Can we get some contrarians, please?

I inveighed here last week against the Albuquerque Journal’s right-wing Op-Ed pages, observing that their economic analysis, in particular, is limited to the gospel of laissez-faire.

As if to confirm my observations, New Mexico’s heavyweight daily this week threw a powerful one, two, three combination of right hands at us. Separately, Independent readers weighed in, too. So let’s go another round on the Journal’s Op-Eds.

In throwing the first punch Monday, Dec. 1, George Will shelved pretentious-speak for English, the better to disseminate his version of the New Deal. He thereby reminded me that Daniel Patrick Moynihan is passé. “Everyone is entitled to his own opinion,” the late New York Senator once said, “but not his own facts. “ These days advocates come to the public square armed with their own facts, even (like Will) their own histories.

Tuesday, Charles Krauthammer wrote a peculiar obituary for the “market economy.” He’s a powerful pugilist so it was odd he never fingered the culprits who brought down our economy. Reluctance, maybe, to speak ill of Republicans? Of the Establishment? The military-industrial complex? Krauthammer chose, instead, to wonder if “the ruling Democrats” would revive business. He’ll blast “Obamian socialism” before Inauguration Day.

Will returned Wednesday to jab at those who don’t worship at his Church of the Free Market.

To fully appreciate the Journal’s closed mind, compare it with the New York Times, which habitually publishes a broad range of opinion. Last Sunday, for example, the Times ran articles by four (count ’em, four) conservative economists — Michael Boskin, Lawrence Lindsey, N. Gregory Mankiw and Ben Stein.

I like to imagine a similarly fair-minded Journal questioning, for example, Krauthammer’s casual –- and truly funny — description of the economy as ”newly politicized.” Newly? But I’m not holding my breath.

The Journal may be the Plaxico Burress of newspapers, shooting itself in the foot daily with its rightist agenda. It certainly has lost “Babyfatt,” who corrected me last week:

“The answer is not to push the Journal to include a more diverse group of columnists, it is simply to quit buying the Journal. Never, ever buy the Albuquerque Journal.”

No, no, no. You would have to pry the newspaper from my cold, cold hands.

Rejecting the Journal means, first, punishing innocent news people for the sins of management. Also, it would be masochistic. Every morning, after checking the obituaries for reassurance, I turn to sports, weather, big and little local news stories, business news, science, how-to features and ads telling me what to buy. I consult TV and movie schedules, too, check out new books, plays, the NMSO or Keshet’s latest dance recital, the comics and the Times crossword puzzle. And they’re all in one place!
Yes, my visceral hunger for a physical newspaper reflects my advanced age. Younger readers aren’t addicted. As civilization declines and falls, and the digital future looms, I see efforts like the New Mexico Independent that are exciting and valuable, not least because of the instant feedback.

So are countless other Web sites for news and opinion. But they’re apples compared to the oranges of local daily newspapers. So when “anchorite” emails that “I prefer to get my local news from this online journal,” I agree but cling to the printed daily, too.

Finally, Thomas James suggests I don’t want to “be bothered by those pesky people” who think differently. He’s wrong. Sometimes, suppressing my bitterness at how the Journal’s Op-Ed rightists enabled the Bush Administration to degrade my country, I read them for kicks.

There’s joy in speculating on how ignorance, cynicism and psychosis shape their far-out politics.

So I wouldn’t advise the Journal to drop anybody, just add a few contrarians.