Michelle Malkin in profile

Howard Kurtz profiles our friend Michelle Malkin in today’s Washington Post: “A hard right punch.” At Michelle’s Hot Air site, See-Dubya points out the disappointing aspects of Kurtz’s profile: “WaPo’s Kurtz profiles lonely outspoken conservative who brings it all on herself.”
I’ve long admired Michelle and was thrilled finally to meet her in March 2005. Michelle comes out of the world of professional journalism and still writes columns such as her most recent one on Barack Obama: “An Obamanation.” But she is a natural blogger who pours it on every day at her Michelle Malkin site. In the tradition of Bill Buckley, she seems to me to be a happy warrior who has a gift for spotting lightweights and phonies.
PAUL adds: I mostly agree with Michelle’s friend (and ours) Ed Morissey that Kurtz’s profile is reasonably balanced and well worth reading.
JOHN adds: The photo was better than the article.
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Kurtz wasn’t unfair in the sense that his piece is evenly balanced between Michelle and her critics. But her critics–enemies, really–are generally unhinged. What is mostly missing from the article is an appreciation of Michelle’s positive impact as a journalist, apart from what are really, for the most part, minor internet squabbles.
One way in which Michelle is different from us–somewhat curiously, in that she is a professional journalist and we aren’t–is that she is more willing to engage with the moonbat, web-based left. We ignore them almost, but not quite, completely. I think Kurtz’s piece illustrates the pitfall, if you are a serious conservative thinker, of paying attention to those who try to drag you down to their level.
PAUL adds: I also thought the discussion of the phony picture that Wonkette posted purporting to show Michelle “gone wild” was one-sided and unfair. It leaves unchallenged the assertion that Michelle’s reaction was “psychotic” and appears to endorse a lesser form of that sentiment. Otherwise, Kurtz seemed fair and worth reading, if less enlightening than one might have hoped.

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