Columnist and his tricks

Walter E. Williams columns all take the same form. First he throws up a strawman. It doesn't have to be well formed or even true, it's his opinion stated as fact.

The strawmen he considers leftist, he attacks with more unsupported claims or derogatory anecdotes stated as the norm. The strawmen he approves of he praises with unsupported examples and what he calls common sense. Both are laced with ad hominem attacks. For this he is touted as a brilliant columnist. It appears his brilliance is in marketing clap-trap.

Calling something common sense is a way of disclosing your own pre-existing biases and making them look mainstream.

It's a psychological trick and Williams does it well. And his examples are usually taken out of context or by suggesting a story represents a typical situation when actually it was newsworthy because someone had stepped out of line.

Regardless of topic, he writes at a level well below most journalist-based columns.

Please find us a columnist worth reading.

Mark Muehlhausen

Schaumburg