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I harbor a conviction that I can read nothing but columns (editorials, op-ed pieces, commentators and national, local and sports columnists) and remain abreast of current events. In fact, one probably can stay better informed about issues and current debates than one who reads nothing but the front-page news. Besides, it's a lot more fun and one is exposed to the true "literature" of journalism. Some of the finest writing in newspapers is found in columns and editorials (some of the worst, too). --A. R. Andrews
One of the best quick sites for newspaper and online columnists is "My Virtual Newspaper"
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Albuquerque
Journal:
One nice feature of
this site is the collection of the week's editorials. Only one or two
local
columnists, but one can get a feel for the community in a couple of
week's
reading these writers (and the letters they generate).
American
Reporter:
The online newspaper
that claims to be the first online publication with original content
also
houses a stable of pretty good columnists. Despite my being one of the
stable, I'm recommending the other fine writers who appear here, and
that
includes the fine editorials of Editor Joe Shea.
Arizona
Republic:
Good site for
relatively
conservative editorials, but not much for columnists of any stripe.
Arkansas
(Little Rock) Democrat-Gazette:
Editorials, commentaries and a selection of others on this page.
Atlanta
Journal-Constitution:
Go from here to find
what is billed as "realistic conservative thinking for Georgians."
Baltimore
Sun:
This stable used to the
the
haunt of H.L.Mencken; and Jack Germond and Jules Witcover. To get to
the Sun's editorials, click here.
Boston
Globe:
Sports commentary
probably shines best from the Globe's fine columnist staff. Years
ago, The Globe made
some
notorious headlines with a scandal surrounding one of its
columnist's
fabricated stories. I've commented on that elsewhere.
Boston
Herald:
Mike Barnicle, the
columnist who got in trouble with the Globe, now writes periodically
for the Herald. While the Herald often seems a second-fiddle
to
the larger Globe, many of its people match the Globe's thinkers.
Blogs and columnists residing here at one of the South's leading newspapers.
Chicago
Tribune:
Bob Greene used to
highlight the cast in this line-up before discovery of his moral lapse
lost him his job and his audience. The site remains one of the
most
extensive collection of columnists on the Web.
Chicago
Sun Times:
One of the most
extensive
listings of columnists in any newspaper, obviously competing with the
Tribune.
Christian
Science Monitor:
Some of the sanest
commentary on the everyday world is found in the writings of the
Monitor's
little-known columnists. Their international and national analysts are
considered among the most astute and objective observers as well.
Cleveland
Plain Dealer:
A host of columnists here. For the editorial and opinion page, click here.
Colorado
Springs Gazette:
For the generally
conservative views of this paper, go to this page. For regular columnists (all designated now as "blogs", click here.
Columbus
Dispatch:
Solid presentation
of columnists. All are listed under drop-down menu labeled "Opinion" where one also finds an editorials link.
Daily
Oklahoman:
Local issues
dominant
and highlighted in these editorials.
Dallas
Morning News:
The columnists are
gathered with the editorials and letters to the editor under the opinion rubric. This link takes you to the columnists.
Denver
Post:
A nice touch of the
Post's line-up is their identification of many columnists by the job
they
perform at the newspaper, or, as with the sports columnists,
identification
of the sport in which each writer specializes. At a separate page, one
finds editorials.
Deseret
News:
Opinion pieces and
columns mixed at this darn good little paper and Web site in Utah.
Browsers
must hit the "Opinion" link and the calendar link at the top of the
home
page.
By the way, the
Deseret
News is produced by the LDS church.
Detroit
Free Press:
The Freep, as it's
affectionately called, provides one of the most comprehensive newspaper
Web sites on the WWW, and this link takes one to columnists,
editorials,
and readers forums neatly and easily. The site also has a fine job link
for positions in the Knight-Ridder chain and lots of helps for
journalists
online. Of course, it also is disliked by many because it has failed to
negotiate a Guild contract for almost four years.
Detroit
News:
A fine set of
writers
housed at this site of the nation's largest afternoon paper.
Earth
Times:
What used to be a haven for good column writing has been gutted of any personality to become a news service; although, they'd probably prefer being called a "portal."
Evening
Telegram (of St. John's, Newfoundland):
Sorry for allowing
my heritage to show through, but this paper's "columns" link leads to
an
amazing line-up of local columnists. The provincial paper offers
columns
from the executive editor, the assignments editor, the managing editor,
and several other editors and working stiffs. In addition, the Evening
Telegram has an editorial cartoonist with considerable talent, KT, also
known as Kevin Tobin.
Everett
(Wash.) Herald:
Local columnists
mostly
posted on this site, although they sneak in the self-syndicated
military
writer, Tom Philpott, and his "Military Update."
Just ain't what it used to be.
Freelance-Star
(Fredericksberg, Va.):
This newspaper
recently
switched from p.m. to a.m. and added a Sunday section. In the switch,
an
easy route to its columnists disappeared. One can still get to selected
commentaries and editorials from the updated home page, though.
Hampton
Roads Pilot:
Nice mix of
national
and local issues discussed in this mini-archive of opinions from the
Virginia
coast.
Hartford
Courant:
Probably a good example of diminished journalism, especially when it comes to the personality of columnists. The Courant's collection is largely local stuff, perhaps signally the trend toward civic or community journalism.
Houston
Chronicle Interactive:
The trend in contemporary column writing is exemplified by this stable of professional bloggers. It's amazing how many once-great newspapers have become civic minded and community conscious to gain diversity and have lost their personality in the process.
Indianapolis
Star News:
A good example of how "staff blogs" have caught up with the columnists. Blah!
International
Herald Tribune:
The home page
serves
as a gateway to its features. One simply must scroll down to find the
links.
Kansas
City Star:
Nice, easy
approach
to both opinions and columns here. The Star provides a page that
introduces
its editorial board and offers readers means to contact all columnists,
including the syndicated columnists that the newspaper runs.
Las
Vegas Review-Journal:
The stated mission of the owning Stephens Media to give readers "hometown news they can't get anywhere else" is reflected in the range of columnists here.
London
Daily Telegraph:
A taste of British life and thought delivered at this site.
Longview
(Wa.) Daily News:
Now the Daily News of the lower Columbia River valley. Columnists have generally been replaced by a kind of town hall meeting in print; that is, a series of public opinion forums.
Los
Angeles Times:
Columnists by category.
Click on the "voices" link to get to Dave Barry and several other fine Herald columnists, including their other Pulitzer Prize winner, Liz Balmaseda, who comments on life in Miami from a Cuban-American perspective.
Milwaukee
Journal Sentinel:
A sampling of
local
columnists. One has to search to find national writers or the
newspaper's
editorials.
Minneapolis
Star Tribune:
Great little
search
tool takes one to an annotated listing of those who've been published.
NandO
Times/News:
The pioneering
online
daily newspaper collects opinions from all over the published WWW. As you will read here, however, in 2003 new owners chose a different direction for this online gem. It had been a truly outstanding collection of news reports. One can still check out the affiliated newspapers in the McClatchy stable.
Newark
Star-Ledger:
The editorial page
editor of the Star-Ledger, Richard Aregood, left the Philadelphia
Inquirer
in part because he thought he'd have a better staff and a better
opportunity
to avoid a market-driven opinion organ. The lineup of this chain's
columnists shows it's an uphill struggle.
Newsday:
Clean, quick,
easily
navigable, and with Jimmy Breslin at the top of the order.
New
York Daily News:
This link gets one
to the News' columnists. Navigate to Metro Sports for the sports
columnists
and other links for other specialist columnists. One may have to scroll
to the bottom of a section as well to find the columnists.
New
York Post:
One must consider
that almost everything printed in the Post is a column. A nice feature
of its site: easy and quick navigation. Check various categories to
pinpoint
columnists. Go to "gossip," for example.
New
York Times:
This page is their
op-ed site. Scout around for more columns. This is also home of the
famous
Pulitzer-winning "Sports
of the Times" column.
Norfolk
Virginia Pilot:
After scrolling to
the end of all the editorials and letters, one finds the columnists.
A large selection of columnists from this important California newspaper. Nicely arranged by topics, this site gets to many that other newspapers never touch. Includes an ombudsman, too, and a columnists who writes about radio!
Oregonian:
Only two
columnists
get posted on this hard-to-find-the-opinion-pages site. Not up to the
standards
of such a fine newspaper. I suspect the powers that be are afraid
they'll
lose advertising if they "give away" their product online.
Orlando
Sentinel:
An excellent index
to all the opinion in the Sentinel, and for most of them an e-mail
address
for access to truly interactive journalism. Bravo!
Philadelphia
Inquirer:
Some fine
editorials
here with opening essays and biographical statements by the Editorial
Board
that produces the editorial and op-ed pages. Also the home of
prize-winning
cartoonist Tony Auth. Philly Online doesn't exactly make it easy to get
to the Inquirer's columns. Work backwards from these bios.
Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette:
Biographies and
archives
accompany each columnist in this stable. Includes Tony Norman, a human
interest columnist who often brings a sane sense of God to his musings
on life in modern society.
Providence
Journal:
One will have to
track
from here to find the regular columnists. The Projo divides them into
internal
writers and external writers.
Raleigh
News & Observer:
Historically the
N&O
(site of NandO's origin) has had some prize-winning editorialists.
Check
on "editorial" (at bottom of the page) and "opinion" to get to the
thinkers'
pages.
Roanoke
(Va.) Times:
A typical site for
mid-sized newspaper's opinions.
Rocky
Mountain News:
Provides a nice
capsule
biography of each of its writers. A nice touch.
A nice thing about this site is the provision of a mini-archive for each columnist.
San
Antonio Express News:
A worthwhile
line-up
including one or two columns that are produced for online visitors
only.
Someone in San Antonio is paying much attention to opinions online.
San
Diego Union-Tribune:
Mostly editorials
at this site, but one or two columnists are featured.
San
Francisco Chronicle:
A wonderful array
of "darned good columns" as the site boasts of Jon Carroll's offerings.
Columnists here attempt to be excessively cute. Too many appear to be
trying
to out-Barry the East Coast's Dave Barry. Carroll left last year to
enter
the academic world.
San
Jose Mercury News:
This is a special
page among the mercury news' opinion pages that offers advice on "how
to
write for the opinion page."
Sarasota
(Fla.) Herald-Tribune:
Under the rubric
of
"Our Views," this coastal newspaper presents local and national
editorials.
Finding featured columnists at this site, however, is a difficult
chore.
Try using the search tool on the home page and put in the names Tom
Tryon
or Daryl Lease.
Seattle
Post-Intelligencer:
About two weeks
worth
of opinions located here as the P-I plays catch-up on the Web after a
16-year
JOA restriction is lifted.
Seattle
Times:
The Pacific
Northwest's
dominant paper provides editorials and key columnists on one page. Some
suspect the family publisher of steering the editorial policy in a
self-serving
manner.
St.
Paul Pioneer Press:
Includes a
religion
columnist of some talent, Clark Morphew, who's likely to ask readers to
pray for something, as he recently did in requesting prayer for B'ahais
in Iran. (In the last week of December,
2002,
AP reported Morphew's death from lung cancer at age 64.)
St.
Petersburg Times:
Hard to know who's
doing the writing until one calls up the column here.
St.
Louis Post-Dispatch:
This list includes
national as well as local columnists.
Stockton
(Calif.) Record:
Local angles all
around
here. For editorials and news columnists, click here.
Sydney
Morning Herald -- Column 8:
This is an
intriguing
column that appears to be an amalgamation of many editorialists'
thoughts
and observations on life "down under." Something like the New Yorker's
"Talk of the Town," but a bit more whimsical and epigrammatic.
A fine newspaper with a bevy of columnists. What makes the Pilot important to this listing is that it's the home of Daryl Lease, who in addition to being an editorial writer for the Pilot, also was the keeper of the reference site for columnists at Suite 101. Lease no longer maintains that site, but it still has some good links.
Editorials are archived here cleanly and simply. Another page similarly presents the paper's columnists.
Toledo
Blade:
The Blade's food
columnist,
science columnist and movie critic are among the many other feature
columns
one finds at this index page. Scroll to the bottom for an archive.
Editorials
and Letters are accessible from this page.
Toronto
Globe and Mail:
Lots of commentary
concerning the United States shows up in these writings.
Larry King headlines this group of mostly entertainment columnists. For more newsy columnists, including Al Neuharth, the paper's founder, and Sam Meddis, USAToday's online technology editor, and many others, click here.
Washington
Post:
The bigs inside
the
Beltway are here: Broder, Boswell, Greenfeld, et al. An excellent
archives
and search engine allows one to track down all writers.
Washington
Times:
This conservative
bastion goes heavy on politics in its commentaries.
Wichita
Eagle:
Neatly planned and
arranged for access to editorials, letters and local columnists. An
interesting
approach to readers' forum: Callers to a special line have 45 seconds
to
speak what's on their mind. I'll bet they don't put a similar governor
on editorial writers and columnists!
Yakima
Herald:
A great lineup of
local columnists here.
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AltaVista's Looksmart Category:
http://altavista.looksmart.com/eus1/eus52213/eus147927/eus277458/r?1&izf&
Alphabetically listed newspaper columnists from the search engine's files. A great list.
Austin (Texas) Chronicle:
http://www.auschron.com/issues/dispatch/current/cols_index.htmlcols_index.html
An alternative weekly's columnists. Includes the PBS syndicated "Car Talk" with the Massachusetts brother Tom and Ray Magliozzi. Also features "News of the Weird." The local columnists are devoted to entertainment and Austin trivia. Not a lot of heavy thought in these pages.
Baltimore City Paper:
The dailies don't have a corner on opinion. One might go to this city weekly expecting strident alternative rantings, but that's not the fare. Instead, one gets some reasonable and well-thought-out arguments. The city paper in Baltimore is a product of the Scranton (Pa.) Times.
Chronicle of Higher Education:
Some high-powered intellectual opinions offered here, most of them related to academia but often reflecting on American culture in general.
Excite!'s list of columnists:
http://news.excite.com/more/columnists/
Perhaps unfair to
list this as "non-daily"; nevertheless, this is an example of how
search
engines are evolving into portals and something more. A good listing of
columnists of all stripes (slightly biased toward the conservative end,
perhaps) is found here.
Infoworld Electric:
http://www.idg.net/
Perhaps too much
discussion
of software and its problems, but that, after all, is where the action
is with computers. This stable of columnists, many unknown to the world
of daily journalism, may be on the cutting edge of the future. One
might
have to do some navigating from here to find interesting columns.
Lucianne:
http://www.lucianne.com
A wonderful collection of columns and news articles from multiple sources, especially newspapers on the Web.
MSNBC's "Opinions":
http://www.msnbc.com/news/OP_Front.asp
A surprisingly
outstanding
collection of commentaries from across the nation show up at this
broadcast
media page. I've yet to find something similar at the other networks.
Newsmax.com
http://www.newsmax.com
More of a collection of news stories, but with a little navigation one can reach an amazingly comprehensive array of syndicated columnists.
Pulitzer Prize-winning columns:
The National Conference of Editorial Writers has collected the editorials that won the Pulitzer for the past five years. The 1998 runners-up are also represented with their honored entries. Well worth a visit and some time spent reading here.
Reason Magazine:
Touts itself as championing the libertarian point of view and offers a host of op-ed columnists from a variety of publications, both print and online, to support that touting.
Slate's Pundit Central:
Now that Slate is free again, I can point gladly to its amazing list of pundits and critics. A great compilation.
Snap!'s listing of columnists:
This is where the burgeoning search engine lists the lesser-known (and several well-known) columnists.
Universal Press Syndicate:
Lots of political punditry here. Several cartoonists' work, too. William F. Buckley, Georgie Anne Geyer, Gary Wills, Tony Auth among those represented.
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David Astor's "Syndicate World":
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/
Use the columns pull-down menu to locate this one. Astor's column will keep one abreast of what's going on with comic, newspaper and magazine syndicated columnists. It's part of Editor & Publisher online.
Tad Bartimus:
http://www.tadfriends.com
Former AP
correspondent
Tad Bartimus, now CEO of The Women Syndicate in Hawaii, has her own
offerings
(from her own syndicate, naturally). Even if one doesn't appreciate her
columns, she has some good
links to other columnists and points of interest at her site.
Julie Benson:
http://www.juliebenson.com
Benson is a humor writer -- a promotionally proclaimed "fourth B" with Buchwald, Berry and Brombeck -- trying to make a living off her posted online columns as a writer for the Abiogenesis Publications group in Bellingham, Wash. Thus, the site offers only samples. One must drop $20 a pop to download her column, clearly aimed at the publication market. Benson updates her online offerings each month, providing about three samples with each update. Humor, as Benson acknowledges, is "the hardest genre of all." She doesn't provide fall down belly laughs, but instead, like her inspirational "B's", goes for a consistent mix of the wry and wacky often found in the ordinary.
Kimberley
Blaker
(The Wall):
http://www.TheWall-OnChurchAndState.com
This young columnist largely writes on maintaining the separation of church and state. Her columns are cogent and informed. Ostensibly a writer on religious and philosophical issues, Blaker's columns make it easy to tell what she opposes but not always easy to latch on to what she's advocating. Her views have been endorsed by Christians of moderate and left-wing persuasion as well as by humanists and atheists. That being said, her voice is an often lonely one battling the torrent of Christian right-wing rhetoric on the Web.
Hiawatha Bray
(Boston
Globe):
http://www.boston.com/globe/columns/bray/
http://www.monitortan.com/
One of the less-known writers at the Globe, Bray writes on technology and can be found occasionally in other specialized publications.
William F. Buckley:
http://www.uexpress.com/ups/opinion/column/wb/archive/
Buckley's syndicate archives his columns, but they're a bit late posting them. Thanks to the Sacramento Bee, one can get to an up-to-date archive of the syndicated columns of the intellectual guru of American conservativism. (Along with many others, by the way.)
Herb Caen (1918-1997):
A memorial to San Francisco's best-known columnist, the man who insisted the shorthand 'Frisco is an obscenity used only by those who don't know any better.
Randy Cassingham (This is True):
Cassingham, a Boulder, Colo., journalist has scoured publications for these little summaries of unbelievable news items to which he has added his witty, cynical or sarcastic remarks. Good for laughs and for confirming the Biblical assertion that "all have sinned." One can sample his stuff at this site, but to get the full treatment one must subscribe.
Chandra K. Clarke ("In My Humble Opinion"):
http://www.ChandraKClarke.com
Clarke is a Canadian
writer who also teaches
humor
writing online. Writing humor is the most difficult form of
journalism.
If one loves Dave Barry (and I do) or Andy Rooney (and I don't), one is
less likely to love Art Buchwald (and I don't) or Russell Baker (and I
do). Sometimes Clarke misses, but she's generally moving in the right
direction.
Give her a fair shake. She also is part of the "Women in Comedy" Web
ring.
John Corry:
Corry is a former NY Times writer who now does the "media watch" column for Earth Times online. His comments are often more about politics than the media, but when he focuses he can be incisive and insightful.
Frank DeFord (Sports Illustrated):
http://www.cnnsi.com/inside_game/archives/frank_deford/index.html
index.html
One of the intelligensia of sports writing from Sports Illustrated who often writes about something other than sports
E.J. Dionne (Washington Post):
A commentator on national politics for The Post, Dionne also writes cogent commentary from a religious perspective (without overtly promoting his religion) in Commonweal and other publications. One of the most articulate spokespersons writing today.
Hugh Downs (ABC-TV):
Downs is one of television's hidden gems, in my opinion. A fine writer, whose intelligence and wit come through on the printed page even more than on television, Downs will forever be endeared to my heart by one small anecdote: When his family referred to him as a "walking encyclopedia," Downs retorted, "more like a walking pamphlet." Great pamphlet material can be found by searching ABC's site for Downs' writings. Every Friday, ABC.com posts Downs' online column, Insites.
Matt Drudge's homepage:
Regardless of what one thinks of Drudge, his home page is loaded with links to political columnists. They tend to the conservative side with which Drudge is sympathetic, but several others are linked here as well.
Kenneth Friedman (Lehigh University):
A professor in the special undergraduate environmental and science writing program at Lehigh U., Friedman's weekly columns on the environment are posted at Suite 101.
Cathy Lynn Grossman (USAToday):
http://www.usatoday.com
Going to the site and plugging in Grossman's name in the search engine might get one to some of her columns, which are generally erudite and informed. Otherwise, one will get a list of her articles on a variety of religious expressions.
Charles Haynes (The
Tennessean; The Freedom Forum)
"Finding Common
Ground":
http://www.freedomforum.org/templates/document.asp?documentID=12815
Haynes is the resident religion scholar for the Freedom Forum. He recently produced a book critical of the nation's educational system, arguing that schools do not take religion seriously enough in their curricula. Haynes' column appears regularly in The Tennessean, the Gannett newspaper in Nashville. His columns are notable for the issues they raise, not for the positions Haynes' takes.
David Hipschman
(Casper,
Wyo., Star Tribune) "Cyberland":
For six years, Hipschman, the editor of the Star Tribune, wrote his column, which also was posted to The American Reporter online newspaper. Hipschman quit, saying it had become "a job rather than the interesting experience it was in the first few years." He seems to have become convinced that the WWW outgrew its need for his articulate guidance. Any one of Hipschman's columns could be a launch pad for an Internet savvy reporter.
Kristen Hostetter (Seattle Post-Intelligencer):
http://www.seattle-pi.com/pi/index/gear.html
A columnist devoted to hiking, walking and healthful travel with lots of tips. As much as I like it, this column has a little too much of an advertorial ring to it for my taste.
Jon Katz (Wired magazine):****Katz left Wired in September, 2000 and for a while posted for the Freedom Forum. Not locateable as of April, 2001.
Katz's provocative column, which often criticizes the traditional media, appeared under the label "synapse" on the Hotwired Web site; he has since started writing regularly for the Freedom Forum's free!Web site, and recently wrote a "spiritual" book about living in isolation in upstate New York. He's apparently devoting himself to books these days rather than commentary.
Garrison Keillor (Salon magazine):
Keillor wrote a weekly column for the online magazine under the rubric, "Dear Mr. Blue" until September of 2001. This link leads to Salon's archive of Keillor's columns. Personally, I like him better on the radio discussing life at Lake Wobegon.
Robert Kirby (Salt Lake Tribune):
Ostensibly, Kirby writes about life in Utah, which might be interesting if one plans to be there for the 2002 Olympics. One can enjoy Kirby on his own merits, as well. He seems to be the only local columnist the Tribune touts. Kirby focusses on things Mormon and calls himself an "OxyMormon."
Howard Kurtz (Washington Post):
The Post's media critic is probably the most knowledgeable and entertaining critic of journalism as we currently understand it.
Sanders LaMont (Sacramento Bee):
http://www.sacbee.com/voices/sac/lamont/index.html
The former executive editor of the Modesto Bee, a sister paper, is now the ombudsman for the SacBee. This is one of the few sites I know that collects the writings of its ombudsman into a mini-archive. If one has trouble finding his stuff, put "ombudsman" in the search engine and take it from there.
Ken Layne (TABLOID):
You won't have to navigate far to find the strident writings of this daily online news site's co-founder and co-editor. Layne represents a throw-back to an earlier voice-of-outrage writing that he hopes to resurrect as a significant voice online. Layne also does reviews and a column for the Online Journalism Review under the rubric "Citizen Layne." One of his columns ("The summer of sackcloth and ashes, August 14, 1998) argues that the best columnists are found online. Not quite, yet, but they're getting there.
Jim Ledbetter (Village Voice):
http://www.villagevoice.com/columns/9832/ledbetter.shtml
Known as "press clips," these columns provide some of the best news and commentary on the profession of journalism as it's practiced in the trenches. Ledbetter recently raised the ire of journalism educators by claiming j-schools are moving too close to becoming business schools with a journalism component.
In September of 2006, Ledbetter left the Village Voice. One can still get to some of his columns at the above URL.
Flora Lewis:
The distinguished former Foreign Affairs correspondent continued her observations in this forum provided by Earth Times up until her death in 2002. (Page no longer available.)
Diane Lynch (ABCNews.com's "Wired Women"):
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/tech/WiredWomen/wiredwomen.html
Lynch writes reflections on women and the Internet every other Wednesday for ABCNews.com. Lynch formerly wrote a weekly column for the Christian Science Monitor. A little searching of that site may lead to some of her archived columns called "alt.media." Click on the front page's "cybercoverage" link to track down the archives. Lynch teaches journalism at St. Michael's College in Winooski, Vermont, and is the author of Virtual Ethics. She often tracks the off-beat on the Web and is well worth a read.
Terry Mattingly ("On Religion"):
Mattingly's column for Scripps Howard News Service in Washington, D.C., is circulated in 350 newspapers in the U.S. and Canada, making him probably the most widely read religion columnist in North America. Mattingly formerly taught at Milligan College in Tennessee, a Christian Churches/Churches of Christ liberal arts college, and has recently agreed to teach at Palm Beach Atlantic College in Florida. He is also a senior fellow for the Journalism program of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities. A former religion reporter with the Charlotte Observer, Mattingly uses his column as a teaching forum and brings a wide spectrum of religion personalities to the attention of readers. His site also offers an archive of his freelance articles that serves as a record of his spiritual thinking-and-writing pilgrimage, which has taken him from being a Southern Baptist through the Episcopal Church and into Eastern Orthodoxy.
Sam Vincent Meddis (USA Today):
I've put a link to Meddis's columns with USA Today, but he's worth singling out. He may be the only columnist I've read who can talk about the Internet in the context of contemporary philosophy and science. He also stays abreast of key sites on the WWW.
Jim Murray (1919-1998):
(One
may have to search among the sports columnists archives to find Murray)
Murray made a fine
art of sportswriting for the Los Angeles Times. The Times for a long
while
posted its tribute to their colleague. One may have to chase down the
archives
from this page of columnists. My own tribute
to Murray -- a mere collection of his gems -- is also posted.
P.J. O'Rourke:
The caustic and clever champion of wiseacre conservatism is captured in a few samples of his work at this "unofficial" site.
Richard Ostling (Associated Press Religion Writer):
AP's archive is sometimes difficult to get at, but if one plugs in the rubric of Ostling's column, i.e., "Testaments," one should get some results. Only the past two weeks are available free. The search/archive of The Washington Post, also keeps AP stories for two weeks -- even if the Post didn't publish them -- and it may be an easier route to Ostlins's latest offering! Just plug in Ostling's name or the rubric of his weekly column, "Testaments."
Shirley Povich
(d.
1998): ***Link no longer available.
Search
Post's archives.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp~srv/sports/longterm/general/povich/povich.htm
The Washington Post's enduring tribute to one of its fine sportswriters who died in 1998.
Tom Purcell (Humor
columnist):
http://www.tompurcell.com/
In addition to hawking Purcell's column, this site provides a fine set of links to opinions and commentaries on the Web. Purcell, incidentally, is called "a rare pundit; a conservative with a sense of humor."
Mike Royko (1932-1997):
http://chicagotribune.com/news/metro/chicago/ws/0,1246,7525,00.html
A tribute site put
up by the Chicago Tribune to honor its late columnists, who was truly
Chicago's
columnist. As might be expected, this site is heavy on Royko's years at
the Tribune but includes some of his memorable columns from his years
at
the Sun-Times.
The University of
Chicago, touting a new book collection, features a
few of Royko's columns to promote the book.
Wen Stephenson (The Atlantic Monthly):
Stephenson, in addition to being the editorial director of "Atlantic Unbound," The Atlantic Monthly's Web site, writes good commentary on new media and its relationship to our culture. Some provocative thinking here.
E. R. Shipp (N.Y. Daily News):
http://www.mostnewyork.com/manual/news/shipp/shiphome.htm
The Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist left the Daily News in 1998 to become the 12th ombudsman(woman?) for the Washington Post, replacing Geneva Overholser, who remains with the Post as a columnist. A mini-archive of Shipp's Pulitzer-winning entry remains at the News' site, as well as several of the New York life columns that she made popular. Shipp left the Post in October of 2000 to return to teaching at Columbia University, noting that the issue of credibility still plagued not only the Post but American journalism in general.
Steve Vogel (Washington Post):
One may have to search to find Vogel's commentary. He basically covers the military beat for the Post, but he often writes columns on subjects that would interest citizens with a concern for military matters. In fact, when he comments, it's often under the rubric "Military Matters."
Jim Wallis (Sojourners):
In addition to finding Wallis's columns at the Sojourners' site, he is a regular on the MSNBC site. Click on "opinion" and look for Wallis's name in the line-up. Wallis speaks eloquently from a Christian viewpoint with a deep concern for Biblical approaches to poverty and justice. A refreshing antidote to Christian-right bombast.
Philip Yancey (Christianity Today):
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ctmag/features/columns/yancey.html/
Yancey may be the most popular and respected author in the so-called evangelical Christian camp; although, Yancey may even have some reservations about being categorized in that camp. His writing is almost always a Biblically reasoned critique of evangelicalism's public faith, as well as the public faith of Christians in general.
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American Media
Columnists
(formerly, Blue
Eagle
Commentary):
http://www.blueagle.com/columnists.htm
A seller of long-distance services maintains this amazing site with a listing of over 400 columnists. They also ask browsers to suggest columnists they haven't listed. I made a few suggestions, and they not only added them, they added me! Obviously, they want to be the most comprehensive listing of columnists. An excellent list whose highlighted writers tend toward the conservative side, though includes many liberals. In all, some excellent writers.
AP Religion
features:
This
link works, but the columns have been removed. I'm trying to find out
what's
happening (January, 2000)
http://www.stardem.com/ap/apreligion.html
Not all columns,
but
this is such a unique collection, I felt it should be included.
The Star Democrat
of Easton, Maryland, on the state's Eastern Shore, conveniently
collects
in one place online, the weekly religion features of the Associated
Press's
writers.
Campus Opinions (U-Wire):
http://www.usatoday.com/uwire/cobriefs.htm
Compiled by the university wire service, U-Wire, and offered at USA Today's site, this offers a good sampling of opinions on the nation's big campuses. Now, if somebody would just gather opinions from the nation's smaller campuses.
Creators Syndicate:
The lineup at this syndicate is mostly at the conservative end. There an interesting lineup of biographies of columnists featured here.
Commentators.com
A collection of the best known commentators with daily updates.
Covenant Syndicate:
Interesting food for thought here, with a collection of religiously oriented op-ed pieces. A caveat may lie in its having been awarded a "conservative site of the day" label. Heavily influenced by Reformed Presbyterian thinking.
Cyber-Columnists
(Fort
Worth Star-Telegram):
http://www.star-telegram.com/comm/reference/cybercol/
An interesting collection of online columnists offered by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Columnists are invited to submit work, and every quarter of the year one is selected to be highlighted on the Star-Telegram's site. An example is last summer's quarterly columnist, Californian Robert Paul Reyes, who writes a column called "My Turn."
Duke University
Online
Op-ed Resource:
http://www.pubpol.duke.edu/courses/op-ed/
****Valuable
columnists' resource.
This rather
amazing
site guides browsers into the fine art of writing and submitting
opinion
pieces to the major news outlets of the nation. Known as the Sanford
Institute,
named after former North Carolina governor and senator Terry Sanford,
who
also served as president of Duke U., this site is a dream site for
analyzing
opinion writing around the United States.
Junk science
links:
http://www.junkscience.com/links/opinions.htm
An unusual place perhaps to find many links to editorials and op-ed pieces, but the junk science guru recognizes that science and politics are often strange bedfellows.
My Virtual
Reference
Desk: Editorials:
http::/www.refdesk.com/paper3.html
Bob Drudge, the father of Matt Drudge of cyberjournalism "scoop" fame with the Monica Lewinsky story, maintains this site and includes a listing of key newspaper editorial pages.
National Society of Newspaper Columnists:
When he was
awarded
the NSNC "Columnist of the Year" honor in 1997, David Broder admitted
he'd
never heard of the organization. Not many of the membership are among
the
renowned syndicated variety, but at least Broder showed up and
graciously
accepted the accolade. NSNC probably missed a recruiting opportunity,
though.
(I confess
to
being a former member; my columns can be found at: http://www.toad.net/~andrews/pacsunc.html
http://www.toad.net/~andrews/ol2000
and
at:
http://www.toad.net/~andrews/olcol.html)
Opinion Pages (formerly, Think! Opinions, Ideas and Commentary):
A place to search for opinions, editorials and commentary in newspapers in Canada, the U.S. and around the world. A good launch pad to world opinions. For years, Monty Kersell (a Canadian) has been gathering editorials and letters to the editor from Web sites around the world. He's got a great search engine, too.
"Punditspeak" from The Hill:
http://www.hillnews.com/features/pundits.html
A collection from around the nation of what well-known columnists and commentators are saying about particular issues. The congress-watching online publication doesn't offer a great deal of copy in this feature, but does compile and interesting mix of provocative opinion.
Religion Writers Columns:+++The broadest gathering of religion commentary on the Web.
http://www.reporternews.com/2001/religion/col_index.html
The Abilene (Texas) Reporter News is responsible for compiling this fine stable of religion writers, most of them contributing to the Scripps Howard News Service. Note that this page takes one to the most recent annual archive. One must search the site for current religion columns, which are posted every Saturday.
Suite 101: Journalism: Columnists:
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/journalism/21738
This compilation was maintained by Daryl Lease, an editorial writer at the Virginia Pilot (see above), but he long ago gave up his connection. Suite 101 keeps his listings posted but without updates, so while there are some good links here, many may be broken or outdated.
Tribune Media Services:
This is an advertising site, but it provides teasing samples to some fine writers who are part of the TMS stable, among them: Dave Barry, Andy Rooney, Bob Greene and Deborah Mathis.
Washington Post Writers' Group:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/post/writersgroup/writersgroup.htm
Among the syndicated writers, this group provides an intellectual view of our culture couched in some good writing. Some of the group may be a bit stuffy.
Yahoo!'s Columnists List:
The grand-daddy of all portals offers an extensive list of columns and columnists. Some categorized, some listed as individuals.
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