James Taranto Picks the ‘Best of the Web Today’
Blogs pose a threat only to “complacent, old media types,” says the editor of OpinionJournal.com
By Katie Tynes
A high school and college dropout has managed to make a name for himself as one of the most opinionated people on the Internet.
James Taranto is the editor of the Wall Street Journal online editorial page, OpinionJournal.com, and the author of Best of the Web Today, a conservative and humorous take on the day’s headlines. Taranto’s in-your-face, controversial writing style attracts many fans and others who just want to call him out.
Best of the Web Today, with a readership of more than 120,000 daily, is a “collection of wisdom in a blog-like format,” says Taranto, who previously served as deputy editorial features editor of the Journal.
Politicians, especially those on the left of the political spectrum, are typical targets of Taranto’s humorous daily jabs. Presidential candidate John Kerry certainly took a few hits during the recent election season, with Taranto’s frequent references to him as the “haughty, French-looking Democrat.”
But Taranto doesn’t define himself as a conservative. “Most people would classify me as a conservative. Some have called me a fascist. I see myself as perfectly moderate, in the middle of the road.”
“You once had to own a printing press. Today all you need is a computer.”
Taranto was a rabble-rouser early on. Taranto, who grew up in the suburbs of Los Angeles, dropped out of high school but earned his equivalency degree. He later dropped out of California State University after being suspended for writing a controversial editorial about freedom of speech for the campus newspaper. Taranto believed that his suspension was due to his conservative viewpoint, so he decided to sue his professors. Taranto emerged victorious.
He soon landed in the public relations office of the conservative Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C. After two years, he decided to make a move to New York City. He worked for a few small publications before he was offered a job at the Journal.
He jumped at the opportunity. Taranto is, after all, very passionate about writing. “If I wanted to make a lot of money I wouldn’t be doing this,” he says. “I’d be an investment banker.”
The story that put Taranto’s name on the map for online journalism was his 2001 “monkeyfishing” article, in which he exposed the falsity of a Slate.com piece about the practice of fishing for monkeys on a Florida key island. The New York Times later gave him credit for disproving the story.
Journalism is very different from the way it used to be, he says. “You once had to own a printing press. Today all you need is a computer.”
While blogs are “a great format,” Taranto doesn’t see them as a threat to the mainstream media. “Blogs pose a threat only to old media types who have been complacent and don’t want to be challenged.”