The "giant" Paul Gigot

Reader comment on: Congress Discovers Ethics

Submitted by J.Johnson (United States), Aug 1, 2010 20:09

Unlike Future of Capitalism, I would not refer to Paul Gigot as a "giant," although I do think rather highly of him. Under his supervision, the WSJ editorial page raged against all those infidels who saw speculation as the major underlying cause of the explosion in crude oil prices two years ago and wrote more than once that the cause was simple supply and demand, a conclusion that was truly foolish coming from a publication that was supposed to understand markets. On the subject of illegal immigrants, Gigot's WSJ editorial page raged against those who wanted greatly increased border security and were opposed to amnesty, calling them "nativists," a term which the esteemed David Brooks also used recently. On a lighter note, Gigot ran a piece by Shelby Steele which dwelt on the movie "Dr. Strangelove" and somehow found great meaning in the good doctor's left arm being the one which repeatedly jerked upward in a Heil Hitler gesture. All fine and good except that it was really his right arm which was always raised. And just a few days ago Gigot gave us a small piece by the (very good) journalist Byron York wherein York was using something Rush Limbaugh said recently, specifically, that Rupert Murdoch's Fox could not be stripped of any TV licenes (as was advocated by some JournoListers) because Fox is not a licensee. Except that, in fact, Fox is a licensee of several TV stations around the country, including Channel 5, WTTG, in Washington D.C., which York should have known. I contacted WSJ on these last two mistakes (and others) but it is apparently Gigot's policy to ignore errors when it suits him, so they went uncorrected. And, finally, if you've watched Gigot on the WSJ editorial board program on Fox, you cannot have helped but notice his annoying and repeated interruptions while his fellow WSJers are speaking. Paul Gigot is good but he is no giant.

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