to do with Beam’s article in particular, but with the general complaint that “it’s okay to step outside the boundaries of decorum and fairness to make sure everyone knows how nuts libertarians really are.” But Beam’s article hardly seems like foul play to me. You’ll have to read it yourself to see the proof on that last count. Second, it’s entitled “The Trouble with Liberty.” And third, it’s filled from start to finish with a strong authorial voice. First, the article is in New York magazine. But it’s pretty far-fetched to think that some innocent reader is going to think he’s reading straight journalism. Balko says that Beam’s article is “a thrashing disguised as a primer.” Now, I won’t deny that, in the closing pages of his article, Beam takes issue with libertarianism more directly than he does in the beginning. Does Balko want other journalists policing the pages of Reason on the same terms that he’s policing New York?īut, Balko also suggests, the real problem with Beam’s piece is that he’s not entirely forthright about the fact that he’s doing opinion journalism. They’re allowed and supposed to have different opinions. Both Balko and Beam, from what I know of their work, are opinion journalists. Of course, stepping in and calling the fight yourself is known as opinion journalism. Balko says Beam could have “provided sound critiques of libertarianism by asking prominent people on the right and left to explain the faults of libertarian approaches to various issues,” but he didn’t need to “step in and call the fight himself.” He’s upset that Beam wasn’t fair and balanced. Radley Balko, a senior editor at the libertarian Reason magazine, is not. I liked the piece, but then, I guess I’m disposed to like such pieces. ![]() Christopher Beam has a long feature in New York magazine on “ The Trouble with Liberty,” that is, with libertarianism.
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